Musicians 2026

Matthias Gallien initially completed his violin studies in his hometown at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin, studying with Lothar Friedrich. He subsequently studied viola with Felix Schwarz and Alfred Lipka in Berlin, and later with Erich Krüger and Ditte Leser in Weimar.

He was a scholarship holder of the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden and, beginning in 1997, performed as an extra musician (substitute player) with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, now known as the Konzerthausorchester Berlin.

From 1999 to 2001, Matthias Gallien was a member of the Mecklenburg State Philharmonic Orchestra Schwerin as Principal First Violin. He subsequently served as Principal Viola of the Anhalt Philharmonic Orchestra Dessau and, from 2005 onward, held the same position with the Staatskapelle Halle.

Since 2018, Felix Leissner has studied at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg under Professor Dorin Marc. During this time, he was awarded a scholarship by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes.He also received important artistic inspiration from Wolfgang Güttler, Günter Klaus, and Stanislau Anishchanka.Since 2021, he has served as Principal Double Bass of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and has taught at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Leipzig.As a guest principal bassist, he has performed with ensembles including the Bamberger Symphoniker and the WDR Sinfonieorchester.

As a finalist in the Deutscher Musikwettbewerb 2026, he was awarded a special prize by the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.

Andreas Feldmann completed his studies at the Berlin University of the Arts.

As a prizewinner of numerous competitions, he has appeared as a soloist with orchestras such as the Göttingen Symphony Orchestra, the Thuringian Philharmonic Orchestra, and the South Westphalia Philharmonic Orchestra. He also performs regularly as a chamber musician at major festivals.

Andreas Feldmann is currently a member of the orchestra’s executive committee.

“Charisma, presence, and technical mastery — Elsa de Lacerda’s violin radiates a rich, spellbinding sound in the service of boundless imagination, refinement, and freedom.”  Tully Potter – The Strad

Elsa de Lacerda studied at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels with Endré Kleve, graduating with several First Prizes and Advanced Diplomas with Highest Distinction. She made an early solo debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège. From 2006 to 2022, she was first violinist of the Alfama Quartet, appearing at leading European venues including Bozar, deSingel, the Philharmonie de Paris and the Philharmonie Luxembourg, and at festivals such as Ambronay, Reims, Alcobaça and Crans-Montana. Her recordings for Musica Ficta, FugaLibera, Cyprès and Harmonia Mundi have received wide critical acclaim; her album Still Schubert was awarded the Octave de la Musique in 2020. Recent projects include Change (2023) and Kiki à Paris (2024). Alongside her performing career, she is active as a music journalist (Musiq3, Le Soir, Diapason). Elsa de Lacerda plays a Florentine violin by Tomaso Carcassi (1766).

The French-Egyptian violist Sindy Mohamed is one of the most promising and sought-after young musicians of her generation. As a soloist and chamber musician, she is a regular guest at renowned festivals such as the Heidelberger Frühling, the Schubertiade Hohenems, the Moritzburg Festival, the Kronberg Festival, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Hindsgavl Festival and the Festival La Folles Journée de Nantes. Her chamber music partners include artists such as Isabelle Faust, Pinchas Zuckerman, Emmanuel Pahud, Lawrence Power, Tabea Zimmermann, Lars Anders Tomter, Elena Bashkirova, Daniel Barenboim, Lars Vogt, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Jan Vogler, Kian Soltani, Michael Barenboim, José Gallardo and Julien Quentin. In recent seasons, Sindy has regularly performed with violinist Michael Barenboim, harpist Anaïs Gaudemard and flutist Joséphine Olech.

In the 2024/2025 season, Sindy Mohamed’s first album will be released by Berlin Classics alongside the renowned pianist Julien Quentin. She will also be touring the USA at the Utah Chamber Music Festival alongside William Hagen, Arthur Hornig and Albert Cano Smit, as well as touring Germany with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra under Ahmed El Saedi together with violinist Michael Barenboim. Sindy will once again take part in the Chamber Music Connects the World Festival and the Intonations Festival in Berlin alongside international musicians such as Noah Bendix-Balgley, Elena Bashkirova, Gérard Caussé and François Leleux. This season she will also be touring Italy alongside Vivianne Hagner, Eckart Runge and Matthias Kirschnereit. Sindy will perform for the first time at the Stavelot Festival in Belgium and give her first concerts in South America with the Divan Ensemble and Michael Barenboim. The 2025 season will also mark her debut at the Pierre Boulez Saal alongside mezzo-soprano Marie Seidler and pianist Wolfram Rieger.

In 2024 Sindy performed with the Neubrandenburg Philharmonic Orchestra under Simon Crawford-Phillips, and played a recital with Justin Taylor at the renowned Heidelberger Frühling music festival. With the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble under the direction of Micheal Barenboim, Sindy toured Europe and China, as well as performed with the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss under Isabelle van Keulen as conductor and violinist. In addition she performed again with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra under Ahmed Al Saedi and together with the violinist Abdel Hamid El Shwekh and returned to the Kronberg Festival.

Other highlights include her appearance at the Selbold Klassik Festival with the Amatis Trio and Ib Hausmann and several trio concerts with Juri Vallentin and Aaron Pilsan, which will take her all over Germany.

Highlights of recent seasons have included her debut with the Cottbus Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Golo Berg, her debut with the Heidelberg Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Johannes Klumpp at the Heidelberger Frühling and at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival as well as with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Ahmed El Saedi. Further concerts have taken her to the Mannheim Castle Concerts with ‘Pēteris Vasks’ Viola Concerto and at the Berlioz Festival with the Orchestre des Pays de la Loire under Pascal Rophé.

Sindy has been a member of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra under Maestro Daniel Barenboim since 2013. She has gained orchestral experience with various renowned orchestras in Berlin. Since the creation of the Barenboim-Saïd Academy, Sindy regularly performs as Solo-Viola with the Boulez Ensemble at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, collaborating with very esteemed conductors. She is also an active member of the Divan Ensemble, a chamber music ensemble that tours the United States. Sindy is involved in teaching and coaching, offering masterclasses at various festivals and academies, including the Moritzburg Festival Academy, Kronberg Academy, Vigo Conservatory, and the Royal College in Manchester. In 2024, she was a guest lecturer at Utah States University. Sindy has also achieved recognition as a prizewinner of the International Anton Rubinstein Competition and a scholarship holder of the Ottilie Selbach Redslob Foundation, having performed as a soloist with the Royal Northern Sinfonia in England.

Sindy Mohamed is one of the producers of Late style, an interdisciplinary play, half-text and half-music, that speaks about radical hope for a world that cannot afford to lose it.

Rolando Villazón invited her to appear in the ARTE broadcast “Stars of Tomorrow” to present her as a young promising artist. As part of “Chamber Music Connects the World”, an event of the Kronberg Academy, she performed with world stars such as Steven Isserlis, Christian Tetzlaff, and Gidon Kremer.

Sindy Mohamed was born in Marseille in 1992. Although she does not come from a musical family, she received her first viola lessons at the age of eight and decided early on to make music her profession. After graduating from the Conservatoire de Marseille, Sindy continued her bachelor’s studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and her master’s degree at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in the class of Tabea Zimmermann. Finally, she completed her training in the “Young Soloists” study program at the very renowned Kronberg Academy with Tabea Zimmermann.

She further sharpened her musical profile through her participation in numerous international masterclasses and festival academies such as the Summer Festival Salzburg, the Seiji Ozawa International Switzerland Academy, and the European Chamber Music Academy. There, she worked with Daniel Barenboim, Antoine Tamestit, Roberto Diaz, Morten Carlsen, Nobuko Imai, Jean Sulem, Sadao Harada, Pamela Frank and Tatjana Masurenko, among others.

Sindy Mohamed plays a fine Matteo Goffriller viola kindly loaned to her by the Miller-Porter Collection (the Venetian instrument collaboration project of Irene R. Miller and John Porter Foundation) through the Beare’s International Violin Society.

“An exceptionally gifted young cellist, endowed with rare technical qualities and a very natural, unforced approach to music.” — Gary Hoffman

“Kacper Nowak proved to be an absolutely sensational cellist… His climaxes, shaped with grandeur, vigour and vitality… were unmatched.” — Michał Klubiński, Ruch Muzyczny

Kacper Nowak is a Polish concert cellist based in Brussels. He studied in Poznań, Brussels, Cologne and Antwerp, and continued his studies at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel with Gary Hoffman. His playing is personal and committed, always in service of the music.

A laureate of numerous international competitions, he has received prizes at the Johannes Brahms Competition in Austria, the Velázquez International Competition in Madrid, the International Music Competition Vienna, the Liezen Cello Competition, the Edmond Baert International Competition in Brussels, as well as Supernova (RTBF) and Nordic Strings in Denmark. In 2023, he became a laureate of the Schoenfeld International Competition – Harbin with the Urban Piano Quartet.

He has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia, the Moroccan Philharmonic Orchestra and the Wiener KammerOrchester, and has performed in prestigious venues such as Wigmore Hall, Wiener Konzerthaus, Bozar and Flagey in Brussels, the Philharmonie de Paris, Cadogan Hall in London, Dubai Opera, Łazienki Królewskie in Warsaw, Cultura Artistica in São Paulo, and the Boulez Saal in Berlin.

He performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician, and his concerts are broadcast on Mezzo, Medici.tv and Amadeus TV. He has recorded several albums in duo with pianist Christia Hudziy, with the Urban Piano Quartet and Ensemble K, as well as with pianist Lucas Krupiński, with whom he released an album dedicated to Polish music, featuring two world premiere recordings: the Violin Sonata No. 1 by Krzysztof Penderecki (transcribed for cello and piano) and Love Song by Andrzej Panufnik. His recordings, praised by the international press (Diapason, New York Cello Society), have earned nominations for the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) and the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik.

Kacper Nowak is a Pirastro Artist and is supported by the Ludwig van Beethoven Association.

The French pianist Julien Quentin has established himself as a skilled and deeply expressive musician and is renowned for his great musical maturity. His remarkable depth and musicality, his distinctive tonal clarity, and his astonishing technique have made him a sought-after soloist and chamber music partner.

He made successful recital debuts at the Salle Cortot in Paris, the Conservatory of Geneva, and Bargemusic in New York. As a soloist, he has performed with the Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra, the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Orquesta de Córdoba, under conductors such as Tommaso Placidi, Paul Biss, and Han-Na Chang. He has been invited to numerous international festivals, including the Verbier Festival, Lucerne Festival, festivals in Gstaad, Montreux, and Zermatt, as well as festivals in Dresden, Braunschweig, Schwetzingen, Ludwigsburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Beethovenfest Bonn, Radio France Montpellier Festival, and Festival de Saint-Denis. He performs regularly in North America and has appeared at the Ravinia Festival, La Jolla Music Society SummerFest, Ventura Music Festival, and the Mostly Mozart Festival. Many of his concerts in Canada, the United States, Japan, and Europe have been recorded.

Julien Quentin is a passionate chamber musician who has shared the stage with artists such as Nicolas Altstaedt, Emanuel Ax, Lisa Batiashvili, Joshua Bell, Gautier Capuçon, Pablo Ferrández, Martin Fröst, David Garrett, Nelson Goerner, Ilya Gringolts, Lawrence Power, Sayaka Shoji, Kian Soltani, Kirill Troussov, István Várdai, and Sonya Yoncheva.

During his international concert tours throughout the Americas, Australia, Japan, the Middle East, and Europe, he has performed in prestigious venues such as the Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall, the Louvre, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Gewandhaus, the Konzerthaus Wien, the Mariinsky Theatre, and Carnegie Hall, including its Avery Fisher and Alice Tully halls. He has recorded for EMI, Channel Classics, Sony RCA, Hungaroton, Decca, and Deutsche Grammophon.

As a harpsichordist, Julien Quentin has also gained extensive concert experience, performing with Sarah Chang, the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, and Thomas Quasthoff under the direction of Leonidas Kavakos.

Born in Paris, Julien Quentin received his first musical training from Alexis Golovine at the Conservatory of Geneva. In 2002, he earned his Artist Diploma from Indiana University, where he studied with Emile Naoumoff and served for one year as a teaching assistant under a grant from the Presser Award. In 2003, he graduated from The Juilliard School in New York, where he studied with György Sándor. He also attended masterclasses with Paul Badura-Skoda, Nikita Magaloff, György Sebők, and Earl Wild.

Julien Quentin lives and works in Berlin. With the concert series Musica Litoralis at the Piano Salon Christophori, he has created an increasingly successful program that evokes the salon culture of the Roaring Twenties. Together with visual artists, he explores new artistic visions, bringing different art forms together. In collaboration with other musicians, he continuously experiments with new genres and musical styles. He works on various projects with pianists Kelvin Sholar, Kaan Bulak, and Francesco Tristano, as well as producers Adrien de Maublanc and Cesar Merveille. Together, they produce electronic music, particularly through their new projects Midiminuit and Les Coeurs Brisés.

The German-born cellist of Peruvian-Uruguayan descent is one of the most sought-after musicians in his field. As a student of Boris Pergamenschikow, Claudio Bohórquez achieved success at an early age at international competitions such as the Tschaikowsky Youth Competition in Moscow and the Rostropovich Cello Competition in Paris.

This culminated in 2000 with three awards at the first International Pablo Casals Competition held under the auspices of the Kronberg Academy: Marta Casals Istomin presented Claudio Bohórquez with first prize, a special award for the best chamber music, and also the use of Casals’ Gofriller cello for a period of two years. He also won first prize at the International Music Competition in Geneva, an achievement that marked the start of his career as a soloist. Meanwhile he has become a teacher himself: from 2011 to 2016 he was professor at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart, in September 2016 he was appointed to the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin, where he has been a guest professor since 2003.
Among others, Claudio Bohórquez has performed with almost all German radio orchestras, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Wiener Symphoniker, the Collegium Musicum Basel, the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. In Japan, he performs with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. In the US, Claudio Bohórquez recently gave concerts with the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Renowned conductors Claudio Bohórquez has worked with include Daniel Barenboim, Christoph Eschenbach, Manfred Honeck, Sir Neville Marriner, Eiji Oue, Krzysztof Penderecki, Leonard Slatkin, Tugan Sokhiev, Lothar Zagrosek and David Zinman.
Claudio Bohórquez is a guest at numerous festivals. Among them are the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, the City of London Festival, the Penderecki Festival in Warsaw and the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival. Appearances in the United States have included performances at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen Festival as well as the Hollywood Bowl. He participated in the chamber music festival Lockenhaus in Austria and at Gidon Kremer’s festival “Les Musiques” in Basel. As a passionate chamber musician, he has performed together with Jörg Widmann in Bilbao/Madrid, and with Viviane Hagner and Jonathan Gilad at the Beethoven Marathon at Konzerthaus Berlin.
The past seasons have led the artist to many festivals, including: a. to the Rheingau Music Festival with the Columbian Youth Philharmonic under Andrés Orozco-Estrada, to the Dresden Music Festival with a Chamber Music Project together with the violinist Philippe Quint and the pianist Boris Giltburg, to the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and the Rheingau Music Festival. The upcoming season includes, among others, the Elbphilharmonie debut on November 8, 2018 and an Elgar cello concert with the Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg on February 15, 2019.
In addition to numerous CD recordings, radio recordings and television appearances Claudio Bohórquez worked as an interpreter for the soundtrack of Paul English by to the film “Ten Minutes Older – The Cello”, which was shown in theaters worldwide. Together with the painter Klaus-Peter Kirchner, Claudio Bohórquez developed the installation project “Raum für Pablo Casals” in homage to this great cellist. He was part of the ECHO-winning album “Four Seasons” (2017) of Daniel Hope, released by Deutsche Grammophon. In July 2018 Berlin Classics will release a new CD with the sonatas of Johannes Brahms and some bonus tracks together with Claudio Bohórquez’s duo partner Péter Nagy.
Since the season 2017/18 Claudio Bohórquez is Artistic Director of the Festival Winnenden.
Claudio Bohórquez plays a G. B. Rogeri violoncello presented to him by the Landeskreditbank Baden-Württemberg.