Joseph Moog
Nominated for a 2016 Grammy and awarded with major prizes such as the 2015 Gramophone Classical Music Award, the 2014 International Classical Music Award for "Instrumentalist of the Year," and the 2012 International Classical Music Award, Joseph Moog possesses the rare gift of combining exquisite virtuosity with expressive, profound, and intelligent musicality. As a master of both established and rare or forgotten repertoire, the young performer has earned a worldwide reputation, also for his own compositions and transcriptions.
The 2019/2020 season will take Joseph Moog to the world's most important concert halls, festivals, and ensembles, including his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performing Richard Strauss's 'Burleske' under Emmanuel Krivine, the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, the Odense Symphony Orchestra, and the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, as well as recitals at Wigmore Hall London, Théâtre La Scala Paris, the Salle Philharmonique de Liège, the 'Steinway International Series' Cardiff, the Turner Sims Piano Series Southampton, the Harrogate International Festival, Westminster Cathedral Hall, and the 'Spring Festival' Kiev. A very special appearance will be his performance of Liszt's piano transcription of Beethoven's 9th Symphony to mark the 250th anniversary of the Bonn master at the Ruhr Piano Festival, with which he has enjoyed a close collaboration since 2013.
The 2018/2019 season saw numerous highlights, including appearances with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Matthias Pintscher, at the Philharmonie Luxembourg with Saint-Saens' 5th Piano Concerto, at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto, with the New Japan Philharmonic with Brahms' 2nd Piano Concerto under Lawrence Foster in the Sumida Triphony Hall in Tokyo, at 'Piano aux Jacobins' in Toulouse and at the Music Festival in Gdansk.
The 2019/2020 season will take Joseph Moog to the world's most important concert halls, festivals, and ensembles, including his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performing Richard Strauss's 'Burleske' under Emmanuel Krivine, the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, the Odense Symphony Orchestra, and the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, as well as recitals at Wigmore Hall London, Théâtre La Scala Paris, the Salle Philharmonique de Liège, the 'Steinway International Series' Cardiff, the Turner Sims Piano Series Southampton, the Harrogate International Festival, Westminster Cathedral Hall, and the 'Spring Festival' Kiev. A very special appearance will be his performance of Liszt's piano transcription of Beethoven's 9th Symphony to mark the 250th anniversary of the Bonn master at the Ruhr Piano Festival, with which he has enjoyed a close collaboration since 2013.
The 2018/2019 season saw numerous highlights, including appearances with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Matthias Pintscher, at the Philharmonie Luxembourg with Saint-Saens' 5th Piano Concerto, at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto, with the New Japan Philharmonic with Brahms' 2nd Piano Concerto under Lawrence Foster in the Sumida Triphony Hall in Tokyo, at 'Piano aux Jacobins' in Toulouse and at the Music Festival in Gdansk.
An important focus is the young artist's extensive discography, for which he has received outstanding reviews from the international press as well as numerous awards. In 2017, he recorded Johannes Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Richard Strauss's Burlesque with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie under the direction of Nicholas Milton. In November 2018, he released a recording of the complete Études by Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel's 'Gaspard de la Nuit'.
His long-awaited solo album, "Between Heaven and Hell," featuring the sonatas and legends of Franz Liszt, was released in October 2019. Joseph Moog earned his reputation as a soloist through concerts in the legendary Master Pianists series at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the International House of Music Moscow, the New Ross Piano Festival, and the La Roque d'Anthéron Festival.
He has performed extensively in the USA, including at the Frick Collection in New York City, the Gilmore International Piano Series, the Portland Piano International, the Washington Performing Arts Society, the Vancouver Recital Society, and the Miami International Piano Festival. Joseph Moog maintains an extensive concert repertoire that has brought him to perform with major orchestras around the world.
Joseph Moog, son of two orchestral musicians, is a winner of the 'Prix Groupe de Rothschild' and was appointed to the circle of Steinway Artists in 2009. He is a founding member and artistic director of the 'Konz Musik Festival' near his current residence in Luxembourg and is actively involved in the cultural development of his hometown of Neustadt/Weinstraße, as well as throughout Rhineland-Palatinate.
Julian Steckel
Music arises from fulfillment. The audience senses whether someone on stage is feeling what they are expressing or imitating what they believe they should be feeling.
Julian Steckel plays like someone with something alive to share. "As a performer, I trust my inner landscape more and more and let the audience in. It's a vulnerability that ultimately makes you stronger." The cellist said this at the end of 2018, the year his first child was born. His powers of persuasion have grown,your own pictures have become richer.
Steckel is prepared to throw himself into the balance for the music and his audience. He is aware of his responsibility for what is often called the 'will of the composer': In a serious examination of the score, he traces the connections that hold a piece together internally. "If you only have one rooman apartment and don't know that the apartment has seven more, you can't even understand the room."
When he goes on stage, you know the music is in good hands with him, you look forward to hearing what he finds in it, you trust what the music wants to say through him.
Haoxing Liang
Haoxing Liang was born in China and began playing the violin at the age of six. After studying at the Chinese State Conservatory of Music in Beijing, he received his Master of Arts degree from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna in 2001. He is a prizewinner of numerous international violin competitions and has performed as a soloist worldwide, including extensively in Austria, Italy, Hungary, Germany, and China, as well as at the Andre Sakharov Festival and the East Belgium Festival.
His chamber music partners include Dora Schwarzberg, Ivry Gitlis, Roby Lakatos, Polina Leschenko, Walter Delahunt, Yuri Smirnov, Jorge Basso and Alban Gerhardt.
In October 2013 he was an integral part of the Argentine Semana Musical Llao Llao.
From 1996 to 1999, Haoxing Liang was concertmaster of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. During this time, he performed with the Berlin Philharmonic under legends such as Claudio Abbado and Kent Nagano. As a guest concertmaster, he regularly collaborates with various orchestras, including the Orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, and the Bochum Symphony Orchestra.
Since 1999, he has been principal concertmaster of the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and performed as a soloist with the world-renowned cellist Misha Maisky during the orchestra's Asian tour in 2003. Until 2018, he was also a professor of violin at the Conservatoire de Musique Esch-sur-Alzette in Luxembourg.
Haoxing Liang has recorded the complete chamber music works of Gabriel Pierné and works by Vincent d'Indy for the Timpani label. Along with Silja Geirhardsdottir, Jean-Marc Apap, and Niall Brown, he is a founding member of the Kreisler Quartet, which has recorded, among other works, music by Théodore Gouvy for Toccata Classics and works by contemporary Chinese composer Ping Gao for Naxos.
Niall Brown
Over the past three decades, Niall Brown has established himself as an internationally sought-after cellist, chamber musician, and educator. His exceptional musical personality has inspired superlative praise from the press worldwide, and he is known for his "cello-like euphony and profound handling of the music," "technical mastery and excellent intonation," and "a wonderfully evocative vocal tone."
Trained by renowned musicians such as Maurice Gendron, Ralph Kirshbaum, Radu Alduescu, Robert Masters, Alberto Lysy, and Nadia Boulanger, Niall Brown has dedicated himself to a career in music. For over a decade, he was active as a member of the renowned Australian String Quartet, as principal cellist of the Camerata Bern and Camerata Lysy, and as a member of the Scottish Ensemble.
The festivals and concert halls he has performed at include several of theworld's most important stages: The Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Carnegie Hall and Avery Fischer Centre in New York, Théâtre des Champs Elysées and Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris, Konzerthaus andPhilharmonie in Berlin, Sydney Recital Hall and Melbourne Concert Hall, or even the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.
His activities have brought him together with great artists, including Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Nikita Magaloff, Janos Starker, Bruno Giuranna, Stephen Kovacevich, Melvyn Tan, Edith Fischer, Alberto Lysy, Antonio Lysy, Sine Nomine Quartet, Jesus Lopez Cobos, Thomas Füri and Milan Horvat.
Niall Brown lives in Luxembourg, where he is both deputy principal cellist of the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and a member of the Kreisler Quartet.
His chamber music focus includes his partnership with pianist Isabelle Trüb, with whom he records regularly and extensively for the Swiss label Doron. For many years, he has also been a founding member and artistic director of the Automne Festival.musical d'Ollon in Switzerland.
Esra Kerber
Esra Kerber was born into a family of musicians and was fascinated by the violin from an early age, as her mother was a violinist in the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra. Under her guidance, she began playing the violin at the age of three. Soon after, she discovered the viola.
and won several national prizes on both instruments in the following years at the "Jugend Musiziert" competition. She gained orchestral experience in the Saarland State Youth Orchestra, the German Federal Youth Orchestra, and the European Union Youth Orchestra, with which she undertook several concert tours throughout Europe and an extensive tour of the USA. She began her professional orchestral career with the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and the Stuttgart Philharmonic.
She has been a member of the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra since 2016. Her passion for chamber music has earned her numerous scholarships, including at the Schwetzingen SWR Festival, the Encuentro de Musica y Academia de Santander Festival, and the Aurora Chamber Music Festival in Sweden. She also held a Villa Musica scholarship from 2009 to 2013, both as a violinist and violist. In 2011, she traveled to China, where she gave concerts in Beijing, Shanghai, Fujian, Xiamen, and Jiaxing. She began her studies as a junior student with Prof. Dora Bratchkova at the Mannheim State University of Music.
In 2010 she moved to the Berlin University of the Arts and madeThere she received her diploma from Prof. Hartmut Rohde. Esra Kerber then studied for a Master of Specialized Music Performance with Prof. Patrick Jüdt at the Bern University of the Arts.
She received further important inspiration from master classes around the world, for example from Hatto Beyerle, Hartmut Lindemann, Roman Nodel, Igor Ozim, Thomas Brandis, Hariolf Schlichtig, Daniel Gaede, Zakhar Bron and Wolfram Christ.
Christian Schmitt
“Schmitt found colors that taught wonder.” (Wiener Zeitung)
Since his debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Salzburg Festival, Christian Schmitt has become one of the most sought-after organists internationally. He is praised for his virtuoso and charismatic playing. Since 2014, he has been Principal Organist of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, for whom he curates the organ series for the Bamberg Concert Hall.
He is also in demand worldwide as a chamber music partner. Christian Schmitt has performed with the Staatskapelle Berlin under Sir Simon Rattle, leading to a return invitation for the current season, and has given recitals at the Bachfest Leipzig and to sold-out audiences at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. He has played the organs of the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Philharmonie Berlin, the Vienna Musikverein, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, and the Maison Symphonique Montreal, and has worked with conductors and soloists such as Philippe Herreweghe, Jakub Hruša, Marek Janowski, Cornelius Meister, Manfred Honeck, Magdalena Kožena, Sibylla Rubens, and Michael Volle.
Highlights of the season include his debut at the Walt Disney Concert Hall presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, performances of Saint-Saëns' Third Symphony with both the Staatskapelle Berlin under Daniel Barenboim and the NDR Radiophilharmonie under Lionel Bringuier, the world premiere of Ivan Fedele's new organ concerto in France, the Japanese premiere of Toshio Hosokawa's "Embrace - Light and Shadow" together with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra at Suntory Hall, a duo recital at the Schlossfestspiele Ludwigsburg, and the release of his recent recording of Hindemith Chamber Music No. 7 with conductor Christoph Eschenbach.
A champion of new organ works, Christian Schmitt played the world premiere of Toshio Hosokawa's "Embrace - Light and Shadow" for organ and orchestra at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall. He regularly programs works by 20th and 21st century composers, both in recital and orchestral performances, combining works by Gubaidulina and Pärt with Bach and Schumann. For Deutsche Grammophon, Schmitt recorded a series of chorales, fugues, and fantasies for the project 'Bach 333 - The Complete New Edition'. His discography includes around 40 recordings of chamber, orchestral, and solo organ works. His most recent album of works by Joseph Jongen, recorded in 2016 with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern and conductor Martin Haselböck for the CPO label, received critical acclaim.
Also worthy of mention is the album 'Prayer' with Magdalena Kožena, released on Deutsche Grammophon in 2014. Christian Schmitt's album of organ symphonies by Charles-Marie Widor, which he recorded with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra under Stefan Solyom, won an ECHO Klassik award in 2013. Christian Schmitt studied at the Saarbrücken University of Music and Performing Arts and with Daniel Roth in Paris. He also studied musicology and Catholic theology at Saarland University. A passionate educator, he is a guest lecturer at universities around the world. He has also served as a substitute professor in Professor Jürgen Essl's class and as a lecturer at the Saarland University of Music.
Charles-Reinhardt-Quartett
The fledgling group is the result of a collaboration between composer and pianist Charles Herrig and musicians from the Reinhardt family in Koblenz. They all share a love of jazz, especially swing, and their consistently successful project work with Django Heinrich Reinhardt. This gave them the idea for the quartet.
Father Sascha and son Jermaine Reinhardt stand in the great gypsy swing tradition of their family and captivate the audience with driving rhythms and multifaceted improvisations.
Exceptional drummer and instructor Volker Sohny drives the band forward with his soulful and swinging groove. He sets the pace and pulse of the group.
The musical foundation is Charles Herrig on the piano, who, with his experience as a bandleader and jazz pianist, ensures harmonious interplay – and inspires with his cross-genre improvisational style.
The combination of the four musicians creates a distinctively new and uniquely well-rounded sound. Gispy & Jazz reloaded.
Father Sascha and son Jermaine Reinhardt stand in the great gypsy swing tradition of their family and captivate the audience with driving rhythms and multifaceted improvisations.
Exceptional drummer and instructor Volker Sohny drives the band forward with his soulful and swinging groove. He sets the pace and pulse of the group.
The musical foundation is Charles Herrig on the piano, who, with his experience as a bandleader and jazz pianist, ensures harmonious interplay – and inspires with his cross-genre improvisational style.
The combination of the four musicians creates a distinctively new and uniquely well-rounded sound. Gispy & Jazz reloaded.
Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt comes from one of the most famous jazz families in Europe. Behind the Reinhardt name lies a musical dynasty that has shaped the jazz and swing era from the 1930s to the present day. Only a few descendants of the legendary Django Reinhardt have managed to live up to his reputation and music. However, Django Reinhardt from Koblenz has achieved this feat. He is one of the few musicians in Europe who not only adopted the traditional style of the legendary Django Reinhardt, but also combined many musical styles with this music. Django Reinhardt is primarily a singer, but he has never lost his love of the guitar and plays rhythm guitar at jazz performances with his brothers (Mike, Moro, Sascha, Bawo, and drummer Volker Sohny).
In Koblenz, Django is a real crowd-puller and a role model for many young musicians. Together with the "Django Reinhardt Music Friends eV" support association, founded by several Koblenz politicians and business representatives, he is committed to supporting projects by young, up-and-coming artists.
www.django-reinhardt.de
In Koblenz, Django is a real crowd-puller and a role model for many young musicians. Together with the "Django Reinhardt Music Friends eV" support association, founded by several Koblenz politicians and business representatives, he is committed to supporting projects by young, up-and-coming artists.
www.django-reinhardt.de
Charles Herrig
Charles Herrig lives and works near Koblenz on the Rhine. He was fascinated by jazz as a teenager, and his first performances as a pianist and singer soon followed.
He owes his stage name "Charles" to an enthusiastic US Air Force colonel at Spangdahlem Air Base. There, he played the great jazz standards in the officers' mess and discovered his love of composition.
He studied piano at the Cologne University of Music and Dance, majoring in piano with minors in saxophone and flute, and also obtained his conducting and choir conducting diplomas.
His musical work is very multifaceted: Charles Herrig can look back on many years of performing as a pianist, bandleader and instrumentalist. In addition to his own compositions from jazz to pop, orchestral and big band arrangements, numerous of his recordings have been released on CD and digitally.
The film and radio play music that he regularly creates for productions by “PuzzleCat Entertainment” repeatedly reaches thousands of subscribers and an audience of millions.
Charles Herrig is currently working with Koblenz jazz legend Django Heinrich Reinhardt on his new program "Back to Swing." The two musicians are also involved with numerous foundations and social initiatives, such as the "Fritz Walter Foundation" of the German Football Association (DFB) and the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, "Lotto Kinderglück," and the "Social Music School Koblenz."
www.charlesherrig.de
He owes his stage name "Charles" to an enthusiastic US Air Force colonel at Spangdahlem Air Base. There, he played the great jazz standards in the officers' mess and discovered his love of composition.
He studied piano at the Cologne University of Music and Dance, majoring in piano with minors in saxophone and flute, and also obtained his conducting and choir conducting diplomas.
His musical work is very multifaceted: Charles Herrig can look back on many years of performing as a pianist, bandleader and instrumentalist. In addition to his own compositions from jazz to pop, orchestral and big band arrangements, numerous of his recordings have been released on CD and digitally.
The film and radio play music that he regularly creates for productions by “PuzzleCat Entertainment” repeatedly reaches thousands of subscribers and an audience of millions.
Charles Herrig is currently working with Koblenz jazz legend Django Heinrich Reinhardt on his new program "Back to Swing." The two musicians are also involved with numerous foundations and social initiatives, such as the "Fritz Walter Foundation" of the German Football Association (DFB) and the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, "Lotto Kinderglück," and the "Social Music School Koblenz."
www.charlesherrig.de
