BERTRAND CERVERA (violin) studied at the Paris National Conservatory of Music and also with Yehudi Menuhin. Hewon many international competitions such as London, Melbourne, Colmar or Saint-Jean-de-Luz. He was appointed concertmaster at the Orchestre National de France by maestro Kurt Masur. He has performed as a soloist, chamber musician or guest-concertmaster throughout the world, particularly also at the BBC Orchestra in London and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. He also pursues a teaching career holder at the Paris Regional Conservatory (CRR) 1.
Bertrand created the Sorru in Musica festival in Corsica1 in 2004 with a highly idealistic view: Music and Culture for all, by all, in all places and in all seasons.
His discography includes over fifty productions in very diverse styles, he also performed with some of the biggest stars of jazz. He has been for several years the partner of concerts and tours of Richard Galliano, enriching his contact with a new repertoire around the music of the maestro but also that of the great Astor Piazzolla. Projects included triumphant tours with Daniel Piazzolla, Astor's grandson in South America and Asia.
DIMITAR BUROV graduated from the Music School in Varna and continued his education at the National Conservatoire in Sofia where he studied violin and chamber music.
In 1987 he won 1st prize at N. Simeonova National Violin Competition. In 1988-1991 he studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Prof. Yfrah Neaman. Since then Dimitar has established a busy career as a performer and teacher. As a soloist and chamber musician he has performed in the festivals Windsor and Chichester in UK, Varna Summer Festival, Istanbul Spring Festival and others. His international engagements have taken him to venues all across Europe, to Turkey, Malaysia and Hong Kong. He has played with the London Mozart Piano Trio with whom he recorded Shostakovich Piano quintet, selected as a CD of the month by Classic Music Magazine in June 2008. Dimitar has taught at different colleges in Great Britain. In 1997 he was appointed as a full time Head of Strings at Harrow School.
MICHAEL GIELER (viola) was born in Austria and toured in a professional string quartet already at the age go 16. Het studied in Vienna and at the famous Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. He has been soloviola player of the Concertgebouworkest in Amsterdam for 27 years. He has performed as a soloist and chamber musician over the entire globe.
The communication with the public is quintessential to Michael’s understanding of music making. Next to the orchestra he dedicates a lot of time and effort in creating new ways of communicating classical music to a broader public. He is founder and director of Music Stages, an innovative production company in Amsterdam. His projects include cross-over programs with various artist from the world of jazz and world music and also educational projects. He was founding partner of the International Bachfestival of Gran Canaria.
Michael also created the idea of Festivallinks, a European collaboration program including European music festivals in five different countries.
TANIA LORENZO (soprano) was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. During the 2017/18 and 2018/19 seasons, she was a member of the Junges Ensemble at the Semperoper Dresden. She studied at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Canarias, and at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, supported by the Fundación Mapfre Guanarteme and Juventudes Musicales de Madrid.
She has been awarded in several singing competitions and has performed the roles of Papagena Die Zauberflöte, Frasquita Carmen, Hirt Tannhäuser, Esmeralda The Bartered Bride, Erste Jungfrau Moses und Aron, Amour Platée, Milliner Der Rosenkavalier, Spirit Dido &Aeneas, Ella María la O, Girl Trouble in Tahiti, Jessi Mahagonny Songspiel, Nella Gianni Schicchi, Giannetta L’elisir d’amore, Cobweb The Fairy Queen and Mademoiselle Silberklang Der Schauspieldirektor. She has also sung major roles in the world premières of several contemporary operas, including the main role of Amara in el minuto de oro de KK-TV by Lothar Siemens, the title role in Candelaria by José Buceta, and the main role of Susi in Das Rätsel der gestohlenen Stimmen by Johannes Wulff-Woesten.
Tania is a regular soloist in the International Bach Festival of Grain Canaria, with musicians from the Filarmónica de Gran Canaria and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchester, where performances have included Bach Magnificat, Pergolesi Stabat Mater, and Villa-Lobos Bachiana Brasileira no. 5, which she also performed at the Semperoper Dresden. Further concert appearances have included Pergolesi Magnificat and the world première of José Brito Réquiem.
PATRICIA ROBAINA (harpsichord) began her musical studies in the specializing in baroque violin. As she moved to the Conservatory of Music of Aragon she started training with Silvia Márquez (keyboard) and Saskia Roures (organ). She continued her studies at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague under the tutelage of Jacques Ogg (key) and Patrick Ayrton (continuo). As a regular visitor to the International Bach Festival she performs with soloists of the Concertgebouworkest both in chamber music and as soloist. She founded the ensemble L’Enharmonique, focusing on the French repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries. Another of her projects a harpsichord duo La Pantomime, where she creates her own transcriptions for this unusual ensemble.
She has performed in countries such as Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Holland, Indonesia, Hong Kong and at festivals such as BRQ Vantaa Festival (Finland), Börzsöny Barokk (Hungary), Utrecht Early Music Festival (Netherlands), International Bach Festival (Spain).
SANTIAGO CIMADEVILLA (bandoneonist, arranger, composer) was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he studied classical piano at the Conservatorio Municipal Manuel de Falla. In the Netherlands he studied bandoneon at the Rotterdam Conservatory (Codarts) with Victor Villena and Leo Vervelde, and arrangements and composition with Gustavo Beytelmann. As a tango music performer he has worked with many renowned musicians and ensembles in Europe. He played with the Gustavo Beytelmann Trio, with the Orquesta Tipica Fernandez Fierro during their first European tour and was invited several times to perform as a special guest with tango legend Alfredo Marcucci’s Sexteto Veritango. He specializes in Astor Piazzolla’s work, which he often arranged and performs in several tango quintets and orchestras (Concierto para Bandoneon, Doble Concierto, The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires). Outside the tango scene, he has often performed Kurt Weill’s Kleine Dreigroschenmusik and the Dreigroschenoper (Schönberg Ensemble, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Nationaal Jeugdorkest), and premiered Daan Makkeke’s Trajectoire, Astrid Kruisselbrink’s Magnificat (Helios Ensemble) and Mathis B. Nitschke’s opera Jetzt! (Montpellier Opera). Currently he performs with the recently founded quintet TRASNOCHE, which specializes in new tango compositions and arrangements. Santiago is also one of the Artistic Research Coaches in the Master department at Codarts, University of the Arts, and a teacher and coordinator in the Tango Department. He is also a founding member of Splendor, the newest stage for the performing arts in Amsterdam as well as an independent collective effort of musicians, composers, writers and other artists.
MARGARITA KALCHEVA – double bass
She was born in Pleven and finished the Secondary School of Music “P. Pipkov” in Irina Petrova’s class. After that, she graduated the State Academy of Music “P. Vladigerov” in Todor Toshev’s double bass class. She specialized chamber music with Prof. Victor Chuchkov. She took part in the Master Class of Michel Veillon – Switzerland. She is prize winner of the National Competition “Sv. Obretenov” and has won awards from her participation in the international competitions “V. Buccchi”, Italy and Enschede, the Netherlands. Since 1995, she has been a member of the Symphony Orchestra of the Bulgarian National Radio, and since 1998 – leader of the double bass section in the same orchestra. At the same time, she has been performing with a lot of orchestras in Bulgaria and abroad – in Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Malta. During the period 2009-2018, she also held the position of a leader of the double bass section in OEK- Kanazawa, Japan, as well as that of a double bass soloist of “Camerata Orphica” – New Bulgarian University, Sofia. For several consecutive years now, she has been a member of the team of tutors of the International Summer Academy – Sozopol, and from the current season on she is also a double bass pedagogue at the New Bulgarian University. Her repertoire as a soloist includes works by Bottesini, Dittersdorf, Kusewicki, Tchaikovsky, Goleminov, Tabakov. She has performed as soloist with most of the orchestras in Bulgaria, as well as with orchestras in Japan, Korea, Serbia. She has had several premiers in this country as a bassist – Tchaikovsky’s “Rococo Variations”, M. Goleminov’s “Double Bass Concerto”, Ennio Morricone’s “Brеavissimo”, D. Hristov’s “Yellow-green”. As a soloist and chamber performer she has recorded a lot of classical and contemporary music for the Bulgarian National Radio and the Bulgarian National Television.
Bozhidar Benev
Bozhidar Benev started playing the violin when he was 4-5-year old at the Children Music Classes with Sofia School of Music in Yulia Angelova’s class, who was then Head of Department “String Instruments – Violin”. He graduated his secondary education at the National School of Arts “Dobri Hristov“ – Varna, in Rumyana Koleva’s class. Then, he studied at the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts – Plovdiv with Prof. Nedyalcho Todorov and Prof. Al. Spirov. Since 2004, he has been a member of the Symphony Orchestra at the State Opera – Varna. Since 2014, he has been assistant concertmaster of the orchestra, while, at the same time he has continued performing as a soloist with his fellow musicians from the Symphony Orchestra, as well as with his fellow musicians from the Bulgarian Chamber Orchestra – Dobrich, being its member since 2013. He has taken part in a number of concerts and has delivered solo performances and concerts in Varna, Plovdiv and other towns in the country. He has improved his skills as an active participant in a number of Master Classes of renowned pedagogues. In 2006, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015 he attended the Master Classes of Prof. M. Minchev at the Varna Summer Music Academy and the “March Music Days” International Festival. He has been awarded with a number of diplomas and certificates for high achievements in the field of music. He has won international and national competitions. He is a laureate and winner of the first prize in the category "Chamber Ensembles" at the 14th Academic Competition "J. S. Bach and his Contemporary Age" - 2014, first prize at the competition "Hopefuls, Talents, Masters" - 2015, first prize in the same category at the 3rd National Competition "J. S. Bach and his Contemporary Age" - 2015, third prize at the international competition for performing works by Polish composers - 2002, first prize in the category "Sonata Duo" at "Hopefuls, Talents, Masters" – 2018, etc.
NADEZHDA ENCHEVA – oboe
She graduated the National School of Music “Lyubomir Pipkov” in the city of Sofia in Georgi Zhelyazov’s oboe class. She continued her education in France. She graduated the Conservatory in Cergy-Pontoise in 2009 in Jean-Marie Poplin’s oboe class. She took part in the Master Classes of David Walter, Emannuel Abule, Jacques Tysse, Jean-Philippe Thiébaut, etc. From 2007 until 2009 she was the first oboe of the Johannes Brahms Orchestra in Paris. After that, she left for London where she was a guest musician in All Souls Orchestra. Since 2010 she has been the oboe section leader in the orchestra of the State Opera in Varna. Since 2016 she has been an oboe teacher at the National School of Arts “Dobri Hristov” in the city of Varna.
MARINA VINOKUROVA – violin
She graduated Voronezh School of Music “Rostropovich” in 2005, and in 2010 – Saint Petersburg State Conservatory "N. А. Rimsky-Korsakov".
She is a laureate and prize winner of international and regional competitions.
Since 2007 she has been working at the Opera Studio of Saint Petersburg Conservatory.
Since 2010 she has been working at the Mikhailovsky Theatre.
Since 2013 she has held the position of an instrumentalist-soloist at the State Opera in Varna.
