Sonja Korkeala
ViolinSonja Korkeala was born in Finland. She is a violinist, professor for violin at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, Primaria of the Rodin-Quartett. Since 2007 Sonja Korkeala is artistic director of the Kimito Island Music Festival, in cooperation with her twin sister Katinka Korkeala, who founded the festival in 1999.
She studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Ari Angervo and Prof. Tuomas Haapanen and at the Liszt Academy in Budapest with Maria Vermes. Sonja Korkeala continued her studies with professor Ana Chumachenco at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, where she finished her studies with the masterclass degree. She won several prizes, among others at Concertino Praga 1984, 1985 in Kuopio (Finland), 1988 in Gorizia (Italy) and 1991 at the "Konzertgesellschaft" in Munich.
Since 1993 Sonja Korkeala is first violinist of the Rodin string quartet, which has its own concert series in the Max-Joseph-Saal at the Munich Residenz since 1997. The Rodin-Quartett recorded many CDs with the Amati Records.
Sonja Korkeala has performed at numerous festivals, e.g. Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Savonlinna Opera Festival, Amiata Piano Festival and she has collaborated with musicians among others András Adorján, Adrian Brendel, Eduard Brunner, Ana Chumachenco, Christoph Hartmann, Helena Juntunen, Sharon Kam, Radu Lupu, Siegfried Palm, Alfredo Perl, Christoph Richter, Hariolf Schlichtig, Ingolf Turban, Jörg Widmann, Marko Ylönen and Wen Xiao Zheng.
In 1994 she became assistant teacher of Prof. Ana Chumchenco at the "University of Music and Performing Arts Munich", then since 2000 she has taught her own class at the same institute. Since 2011 she is professor at the "University of Music and Performing Arts Munich". She made a name for herself as teacher of highly giftet young violinists. Her pupils included Julia Fischer, Arabella Steinbacher, Lena Neudauer, Mariella Haubs, Daniel Röhn, Veronika Eberle and many others.
Katinka Korkeala
ViolinKatinka Korkeala studied violin at the Sibelius Academy under Ari Angervo, Tuomas Haapanen and Igor Bezrodny. She has attended master classes of Yehudi Menuhin, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Ana Chumachenko. In 1999 she was awarded Master of Music degree at Sibelius Academy, and she gave a well-received recital in Helsinki. Korkeala has given numerous concerts, both as a chamber musician, and as a soloist; with orchestras like Tapiola Sinfonietta, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vox Artis Chamber Orchestra, and City Orchestras in Oulu, Jyväskylä, Pori, Mikkeli and Hämeenlinna. She has performed in Austria, Germany, France, Iceland, Italy, Russia and Switzerland.
Katinka Korkeala won the 1st prize for duos, together with her twin sister Sonja, in Concertino Praga Competition in 1984. She played 1st violin in Tapiola Sinfonietta from 1992 to 1994 and as the leader in Kouvola City orchestra in 1995. From 1999 to 2003 she taught violin at Tampere Conservatory, and after that taught at Stadia. Nowadays Korkeala acts as a freelance musician.
Katinka Korkeala founded the Kimito Island Music Festival in 1999 together with her husband, pianist Martti Rautio. They acted together as the artistic directors for 9 years. She has continued in this position with her twin sister Sonja Korkeala from 2007 to 2019 and during 2023.
Rafael Adobas Bayog
Flute and traversoSpanish-Filipino flutist Rafael Adobas Bayog began studying the flute at the age of eight at the Ibiza Conservatory under the guidance of Joana Moragues. He continued his studies with Anikó Pusztai and Vicens Prats in Barcelona, and later at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich under Andrea Lieberknecht and Natalie Schwaabe (piccolo), as well as Marion Treupel-Franck (traverso and classical flute).
In 2022, Adobas Bayog won the first prize at the Kobe International Flute Competition in Japan. At the Carl Nielsen Competition in 2021, he was awarded third place as well as the special prize for the best performance of the commissioned work. In 2023, he was honored with the "Ani ng Dangal" Prize by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts of the Philippines (NCCA).
Rafael has performed as a soloist with the Copenhagen Philharmonic, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock, and Odense Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, he has performed at the Tongyeong International Music Festival in Korea, festivals in Spain, concerts in Kobe and Tokyo, and at Carnegie Hall in New York.
Markus Bellheim
PianoIn 2000, pianist Markus Bellheim won the International Olivier Messiaen Competition in Paris. This marked the beginning of an extensive concert career which has taken him throughout Europe, as well as to Asia and America. Born in Hamburg in 1973, Markus Bellheim has performed at many important festivals and in concert series (Beethovenfest Bonn, Kasseler Musiktage, La Roque d’Anthéron, Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival, Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte, etc.).
Markus Bellheim has performed the complete works for piano solo by Olivier Messiaen several times to high public acclaim. He performs Messiaen’s most important work for solo piano and orchestra, the Turangalîla Symphony, throughout the world.
The music of Johann Sebastian Bach is a further focus of Bellheim’s career. His concert repertoire includes the complete keyboard works of Bach.
Leading orchestras such as the SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg, the Bamberg Symphony, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Orchestre philharmonique de Nice and Malmö Symphony Orchestra regularly invite Bellheim to perform works from the classical repertoire with them. He also performs with established contemporary music ensembles such as Ensemble Modern and Ensemble Intercontemporain. Markus Bellheim works with conductors including Sylvain Cambreling and Jonathan No and composers Steve Reich, György Kurtág and Wolfgang Rihm.
Following CD recordings of the complete solo works by Wolfgang Rihm and Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus by Olivier Messiaen on the NEOS label, NEOS has recently released the Piano Concerto by Bruno Maderna with Markus Bellheim and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. This recording has received many prizes, including the German Record Critics’ Award. Bellheim’s recording of Messiaen’s Trois Petites Liturgies de la Présence Divine with the Kremerata Baltica, released on the ECM label to mark the 30th anniversary of the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival, has been particularly well- received.
Markus Bellheim gives regular master classes in Germany and abroad. He has taught at the music conservatoires in Würzburg and Mannheim and was appointed Professor of Piano at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich in the winter semester 2011. He is a freelance editor and author for the Munich publisher G. Henle Verlag.
Luka Coetzee
CelloAcclaimed by the Fanfare Magazine as “tonally, technically, and musically superb”, Canadian cellist Luka Coetzee (b. 2004) has always enjoyed the musical life combining the richness of art, travel, and performing.
In October 2023, she received the first prize at the esteemed 7th International Paulo Cello Competition in Helsinki, Finland. She is also the first prize winner of the 2022 Pablo Casals International Award and the 9th Johansen International Strings Competition. She is a top prize winner at the 8th Dotzauer International Competition for Young Cellists, the 6th UNISA International Strings Competition, the 2019 Orchestra Symphonique de Montreal Competition and the 2021 Shean Strings & Piano Competition.
In September 2022 she received the Frans Helmerson Promotional Award at the Kronberg Academy and performed as soloist with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in the Casals Forum at the Kronberg Academy. Luka has also appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras including the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, National Philharmonic Orchestra, Hradec Kralove Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Orchestre de Cannes under highly-regarded conductors such as Rumon Gamba, Giuseppe Mengoli and Ustina Dubitsky.
Most recently as part of the Pablo Casals Foundation, Luka performed at the Pablo Casals Museum in El Vendrell to commemorate the legacy of Pablo Casals and the 50th anniversary of his passing. Her upcoming performance engagements include the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Oulu Symphony Orchestra and the Kimito Island Festival.
As a member of the Echo Klassik-nominated LGT Young Soloists, Luka has performed in numerous concert halls around the world including the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Berlin Philharmonie, the Tonhalle in Zürich, Victoria Hall in Singapore, the Rheingau Musik Festival, and at the Woordfees Festival in Stellenbosch, South Africa. In January 2020, Luka recorded and premiered a new arrangement of the Beethoven A Major Cello Sonata for cello and strings on NAXOS at the Teldex Studio in Berlin, Germany. The CD was released in November 2020 and Luka is acclaimed by the Fanfare Magazine as “sublime, with an interpretative grasp… playing of rare quality.”
Luka has also worked with distinguished artists and string quartets including Johannes Moser, Frans Helmerson, David Geringas, Nicolas Altstaedt, Jens Peter Maintz, Laurence Lesser, Hans Jorgen Jensen, the Calidore String Quartet, the Kronos Quartet, and the Schumann Quartet. In November 2021, Luka attended the Rutesheim Cello Akademie where she worked with Danjulo Ishizaka and Claudio Bohorquez, and more recently she attended the Prussia Cove Masterclasses under the guidance of Steven Isserlis. An avid chamber musician, Luka participated in the Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival Young Performer’s Program in 2018 and 2019. In 2023 Luka founded the Duo Osensus with Belgian pianist Nicolas Absalom.
Throughout her life, Luka has always enjoyed performing at schools, hospitals, senior homes, and community events. From 2019 until 2022 she was the Calgary Regional Director of the Back to Bach Project, “a global initiative to inspire music and arts education to young children, and to teach them the value of hard work and passion.” At the age of one, Luka had her first cello lesson with Christine Bootland. Other previous mentors include John Kadz, Johanne Perron and Horacio Contreras. Luka also started playing piano at the age of three and finished the Royal Conservatory of Music ARCT piano exam with First Class Honours under the instruction of Derek Chiu.
Luka is currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree in cello performance at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt.
Roland Glassl
ViolaHailed by The Strad magazine as the "new century's new talent, (one of) the stars of the next decade,” German violist Roland Glassl was launched into an international career as prizewinner of many prestigious national and international competitions.
Glassl was the first German to win the first prize at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition in England, where he was also awarded the Peter Schidlof Prize for the finalist with the most beautiful tone. Other awards include first prize at the II. Viola Competition of the German Viola Society, top prize at the 1st International Viola Competition Vienna, second prize at the Primrose Viola Competition, and first prize at the Washington International Competition for strings.
Concert tours have taken him through Europe, North- and South America, and China. Glassl has appeared at Wigmore Hall in London, at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Peking, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Ravinia Festival in Chicago/ USA, Chamber Music International (CMI) in Dallas/ USA, the Caramoor Festival in New York, Musica Riva in Riva del Garda/ Italy, and Open Chamber Music in Prussia Cove/England.
As a soloist, Glassl has performed with conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Howard Griffiths, Sebastian Tewinkel, Hans Richter, Markus Poschnern and Alfred Eschwé and orchestras such as the Staatsorchester Mainz, the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich, the China National Opera House Symphony Orchestra, the Georgian Chamber Orchestra, the German Philharmonic Orchestra Rhineland-Palatinate, the Pécs Symphony Orchestra, the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra and the Prague Chamber Orchestra.
As a chamber musician, Glassl has collaborated with leading artists, including Julia Fischer, Michael Sanderling, Lisa Batiashvili, Miriam Fried, Pekka Kuusisto, Sharon Kam, Atar Arad, Leon Fleischer, Michael Tree, and Hariolf Schlichtig.
From 1999 to 2015 Roland Glassl was the violist of the Mandelring Quartet, recognised as one of the foremost quartets in the world with frequent engagements in virtually every major chamber music hall. The quartet’s numerous recordings, which span much of their wide-ranging repertoire, have garnered the German Music Critics’ Prize as well as multiple nominations for the International Classical Music Award.
Teaching has always been an important addition to his concert life for Roland Glassl. From 2004 to 2018, he succeeded Tabea Zimmermann as Professor for Viola at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. In 2018 he took over the position of Prof. Hariolf Schlichtig at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, returning to his roots.
Roland Glassl was born in Germany, into a luthier's family with a tradition of many generations of violin making. He currently performs on a viola made by his father, who was also his first violin teacher. Later, he continued his studies at the “Musikhochschule München” with Ana Chumachenco. After receiving his artist diploma with distinction, he came to the United States to study violin with Paul Biss and viola with Atar Arad at Indiana University. Fascinated by the deep, warm sound of the viola, he decided to devote himself to the instrument and its music.