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Josef Rissin
 Born in Riga, Josef Rissin was a student of Boris Belenky at Moscow´s Tchaikovsky Conservatory and laureate of such international violin competitions as the Queen Elisabeth in Brussels and the Paganini in Genova. His concert activities have taken him to the music capitals of the former Soviet Union and throughout the West, and his performances and CD's have contributed to the interpretation of the classical Russian repertoire of the present day, alongside avand-garde Russian music. His CD of solo pieces by Hindemith, Ysaye and Paganini earned great critical acclaim.
Prof. Rissin leads violin classes at the University of Music Karlsruhe and at the University of Music and Theatre Zürich. His students come from all over the world and are winners of important international competitions. Among his most famous pupils are such yong violinists with an international reputation as Sergej Khachatryan, 1st prize winner of Queen Elisabeth violin competition in Brussels 2005, Koh Gabriel Kameda, Prof. Albrecht Breuninger, 2nd prize winner(Prix Ysaye) of Queen Elisabeth competition 1997, Maria-Elisabeth Lott, Linus Roth, among others.
website: www.rissin.com
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David Takeno
 Born in Tokyo, David Takeno began to play the violin at an early age performing solos with orchestras from the age of eight, first in New Zealand and soon afterwards in America, Israel and Europe.
The main influence in his musical education was with Emmanuel Zetlin in Seattle in the 50s. During the 60s he moved to London, where he formed various chamber music ensembles and made recordings for the BBC. Since 1976, he has devoted his time to teaching and has taught at the Guildhall School of Music (for many years as the Head of Strings), the Yehudi Menuhin School and Cambridge University, as well as working with students from the specialist music schools of Chethams, Purcell and Wells.
His broad interest in and enthusiasm for music, past and present, have encouraged pupils in a wide range of fields, from Rachel Podger and Pavlo Beznosiuk in baroque performance to Anthony Marwood and Carolin Widmann who have championed many new works. Past students hold active positions in the profession, performing and teaching throughout the world.
In 1998 he was awarded the W W Cobbett Medal for services to chamber music by the Worshipful Company of Musicians and in 2009, the Golden Award from the University of Belgrade. He currently holds the post of 'Eugène Ysaÿe International Chair of Violin' at the Guildhall School of Music in London.
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Krzysztof Wegrzyn
 Krzysztof Wegrzyn was born in Gdansk in Poland. He began playing the violin at an early age, studying with Zenon Brzewski and Irena Dubiska in Warsaw, Wolfgang Marschner in Freiburg and Yfrah Neaman in London. He was a laureate in renowned international competitions like the Louis Spohr Competition in Montreal and winner of the Karol Szymanowski and Lipizer Competitions.
His concert activities have taken him around the world and he has made numerous recordings for radio, television and CD. In his broad repertoire he also gives special attention to works by Lutoslawski, Ligeti, Nono, Schnittke, Pärt and Penderecki. Krysztof Wegrzyn served for many years as concertmaster of the Hanover State Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra and since 1993 he has been a professor at the University of Music and Drama Hannover. Among his students are many who have won important prizes at international competitions.
Prof. Wegrzyn has given frequent master classes worldwide including at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, the Juilliard School in New York, at the Aspen Festival and in Seoul and Tokyo. He has been a juror at such esteemed violin competitions as the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Kreisler Competition in Vienna, the Paganini Competition in Genova, the ARD Competition in Munich, among others. Furthermore, he is very active in chamber music, for example as the co-founder of the New Warsaw Piano Quintet. Since 1995 he has also served as artistic director of the Gdansk musical seminar and Spring Music Festival in Poland.
Krzysztof Wegrzyn is the founder and Artistic Director of the Hannover International Joseph Joachim Violin Competition. The State of Lower Saxony awarded him in 2004 the State Music Prize for his outstanding contributions to musical life.
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Lluis Claret
 Born in Andorra in 1951, from exiled catalan parents, Lluís Claret begins his musical studies at the age of 9.
His musical future will be strongly marked by his contact with great teachers as Maurice Gendron, Radu Aldulescu and Enric Casals (Pablo Casals brother) who, besides not being a cellist, will be his principal musical adviser for many years. His meetings with György Sebök, Eva Janzer and Bernard Greenhouse will be also decisive for the development of his artistic personality.
First Prizes at Casals (1976) and Rostropovitch (1977) Competitions help to project his international career to the principal capitals of Europe, America and Asia, invited by orchestras like Washington National Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, English Chamber, France National Orchestra, and others from Tokyo, Seoul, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, Bamberg, Moscu, Madrid, Barcelona...Under the baton of Vaclav Neuman, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Pierre Boulez, Karl Münchinger, Dimitri Kitaienko, Sakari Oramo and Georges Malcom among others.
Chamber music and teaching are an important and essential part of Lluís Claret professional activity.
He founded the Barcelona Trio (1980-1993), performs regularly with the pianists Josep-Maria Colom and Benedicte Palko and collaborates very often with other prestigious musicians at Festivals like Kuhmo, Naantali, Ernen, l'Epau, Pablo Casals (Prades), Granada, Seoul...
His is actually teaching at the "Victoria dels Angels" Music School at Sant Cugat (Barcelona) and the Toulouse Conservatory (France), and gives Master Classes in France, Portugal, Belgium, Italy, USA, Japan and Korea.
Together with Bernard Greenhouse he conducts a seminar at the Abbey of Fontfroide (France).
Regularly Lluís Claret is invited as Jury Member of International Competitions ( Rostropovitch-Paris, Paulo-Helsinki, Pablo Casals-Kronberg, Adam- New Zealand...) and he is the Chairman at the International Cello Competition "Lluís Claret", City of Moguer (Spain).
His great interest in contemporary music brought him to a close professional collaboration with Henri Dutilleux, Witold Lutoslawski, Kristoff Penderecki, Joan Guinjoan, Iannis Xenakis and Pierre Boulez.
website: www.lluisclaret.ad
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Maria Kliegel
 After studying with Janos Starker at Indiana University in Bloomington, USA, Maria Kliegel won, amongst others, the 1st Grand Prix of the “Concours Rostropowitsch Paris” (in 1981). Mstislav Rostropowitsch thereupon engaged the services of his prize winner as a soloist with the Orchestre National de France for several tours through France and invited her to his orchestra in Washington D.C. He became one of her most important mentors.
Maria Kliegel – La Cellissima – since then an artist in demand throughout the world - started an unusually successful record career on the Naxos label in 1991 alongside her stage triumphs.
In this way, her recording of Dvorak’s and Elgar’s cello concerts with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London has been maintaining its success as a bestseller for many years now. Or the composer Alfred Schnittke declared her recording of his 1st cello concert his reference work in 1992. In reviews and essays, the international trade press is constantly confirming the top quality of the violoncellist and praises many interpretations as exemplary and directional.
Frequent honours followed, including 2 Grammy nominations. In the meantime, Maria Kliegel leads the market in cello literature with some 1 million CDs sold throughout the world.
In her multimedia book and DVD project Schott Master Class – Cello: Artistic Expression with Technique and Imagination about cello techniques and “famous – infamous” passages (played and analysed) published in 2006, she pursues completely new paths; and within the shortest time received 2 prestigious prizes for it: in Duesseldorf the special Digita prize (best German educational software) and in Berlin the European Media Prize Comenius EduMedia – Siegel.
Contemporary composers like to dedicate their works to the cellist. Wilhelm Kaiser Lindemann, for example, composed at her request Hommage á Nelson M. for cello and percussion. This musical reference to the civil-rights activist Mandela finds great attention internationally. After the premiere of this work in Capetown, South Africa in 1997, President Mandela reacted profoundly emotionally by inviting the artist to a private concert in his residence.
For her spontaneous commitment to the Nelson Mandela Children´s Fund and her untiring efforts for other relief projects, in 1999 La Cellissima received the Order of Merit of the State of North-Rhine Westphalia from the hands of the First Minister at that time, Wolfgang Clement. Since 1986 she has been professor at the Cologne Academy of Music and in 2001 established with Ida Bieler (volin) and Nina Tichman (piano) the Xyrion Trio, which undertook the artistic supervision of the Andernach Music Festival at Namedy Castle in 2007.
Maria Kliegel plays a cello made by Carlo Tononi, Venice, ca. 1730
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Reinhard Latzko
 Born in Freising(Bavaria),
Studied with Jan Polasek,Martin Ostertag,Heinrich Schiff
1987-2003 principal cello SWR-Symphony-Orchestra Freiburg (chief conductor Michael Gielen)
1988-2005 professor at the music academy Basel as successor from Boris Pergamenschikow
1990-1993 tutor at the Gustav-Mahler-Youth-Orchestra with Claudio Abbado
Since 2003 professor at the University of Music and performing Arts, Vienna
Winner of several national and international prizes (Geneva,Venice etc.)
Masterclasses in Germany, France,Spain,Switzerland,Korea and Austria (Vienna Master Courses)
Performing chamber music with Christian Tetzlaff,Heinrich Schiff,Ernst Kovacic,Christian Altenburger etc.
Performing as soloist with Basler Sinfonieorchester,SWRSinfonieorchester, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie,Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich etc.
Performing at Wiener Konzerthaus,Wiener Musikverein,Philharmonie Berlin and Cologne,Palais des Beaux Arts Brussels
Various radio and CD-recordings.
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Klaus Hellwig
 Klaus Hellwig first came to international attention after winning prizes at the "Marguérite Long - Jacques Thibaud" competition in Paris and the "Viotti" competition in Vercelli/Italy. He studied with Detlef Kraus, Pierre Sancan (Paris), Guido Agosti (Accademia Chigiana Siena) and Wilhelm Kempff.
He has given concerts throughout Europe, the United States and Canada, Australia, Brazil, the Middle-East, and the Far East. He has appeared as soloist with important orchestras, such as the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, the West German Radio Orchestra Cologne, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra Munich, among many other German orchestras; the Hungarian Radio Orchestra Budapest, the Bucharest and Cracow Philharmonic Orchestras; the Baltimore and San Francisco Symphonies, among many others in America; and several Japanese and Korean orchestras.
Klaus Hellwig's chamber music partners have included the Philharmonic Octet and the principal wind players of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra's Octet, and the violinists Christiane Edinger and Young-Uck Kim. In addition, he has performed extensively with pianist Mi-Joo Lee as a piano duo.
Klaus Hellwig has recorded for all German radio stations, and for many others abroad. He appears on more than 25 records; the latest releases were the four concerti by Carl Reinecke.
After ten years as a professor at the Folkwang-Hochschule Essen, Klaus Hellwig began teaching in 1980 at the Berlin University of the Arts. He has given masterclasses in Germany, France, the Ukraine, Rumania, Japan, Korea, Brazil, Australia, and the USA.
He has served as a jury member in many international competitions, such as the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Leeds, the ARD competition in Munich (solo and piano duo), the "Busoni" in Bolzano, the Vienna Beethoven competition, the "Viotti" in Vercelli/Italy, the "Robert Schumann" in Zwickau, the “William Kapell” at the University of Maryland, “José Iturbi” in Valencia, the Seoul “Dong-A”, and the Sendai (Japan) competition; others include those in Monza, Seregno, and Orléans. In 2007 he will be on the juries of the "Tchaikovsky" (Moscow) and "Perlemuter" (Concours Européen de Ouistreham, France) competitions, in 2008 the "Schumann" (Zwickau) and Santander.
Meanwhile, his students continue to garner top honors at major international competitions, including first prizes at the Gina Bachauer and Queen Elizabeth Competitions.
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Matti Raekallio
 Matti Raekallio's concert appearances have taken him as far afield as Japan, though he plays especially often in the USA. His engagements have included many of the leading music festivals, such as in Berlin's Klavierforum 1999, where he presented the 10 sonatas of Scriabin in one concert. His repertoire includes over 60 piano concertos, both standard repertoire including all the Beethoven, Brahms and Prokofieff concerti, and many rare works such as Hummel or Anton Rubinstein concertos, the Busoni Concerto, as well as several Finnish concertos. Solo recitals often concentrate on a single composer and genres, such as all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas, which he has performed as a series eight times in all. His Beethoven cycles included a sold-out, eight-concerts-in-eight-days marathon, broadcast nationwide by PBS, at the first Irving S. Gilmore Piano Festival in the USA. He also plays practically the complete keyboard works of Prokofiev, the entire output of Finnish composer Toivo Kuula (which he also recorded for MILS) and all the Chopin and Liszt etudes.
He has made close to 20 recordings, mostly for Ondine label; the three-CD-series containing the complete Prokofiev sonatas has won particular international recognition. His CDs of Englund's Piano Concerti (Ondine, 2003) and of Palmgrens Third Concerto (Finlandia Label, 1989) were elected "Record of the Year" by the Finnish National Radio.
Helsinki-born Matti Raekallio has taught piano at the Sibelius Academy since 1978, where he was Acting Professor 1993-94, Associate Professor 1994-98 and Professor since 1998. He has also been Visiting Professor at the Western Michigan University (USA) 1984-85, the Berlin Hochschule der Knste 1998, the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv and the Vienna Music Academy in 1999. Matti Raekallio is now teaching at the Hochschule für Musik in Hannover and at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. He has given summer schools and other master classes in Finland and the USA. He joins the International Holland Music Sessions since 2008.
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Jacques Rouvier
 Born into a family of musicians in Marseille in, Jacques Rouvier has held concerts and master classes in France and abroad for some thirty years now. He studied with Vlado Perlemuter, Pierre Sancan, Jean Fassina and Jean Hubeau at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris, where he was awarded two First Prizes, in piano and in chamber music. He went on to an appointment as professor for piano there in 1979. A true virtuoso, he is the winner of the Gian Battista Viotti International Music Competition in Vercelli, the Maria Canals Competition in Barcelona, and the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud International Competition in Paris.
In 1970, together with violinist Jean-Jacques Kantorow and cellist Philippe Muller, he formed the Rouvier-Kantorow-Muller Trio with whom he continues to perform on a regular basis. His discography includes over thirty titles, including the complete works of Claude Debussy. His recordings of the complete works for piano by Maurice Ravel, as well as sonatas for violin and piano by Ravel and Debussy, won the Grand Prix du Disque in France.
Concerts and masterclasses bring him all over the world. Former students include Hélène Grimaud and Arcadi Volodos.
Jacques Rouvier joins TIHMS in 2010 for the second time.
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Mikhail Voskresensky
 Mikhail Voskresensky is one of Russia's leading pianists and winner of four international piano competitions (Schumann in Berlin, in Rio de Janeiro, George Enescu in Bucharest, and Van Cliburn in Fort Worth, Texas). In 1966 he was honored with the Merited Artist of Russia award and in 1989 the People's Artist of Russia. Mikhail Voskresensky has extensive concert experience. His concerts in the USA and Mexico in January-February 2001 were hailed as brilliant by critics.
Mikhail Voskresensky graduated from the Moscow Conservatory where he studied under Ilia Klyachko, Boris Zemliansky, Yakob Milstein, Lev Oborin (piano) and Leonid Roizman (organ). As student of the famous Lev Oborin, the winner of the First Chopin Competition in 1927, Voskresensky adopted his teacher's refined romanticism and perfect taste in harmony with the piano's splendid sound. The images evoked by his playing suggest contrasting musical colors, never out of harmony, and a charming legato inducing the instrument to sing. ‘His playing fascinates audiences with its artistry, cordiality and ingeniousness. Mikhail Voskresensky is a very talented and intelligent musician’, wrote Oborin about his pupil.
Voskresensky's repertoire includes Beethoven's 32 sonatas, all the works of Chopin, and 54 piano concertos. He has performed with orchestras under the direction of more than 150 conductors, among them John Pritchard, Franz Konvichny, Kurt Masur, Evgeny Svetlanov, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, and Kirill Kondrashin. He has played chamber music with such ensembles as the Tokyo, Borodin and Tchaikovsky quartets.
His 40 CD's include recent recordings of all the sonatas and studies of Scriabin, ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ by Mussorgsky, and the Second Sonata of Shostakovich.
He has participated as a juror for international competitions in London, Leeds, Sydney, Tel Aviv, as well as for the Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff Competitions in Moscow. He continues to be Chairman of the Jury for the Scriabin International Competition in Moscow.
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Accompanists
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Mirsa Adami
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Jelger Blanken
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Gerard Boeters
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Inga Dzektser
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Michèle Gurdal
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Yuki Negishi
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Sander Sittig
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Noriko Yabe
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Mirsa Adami was born in Tirana in Albania. Already at age 11 she performed as soloist with orchestras in her homeland. At 15 she came to the Netherlands where she studied with Jan Wijn at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, graduating in 2000. In the same year, she was named ‘Musician of the Year’ at the Summer Academy of TIHMS. Mirsa performs as soloist and as accompanist in many countries. She made her debut in Japan early in 2003.
Jelger Blanken studied with Mila Baslawskaja at the Rotterdam Conservatory, continuing his studies with her at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and at the same time studying with Hakon Austbo. He graduated in 2002. With Canadian cellist Rachel Mercer he was winner of ‘De Vriendenkrans’ of the Concertgebouw, a prestigious prize in the Netherlands. In addition to being a pianist, Jelger studies at Erasmus University in Rotterdam and is currently finsihing his Ph.D. on the subject of Dutch music after 1945. He also is accompanist at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague since 2003.
Gerard Boeters studied at the Rotterdam Conservatory with Istvan Hajdu and Luba Edlina-Dubinsky, continued his studies at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Jan Wijn and Danielle Dechenne and followed masterclasses as an active participant with, among many others, György Sebök, Roberto Szidon and Karlheinz Kämmerling. He graduated in 1989 and has made a successful career as a solo and duo pianist, also in concert tours through Russia and Europe. He teaches at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague since 1998. Since then he also worked at TIHMS in classes together with Herman Krebbers, Pierre Amoyal, György Pauk, Igor Oistrakh, Yfrah Neaman, Viktor Liberman, Eduard Schmieder, Eric Friedman, Aaron Rosand, Mark Lubotsky, Silvia Marcovici, Krzysztof Wegrzyn, Mihaela Martin, Josef Rissin, Rudolf Koelman and Lydia Mordkovitch.
Russian pianist Inga Dzektser graduated at the St.Petersburg State Conservatory. In 1994 she won the International Chamber Music Competition in Trapani, Italy and in 2003 she was winner of the International Piano Duo Competition in Tokio. Inga Dzektser gave concerts in Austria, Spain, France, Holland, Finland, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Japan, Korea and the United States. She also performed with musicians as Philip Hirshhorn, Dora Schwarzberg, Alexander Knyazev and Zachar Bron. She is an official pianist of the International Violin competition in Gorizia, Italy (Lipizer competition) and the International Violin competition of David Oistrakh in Odessa, Russia. Since 1989 she has worked as a professor at the St.-Petersburg Conservatory. Inga Dzektser will be an accompanist at the International Holland Music Sessions in 2008.
Born in Brussels, Michèle Gurdal comes from a multicultural family. Her father is Belgian, her mother a Japanese artist. At 17, she completed her studies with honors at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, where her major subjects were piano, chamber music and music history. This was followed by lessons with Professor Karl-Heinz Kämmerling in Hannover, Homero Francesch in Zürich and Anatol Ugorski in Detmold. At the International Piano Academy Lake Como she studied with Dmitri Bashkirov, Leon Fleischer, Menahem Pressler, Fou Tsong, William-Grant Naboré, Andreas Staier, John Perry and Claude Franck. She obtained a scholarship from the Foundation Wilhelm Kempff to study with John O'Connor. Michèle Gurdal has a large repertoire as a solo pianist, of concerti with orchestra as well as chamber music, with extensive concert activity, from the age of nine, in France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Canada and the U.S.A. Among others she performed at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Ruhr Piano Festival, the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Theater Ghione in Rome, the Église Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris and the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. She was assistant of Prof. Anatol Ugorski in Detmold.
Yuki Negishi started playing the piano at the age of 5 in New York City. At the age of 10, she was accepted to The Juilliard School Pre-College Division as an honorary scholarship student in the class of the late Richard Fabre. After completing her studies at the Toho Gakuen School of Music with Mikako Abe, she continued her study at the Amsterdam Conservatory with Jan Marisse Huizing and later at the Royal College of Music in London with Ruth Nye. Yuki Negishi followed master classes with the late Takahiro Sonoda, Christian Zacharias, the late Irina Zaritskaya, Dominique Merlet, Peter Katin and Murray Perahia. At the age of 16, she was the youngest prize-winner at the Takahiro Sonoda Piano Competition and she was awarded the 2nd prize at the 2000 International Jeunesses Musicales Competition in Bucharest.
Yuki Negishi has been invited to perform in recitals and festivals in the UK, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Romania, Japan and the USA. Also a keen chamber musician, she has collaborated with members of the Japan Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Sander Sittig studied with Jan Wijn at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam. After obtaining his Soloist Diploma he won a scholarship awarded by the Dutch government which enabled him to continue his studies with Eugene Indjic (Paris) and Naum Grubert (Amsterdam). He also was an active participant in master classes by Menahem Pressler, Charles Rosen and Jewgeni Malinin. Sander Sittig was a prize-winner of the international piano competitions of Palm Beach, Rome, Epinal and Eindhoven. He was also awarded prizes in chamber music competitions in Rotterdam and Gubbio.
Sander Sittig teaches chamber music at the Rotterdam Conservatory and at summer academies in Italy (Montepulciano, Canossa), Austria and Spain. He was a judge at several piano and chamber music competitions in the Netherlands and Italy.
Noriko Yabe was born in Yokohama, Japan. She performed as soloist with orchestra in the United States at the age of twelve. After graduating from Toho-Gakuen School of Music in her country, she continued studying at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Willem Brons, graduating in 2003. She has given concerts in Japan, the United States, Czech Republic and in the Netherlands. Since 2003, Noriko works as accompanist at the Consevatory of Amsterdam. She is an accompanist at TIHMS since 2004 and has accompanied the classes of Prof. Frans Helmerson and Prof. Johannes Goritzki.
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