NOBUKO IMAI

Formerly a member of the esteemed Vermeer Quartet, Ms. Imai combines a distinguished international solo career with various teaching commitments. She has appeared with numerous world's prestigious orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw, the London Symphony, and the Chicago Symphony. As a keen chamber musician, Ms. Imai has performed with various prominent artists such as Gidon Kremer, Midori, Isaac Stern, Mischa Maisky, and Martha Argerich. In 2003, she formed the Michelangelo Quartet. The quartet gained the international reputation quickly and now became one of finest quartets in the world. Ms. Imai has dedicated a large part of her artistic activities to explore the diverse potential of the viola.

She returns to Japan several times a year, to perform as soloist and notably for the annual "Viola Space" project. In 1995/1996 Nobuko Imai was artistic director of three Hindemith Festivals at the Wigmore Hall in London, at Columbia University in New York and at the Casals Hall in Tokyo. In 2009 she founded The Tokyo International Viola Competition, the first international competition in Japan exclusively for viola.

An impressive discography of over 40 CDs shows her recordings for BIS, Chandos, Hyperion, Philips, Sony among others. Ms. Imai taught as a Professor at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold from 1983 to 2003 and at the Geneva Conservatory from 2003 to June 2014. She currently teaches at Amsterdam Conservatory, Kronberg Academy and Queen Sofia College of Music in Madrid.

GARTH KNOX

Garth Knox was born in Ireland and spent his childhood in Scotland. He studied with Frederic Riddle at the Royal College of Music in London where he won several prizes for viola and for chamber music. Thereafter he played with most of the leading groups in London in a mixture of all repertoires, from baroque to contemporary music.

In 1983 he was invited by Pierre Boulez to become a member of the Ensemble InterContemporain in Paris, which involved regular solo playing, including concertos directed by Pierre Boulez, and chamber music, touring widely and playing in international festivals.

In 1990 Garth Knox joined the Arditti String Quartet, which led him to play in all the major concert halls of the world, working closely with and giving first performances of pieces by most of today's leading composers including Ligeti, Kurtag, Berio, Xenakis, Lachenmann, Cage, Feldman and Stockhausen (the famous“Helicopter Quartet”).

In 1998, Garth Knox left the quartet to concentrate on his solo career. As a soloist, he has given premieres by Henze (the Viola Sonata is dedicated to him), Ligeti, Schnittke, Ferneyhough, James Dillon, George Benjamin and many others. He also collaborates regularly in theatre and dance projects, and has written and performed a one-man show for children.

He has recently become a pioneer of the viola d’amore, exploring its possibilities in new music, with and without electronics, and is in the process of creating a new repertoire for this instrument.

Garth Knox now lives in Paris, where he enjoys a full time solo career, giving recitals, concertos and chamber music concerts all over Europe, the USA and Japan. He is also an active composer, and his «Viola Spaces », the first phase of an on-going series of concert studies for strings (published in 2010 by Schott) combines ground-breaking innovation in string technique with joyous pleasure in the act of music making. The pieces have been adopted and performed by young string players all over the world.

Garth Knox is International Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

NAOKO SHIMIZU

Since 2001, Naoko Shimizu has served as Principal Viola of the Berlin Philharmonic and is also in demand internationally as a soloist and chamber musician.

Born in Osaka, Japan, violist Naoko Shimizu studied at the Detmold University of Music, where she completed her studies in 2000 with the Konzertexamen.

In 1997, she won First Prize at the ARD International Music Competition, a prize that had not been awarded in the viola category for 21 years. Prior to this, she had already won First Prize at the Markneukirchen International Instrumental Competition in 1995 and the Geneva International Music Competition in 1996. In 1998, she was further recognized at the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in the United States.

As a soloist, she has appeared with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and numerous orchestras in Japan. Recital tours have also taken her to the United States, Italy, and Japan.

A passionate chamber musician, she has appeared at major festivals including the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival in Austria, the Marlboro Music Festival in the United States, and the Ashiya International Music Festival in Japan. She has also performed with ensembles such as the Tokyo String Quartet and the Emerson String Quartet.

In addition to her concert activities, she regularly gives masterclasses in Germany and internationally.

She has also served as a juror at several prestigious competitions, including the 2021 International Hindemith Viola Competition and the 2023 ARD International Music Competition in Munich.

MACARENA PESUTIC

Macarena Pesutic, Artistic Director of the Tenerife Viola Masterclass, is a prizewinner at the RWE Competition in Leipzig and a two-time winner of the Music Teachers National Association (USA) Chamber Music Division.

As a soloist, she has appeared with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Concepción (performing Béla Bartók’s Viola Concerto), Orquesta del Conservatorio Superior de Música de Canarias, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife.

She has been invited to festivals including the Académie Internationale d’Été de Nice (France), International Musicians Seminar (UK), Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival and Apple Hill Chamber Music Festival (USA), Holland Music Sessions (Netherlands), Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival (Finland), and the Thy Chamber Music Festival (Denmark). She has participated in masterclasses with renowned musicians such as Thomas Riebl, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Samuel Sanders, Wolfram Christ, Wladimir Mendelssohn, Hariolf Schlichtig, Aaron Rosand, Tibor Varga, Christoph Poppen, Ferenc Rados, Hans Dittrich, Klaus Eberhardt Feltz, as well as members of the Vermeer and Juilliard Quartets.

Born in Concepción, Chile, Pesutic studied violin with Américo Giusti, Jaime de la Jara, Alberto Dourthé, Patricio Cobos, and Manuel Díaz. She later studied viola at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold with Nobuko Imai and at the Hochschule für Musik Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy with Tatjana Masurenko.

As a recitalist and chamber musician, she has recently performed with Quantum Ensemble, ATADEM, Fundación Nino Díaz, Círculo de Bellas Artes de Tenerife, and Ensemble Villa La Orotava, among others.

Since 2005, Pesutic has been Professor of Viola at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Canarias. In 2019/20, she served as Artist in Residence at the Ateneo de La Laguna.

She performs on a German viola from 1750 by an anonymous maker.

VEIT HERTENSTEIN

German violist Veit Hertenstein plays with “admirable precision, dedication and strong musical expression“ (Augsburger Allgemeine 2013) as well as “maturity, technique, thoughtful musicianship, and a tone of dark honey” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer 2013).

Mr. Hertenstein is Professor for Viola at the Musikhochschule Detmold, Germany and at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. Furthermore he founded the Orion String Trio.

Mr. Hertenstein has been invited to the Marlboro Music Festival, the Seiji Ozawa International Music Academy, the Viola Space Festival Tokyo, Menuhin Festival in Gstaad and the Verbier Festival, where he was awarded the “Henri Louis de la Grange” viola prize. He has also been several times invited to the La Folle Journée Festival in Nantes and Tokyo. 

As a chamber musician he collaborated with Trio Wanderer, Modigliani and Ysaye Quartets, Brigitte Engerer, Valentin Erben (Alban Berg String Quartet), Nobuko Imai and with Midori. 

In the United States Mr. Hertenstein performed in concert halls such as The Merkin Hall in New York and The Kenendy Center in Washington D.C., after winning First prize as well as eight performance prizes in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions 2011 in New York City. 

Mr. Hertenstein has won several prestigious competitions.  In 2009 he was the first violist to win the New Talent Competition of the European Broadcasting Union in Slovakia founded by Yehudi Menuhin, which was followed by world-wide radio broadcasts. He was a prize-winner of the first Tokyo International Viola Competition 2009. In 2007 he was the first violist to win First Prize at the Orpheus Competition in Zurich, Switzerland, which enabled him to record his debut CD with Euro Classics.

Pro Helvetia commissioned a Viola Concerto by Swiss composer Nicolas Bolens which was premiered in Geneva 2014. 

Born in Augsburg, Germany, Mr. Hertenstein began studying the violin and piano at the age of 5 and switched to the viola when he was 15. In 2009 he graduated with distinction from the Haute Ecole de Musique in Geneva, where he worked with violist Nobuko Imai. He also has been artistically influenced by György Kurtag, Krzysztof Penderecki, Gabor Takács-Nagy, Yuri Bashmet and Kim Kashkashian.

2011 until 2017 Mr. Hertenstein was the principal violist in the Basel Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland.

MINZE KIM

The pianist Minze Kim began her musical education at the Conservatory Kyungpook National University in her hometownDaegu/Korea. She continued her artistic studies at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold, initially with Hartmut Schneider, before graduating in 2016 with the highest solo degree (Konzertexamen) in the class of renowned pianist Anatol Ugorski. She also received further artistic impulses in master classes with András Schiff and Sergei Edelmann, among others.

During her studies, she won the "Musik und Vermittlung" competition, which the Hochschule für Musik Detmold organized for the performance of interdisciplinary concert concepts.

She is a lecturer at the Detmold University of Music and also gives concerts as a sought-after chamber musician and song accompanist.

In 2020 she made a viola and piano CD recording of two sonatas by Schostakovich together with Prof. Veit Hertenstein for Hässler Classic.

Mention should be made of her very successful participation at the "Eurovision" Festival in Edinburgh, as well as in the masterclasses of Prof. Diemut Poppen in the Music Academy Sion 2022. She also has made a guest appearance at the Viola Festival in Amsterdam.

JAVIER LANIS

Acclaimed by critics, Javier Lanis’ performances stand out for their exquisite sensitivity and boundless musical energy. Winner of the Claudio Arrau International Piano Competition he has also received distinctions from the Chopin Society, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Corporación Amigos del Teatro Municipal de Chile.

He has appeared as a soloist with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Chile, Orquesta Sinfónica de Concepción, Ensemble Vinorosso, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Dogma Chamber Orchestra, among others, performing with conductors such as Ola Rudner, Juanjo Mena, Joachim Harder, Víctor Pablo Pérez, Rodolfo Fischer, Mika Eichenholz, David del Pino Klinge or Karl-Heinz Bloemeke. He has collaborated with renowned musicians like Nobuko Imai, Karine Georgian, Marcio Carneiro, Marco Rizzi and attended the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival (2000) where he worked with Claude Frank, Lilian Kallir, Boris Berman, Tokio String Quartet and Vermeer String Quartet.

Lanis has performed in important concert halls including Beethovenhalle (Bonn), Bösendorfer-Saal (Vienna), Purcell Room (London), Sala Rachmaninoff (Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Moscow). Furthermore, he has played in Israel, Slovakia, France, Japan, USA, Argentina, Spain and Chile. In 2016 he was invited to the “Grandes Pianistas” concert series of the Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile.

He has made recordings for the British, Danish, Chilean and German (WDR) radio as well as appearances for the TV of Chile (TVN, Station 13) and spanish television RTVE.

Born in Santiago de Chile, Javier Lanis studied with Elisa Alsina, Robert Roux, and Anatol Ugorski at the Facultad de Artes de la Universidad de Chile, Rice University (USA), and the Hochschule für Musik Detmold (Germany), respectively.

He has been assistant teacher for Anatol Ugorski’s class in Detmold, Germany and since 2005 he teaches at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Canarias (Tenerife)

Acknowledgements