Guest Faculty 2025
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Michael Barenboim
(Soloist, Barenboim-Said Academy)
Violin
Michael Barenboim is a soloist and chamber musician on violin and viola, ensemble founder, concertmaster of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, and professor at the Barenboim-Said Akademie. His breakthrough as a soloist came in 2011 with Schoenberg’s Violin Concerto conducted by Pierre Boulez. Since then, he has been firmly established in the international concert scene, performing with renowned orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Vienna Philharmonic.
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Andrea Obiso
(Concertmaster Accademia di Santa Cecilia)
Violin
Born in Palermo, Andrea Obiso is concertmaster of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Andrea is the winner of numerous international competitions, including firsrst Prize the 2017 ARD Competition and at the 2017 Prix Ravel. He made his debut at the Berlin Philharmonie with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin in 2018. Andrea studied at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena with Boris Belkin, at the Maastricht Conservatory as well as at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.
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Veronika Hagen
(Hagen Quartet)
Viola
Veronika Hagen is the violist of the famous Hagen Quartet, with which she has performed in all the world’s major concert halls over the last forty years. Veronika has appeared as a soloist in important European and Japanese concert halls, as well as at the Salzburg Festival, in Lockenhaus and at the Lucerne Festival. Her recording of the Brahms Sonatas together with Paul Gulda was released by Deutsche Grammophon. She holds a professorship at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and plays a Guadagnini from 1765. Veronika studied in her hometown Salzburg with Helmut Zehetmair, as well as with Hatto Beyerle in Vienna.
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Floris Mijnders
(Principal Münchner Philharmoniker)
Cello
Floris Mijnders is principal cellist of the Munich Philharmonic and was previously principal cellist of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. He has been guest principal cellist at the Gewandhausorchester, London Symphony Orchestra, and the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam. As a soloist, Floris has performed with many orchestras, including the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra under Valery Gergjev and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Floris studied with Jean Decroos at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and attended masterclasses with Heinrich Schiff and Mstislav Rostropovich.
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Janne Saksala
(Principal Berliner Philharmoniker)
Double bass
Janne Saksala has been a member of the Berliner Philharmoniker since 1993 and has held the position of first principal double bass with the same orchestra since 2008. After a guest professorship at the Hanns Eisler School of Music, he has been a professor at the UdK in Berlin since 2023. Janne has given masterclasses at numerous conservatories in Europe, America and Asia and has taught regularly at the Carl Flesch Academy in Baden-Baden since 2005. Born in Helsinki, Janne studied with Klaus Stoll in Berlin and was a prizewinner at the ARD competition in Munich.
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Philippe Tondre (tbc.)
(Principal oboe Philadelphia Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra of Europe)
Winds
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Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Conductor
Sir John Eliot Gardiner is respected as one of the world’s most innovative and dynamic musicians, constantly at the forefront of enlightened interpretation. In September 2024, Gardiner announced the foundation of The Constellation Orchestra and Choir. The ensembles embark on their first tour of world-renowned concert venues in December 2024. His work as Founder and Artistic Director of the Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique marked him out as a central figure in the early music scene.
As a regular guest of the world’s leading symphony orchestras, Gardiner conducts amongst others the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Berlin Philharmonic. He has performed regularly at the world’s major venues and festivals, including Salzburg, Berlin and Lucerne festivals, Carnegie Hall, and the Royal Albert Hall. Gardiner has conducted opera productions at the Wiener Staatsoper, Teatro alla Scala, Opéra national de Paris, Royal Opera House, and at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
He was made a Commander of the British Empire in 1990 and awarded a knighthood for his services to music.