Artists

Trio con Brio Copenhagen

artistic direction

(DK/KR)

Soo-Jin Hong, violin
Soo-Kyung Hong, cello
Jens Elvekjær, piano

Trio con Brio Copenhagen has been the festival’s artistic management since 2014 and consists of violinist Soo-Jin Hong, cellist Soo-Kyung Hong and pianist Jens Elvekjær. In 2024, the trio enters its 25th anniversary year. Highlights include extensive tours of Europe and the US, a world premiere of a new piano trio by Bent Sørensen at the Boulez Saal, Berlin, and several Beethoven cycles in leading concert halls. The trio has released a large number of CDs – which, without exception, have been received with great enthusiasm by both critics and fans. Their latest album with trios by Schubert and Weinberg received six stars in Politiken with the words: “Trio con Brio marks that they belong to the top of the world’s elite as far as today’s classical chamber music is concerned”. The trio’s unique musicianship, fresh approach to the core repertoire, exciting programming and ability to reach out to young people through creative concert activities have, among other things, led to the Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen award in 2019, one of Denmark’s most prestigious music awards.

www.trioconbrio.dk

Elisabeth Leonskaja

piano

(RU/A)

Elisabeth Leonskaja has for decades been counted among the most famous pianists of our time. In a world dominated by commercial media and political agendas, she has remained true to herself and to music, in the tradition of great Soviet musicians such as David Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels. Her musical development was decisively influenced by her collaboration with Sviatoslav Richter. This musical and personal friendship continued until Richter’s death in 1997. Besides her numerous solo engagements, chamber music remains an important part of her work. She is a regular guest at several international festivals and performs as a soloist with leading orchestras and internationally renowned conductors all over the world. In her second homeland, Austria, she has received the highest artistic honour: the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art and has been named an honorary member of the Wiener Konzerthaus. In 2020, she received the International Classical Music (ICMA) Lifetime Achievement Award.

www.leonskaja.com

Quatuor Danel

(FR)

Marc Danel, violin
Gilles Millet, violin
Vlad Bogdanas, bratsch
Yovan Markovitch, cello

Quatuor Danel was founded in 1991 and has been at the forefront of the international chamber music scene ever since, with important concert performances worldwide and several ground-breaking CD recordings. The quartet is famous for their interpretations of the complete string quartets of Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Shostakovich and Weinberg. Their second focus lies in the collaboration with major contemporary composers such as Wolfgang Rihm, Helmut Lachenmann, Sofia Gubaidulina and others. Russian composers have a special place in Quatuor Danel’s repertoire. They have recorded the complete cycle of Shostakovich’s string quartets for Fuga Libera in 2005. This box set was recently reissued by Alpha and still counts as one of the benchmark interpretations of Shostakovich’s quartets. Quatuor Danel consists of Marc Danel and Gilles Millet on violins, Vlad Bogdanas, viola and Yovan Markovitch on cello.

www.quatuordanel.eu

Natalie Clein

cello

(GB)

The British cellist Natalie Clein is described by The Times as a “mesmerising” and “soaringly passionate” musician. Already when she was sixteen years old, she won both the BBC’s “Young Musician of the Year” and the Eurovision competition for young musicians. She made her actual debut at one of the BBC’s legendary PROM concerts in 1997. As a soloist and chamber musician, she performs all over the world and Natalie Clein is also the artistic director of her own chamber music festival in Purbeck, England. She has a strong interest in contemporary music and has premiered several works by some of the greatest composers of our time – among them Sir Peter Maxwell Davis and Sir John Tavener. Natalie has been Artist in Residence and Director of Musical Performance at Oxford University 2015 – 2019 and is professor of cello at both the Rostock Academy of Music in Germany and the Royal College of Music in London.

www.natalieclein.com

Andrej Bielow

violin

(UKR/DE)

Ukrainian violinist Andrej Bielow was educated in Germany and France. As a soloist and chamber musician, he has recorded over 20 CDs and performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the New Japan Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, the Kiev Philharmonic and the Munich Chamber Orchestra. At international competitions, Bielow has won several prizes, and he has received a large number of cultural grants. He teaches violin at the conservatory in Graz and frequently gives master classes in Europe, Asia and the USA. As a chamber musician, he has performed at festivals throughout Europe – including Chamber Music at Lundsgaard, where his distinguished musicianship, passion for chamber music and infectious energy have made him a regular and treasured guest.

www.andrejbielow.net

Nicholas Swensen

viola

(DK)

Nicholas Algot Swensen is both an active violist and conductor. On the viola, he has won several prizes such as the first prize at the Oskar Nedbal International Viola Competition in 2020 (Prague), the Juilliard Viola Concerto Competition in 2021, 3rd prize in the Primrose International Viola Competition (Los Angeles), DR P2’s talent prize and the Carl Nielsen talent prize. Nicholas has performed at leading international music festivals such as Kronberg Academy Festival, Accademia Isola Classica and Ravinia Festival. In 2021, he played Walton’s Viola Concerto at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, with star conductor Antonio Pappano and the Juilliard Symphony Orchestra. He is currently studying at the famous Kronberg Academy in Germany with Tabea Zimmermann – and is also enrolled in the national Danish talent development program Dirigentløftet in 2024.

www.nordicartistsmanagement.com

Jonas Egholm

guitar

(DK)

Jonas Egholm is becoming one of Denmark’s leading guitar players, and he has already been awarded a talent prize from Sonning Fonden (2020), the Carl-Nielsen Foundation’s talent prize (2021) and in 2023 he was the P2 talent of the year. He made his debut from the soloist class at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in September 2023, but has already achieved wide international recognition and performed in several countries around the world. At the age of 10, he toured Denmark and Germany with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. In 2020 he won first prize in the International Guitar Festival José Tomás Villa de Petrer”, and as a result has been on concert tour in both Spain, Brazil and Mexico. This first prize also gave him the opportunity to record his first CD “Guitar Recital”, which was released in 2022.

www.jonasegholm.com

David Munk-Nielsen

piano

(DK)

David Munk-Nielsen has graduated from the Sibelius Academy in Finland and attracted serious attention when within short time he won 3rd prize in the international Maj Lind Piano Competition in Helsinki (2022), 1st prize in the national Tampere Piano Competition in Finland and 1st prize in the Tallinn International Piano Competition in Estonia (2021). David has performed with orchestras such as the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tampere Philharmonic, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra and Aalborg Symphony Orchestra. He has performed recitals and chamber music at festivals such as Hindsgavl Festival, DSQ Festival, Copenhagen Summer Festival, Helsingborg Piano Festival, Aarhus Chamber Music Festival, “Festival & Friends” as well as Sibelius Festival in Lahti, Turku Music Festival and Mänttä Music Festival in Finland.

www.davidmunk-nielsen.com

Søren Sætter-Lassen

Actor

(DK)

Søren Sætter-Lassen is one of Denmark’s greatest actors and in 2022 received the Honorary Reumert Award. He was unforgettable as Salieri in the production of Amadeus at The Royal Danish Theatre and has been a permanent part of the ensemble at Det Kgl. Theater from 1992-2022. At the beginning of the 1980s, he was a co-founder of Grønnegårds Teatret, where he participated in several Holberg performances.
Søren has received all the major awards, e.g. Teaterpokalen, Lauritzen Prize 2003, Reumert of the Year for best male lead role for Richard III in 2010, The Father in 2014, Amadeus in 2019 and for best supporting male role for Don Carlos in 2000.

Selene Muñoz

dance

(DK/ES)

Selene Muñoz is, to this day, the contemporary flamenco artist with a Scandinavian background who has achieved the largest international exposure. She has won awards and scholarships for her avant-garde and personal style, mixing classical lines with modern expression. She has performed at venues such as the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the World Expo in Shanghai, the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, the Royal Danish Theater, Opera House in Denmark, CPH Summerdance at the Copenhagen Police Headquarters, the Louisiana Museum, the Bergen Festival in Norway and the UN’s UNLEASH Award show in Musikhuset Aarhus – and has collaborated with Trio con Brio on several occasions.

www.selenemunoz.com

A Kassen

art group

(DK)

The art group A Kassen specializes in site-specific and audience-engaging art projects in many different contexts, ranging from other festivals (e.g. Heartland and Roskilde Festival), decorations, museum and gallery exhibitions. A Kassen’s works often have an immediate and surprising character that relates to the surroundings and situations in which they are shown and where the spectator’s point of view plays an important role. Their use of humor punctures the formal settings and reduces the distance between audience and work.

A Kassen consists of Christian Bretton-Meyer, Morten Steen Hebsgaard, Søren Petersen and Tommy Petersen.

www.akassen.com

Esben Tange

concert introduction

(DK)

Esben Tange has a Master’s degree. degree in music and media studies. He has been a program host at Danish Radio P2 from 1995 and from 2007 editor and concert host. Esben has been a member of the board of the Léonie Sonnings Musikfonds since 2004 and chairman since 2012. He is co-founder of the Rued Langgaard Society in 2007 and artistic director of the Rued Langgaard Festival in Ribe since 2011. Lecturer, author and writer of articles on classical and modern music with particular emphasis on the time around the year 1900. Esben Tange has also created a series of visually conveyed concert performances about the composer Rued Langgaard and related composers.