Sir James & Lady Jeanne Galway, Ireland, USA
Sir James GALWAY is acclaimed as an outstanding interpreter of the classical flute repertoire as well as other genres. He has recorded over 65 CDs, selling more than 30 million copies. Belfast-born Sir James Galway studied in London and Paris before continuing his musical career in prestigious orchestras such as the Royal Covent Garden Operas, The BBC, the Royal Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra. He was a solo flutist with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Herbert von Karajan. In 1975 he began his career as a soloist, performing with the world’s leading orchestras and renowned conductors, as well as with the biggest stars of various artistic genres. He shares his wisdom and experience with young people through his training programme at the Galway Flute Academy. Sir James Galway has played for dignitaries such as Queen Elizabeth II, Pope John Paul II, Prince Charles and Princess Diana. He also devotes much of his time to supporting many charities. Sir James was awarded an OBE in 1979 and a knighthood in 2001 by HM Queen Elizabeth II. www.jamesgalway.com
New York-born flutist Lady Jeanne GALWAY fills international halls with her virtuosity. As one of the leading flutists of the last decade, she impresses audiences with her unique style and elegance. She regularly performs solo concerts in major American cities and around the world. Lady Galway is also an acclaimed chamber musician, touring regularly with her trio Zephyr. With her husband Sir James Galway, with whom she forms a flute duo, she brings a rare freshness to the world of music that delights audiences. She also loves teaching and spends a lot of time passing on her knowledge to the younger generations, including writing articles, masterclasses, recordings and most recently launching the First Flute series of online classes. She and her husband also run their own Galway Flute Academy, where they personally train flutists of all generations. She has received several professional awards for her work and has recorded for various labels such as RCA Victor, BMG Classics and Deutsche Grammophon. He plays the Nagahara flute. www.jeannegalway.com
Emmanuel Pahud, France / Switzerland
Emmanuel PAHUD started learning the flute in Rome at the age of six. Later he was taught by Carlos Bruneel in Brussels, then by Michel Debost at the Paris Conservatoire and by Aurèle Nicolet in Basel. His first orchestral experience was with the Basle Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic before becoming a solo flutist with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1993. After a period of teaching at the Geneva Conservatoire, he returned to the Philharmoniker in April 2002. As a soloist, he has appeared with the world’s leading orchestras – with the Berliner Philharmoniker as soloist he has performed flute concertos by Carl Nielsen, Marc-André Dalbavie, Elliott Carter and Jörg Widmann, as well as the latest concerto by Erkki-Sven Tüür, Lux Stellarum, which was premiered in May this year. She also performs b in duos and larger chamber ensembles. He has won numerous awards for his recordings. In June 2009, the French Ministry of Culture awarded Emmanuel Pahud the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres(Knight of the Order of Arts andLetters) for his contribution to French music. Since 2017, Emmanuel Pahud, who performs in numerous chamber ensembles and has won several ECHO awards for his CDs, is Honorary President of the French Flute Society.
Walter Auer, Austria
Walter AUER is a solo flutist with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera. It is no coincidence that he chose an instrument that is very close to the human voice. “Singing in an orchestra” is what he wants to achieve in his playing and what brings out his famous, unique sound. His first flute teacher was Johannes von Kalckreuth, after which he studied with Michael M. Kofler at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, with Andreas Blau during his studies at the Karajan Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker and with Aurèle Nicolet in Basel. After his studies he was appointed solo flutist of the Dresden Philharmonic and later of the GDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Hannover. He has been very successful in numerous competitions (Bonn, Cremona, ARD/Munich competition…). He is always looking for new pieces to add to his flute repertoire… He has worked closely with Luna Alcalay (1926-2012), the grande dame of Austrian contemporary music, to whom he dedicated “en passant” (for flute solo). As a very attentive and encouraging teacher, he gives masterclasses and workshops in Europe, the USA and Asia. Walter Auer performs on a 24 carat Sankyo flute with headjoint by Werner Tomasi (Vienna).
Adam Walker, England
Adam WALKER studied with Gitta Sorensen at Chethams School of Music in Manchester and later with Michael Cox at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He is the recipient of numerous international awards. At the age of 21, he became a solo flutist with the London Symphony Orchestra, where he remained until 2020. He regularly appears as soloist with top symphony and chamber orchestras. He has premiered many works for flute by renowned composers such as Huw Watkins, Brett Dean, Robin Holloway, Kevin Puts and Gerald Barry. He is also a chamber musician and performs regularly at London’s Wigmore Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, as well as at many major international festivals and venues, collaborating with artists such as Sean Shibe, Cedric Tiberghien, Tabea Zimmermann, Pavel Kolesnikov, Mahan Esfahani and Anneleen Lenaerts.He has also performed at the Wigmore Hall in London and at the Lincoln Center in New York, as well as at many major international festivals and venues. He recently founded Orsino, an ensemble focusing on chamber music for wind instruments. Adam Walker has been invited to give masterclasses all over the world, and for several years he gave a masterclass at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He recently became Professor of Flute at the University of the Arts in Bern.
Mario Bruno, Italy
Mario BRUNO (1997) started playing the flute at a very young age in Antonio Amenduni’s class at the Foggia Conservatory of Music, where he graduated with honours in 2015. He then studied with Michele Marasco at the Accademia Italiana del Flauto. In 2020, he again completed his Master’s degree with honours in the class of David Formisano at HMDK Stuttgart. She is currently studying with Professor Andrea Lieberknecht at the University of Music and Theatre in Munich. In 2005, his successful career began, winning absolute first prize in several major competitions. In 2022, he was awarded first prize and a special prize for his performance of a contemporary composition at the 10th International Music Festival. International Flute Competition in Kobe, Japan, and a few days ago the second prize at the ARD International Flute Competition in Munich. He has appeared as a soloist in numerous concerts in Italy and abroad and has played in various chamber groups and orchestras. He has attended masterclasses with P.L. Graf, C. Fassbender, A. Oliva, S. Jacotot, P. Gallois (Accademia Chigiana), P. Taballione and others. Since August 2021 he has been a solo flutist at the Staatsorchester Kassel in Germany.
Wouter Kellerman, South Africa
Wouter KELLERMAN has won a GRAMMY® Award, been nominated three times and reached number one on the US Billboard Charts. He experiments with sound shades, textures and colours, which he is able to conjure up with his magic flute and creatively combine with other instruments and voices. He wrote The Long Road for flute solo, dedicated to Nelson Mandela, which won the 2016 World Peace Song Prize. In 2018, he collaborated with the South African rural youth choir Ndlovu – together they created a South African version of Ed Sheeran’s Shape Of You, which became an online sensation with tens of millions of views. Wouter has performed all over the world and has sold out the famous Carnegie Hall in New York three times. In 2010, he performed at the closing ceremony of the FIFA World Cup, where 700 million people watched the event. Passionate about teaching and empowering young people, he has been godfather to 10 children at the SOS Children’s Village in South Africa for the past 20 years, and funded the construction of a house at the SOS Children’s Village in Rustenburg, South Africa. For his continuous efforts to give these children and others a better life, SOS Children’s Villages nominated him for the Inyathelo Special Award for Charity.
Szabolcs Szilágyi, Hungary
Szabolcs SZILÁGYI was born into an artistic family. Her father was an actor and her mother a cultural manager who works as an art gallery director. He graduated from the Liszt Academy in Budapest, where he studied with Tihamér Elek. In London he continued his postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Susan Milan. At the invitation of Sir James Galway, he attended his international seminar in Weggis, Switzerland, on several occasions. Since 1995 he has been a member of Concerta Budapest. He played in the Frankfurt Chamber Opera and was a regular member of the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of pianist and conductor Tamás Vásáry and later the world-famous conductor Ádám Fischer. As an orchestral musician he has toured in almost all European countries, Russia, China, Taiwan, South Korea, the Middle East and the USA. He has recorded TV and radio programmes and CDs for Hungaroton, BMC, Teldec/Warner and Naxos. He has premiered works by composers such as Lowell Liebermann, Mike Mower and David Heath in Hungary. He has been recording exclusively for Hunnia Records since 2018 and has been a 2020 Haynes Artist since 2020.
Julin Cheung, USA
Julin CHEUNG (born 2007) started playing flute at the age of 6 with Mary Macrae and joined the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra at the age of 9. In 2016, at the invitation of Sir James Galway, he attended the Galway Flute Festival, where he met some of the world’s finest flautists. Since then, Julin has won numerous prizes at national and international competitions, and is particularly proud of his first prize at the Severino Gazzelloni Flute Competition in Italy, as well as competitions organised by the Flute Society of Greater Philadelphia National Collegiate, Classical KING FM Young Artist, Seattle Symphony and Vancouver Symphony Young Artists. As a soloist, he has performed with several professional orchestras, impressing audiences of all ages. He is currently a student of Jeffrey Khaner at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In Seattle, he had the privilege of being taught by Demarre McGill, Jeffrey Barker and Zart Dombourian-Ebyja. He has also attended masterclasses and workshops with Sir James and Lady Jeanne Galway, Donna Shin, Jennifer Rhyne, Mimi Stillman, Carolyn Christie, Francesco Loi, David Formisano, Kersten McCall, Daniel Matsukawa, Erica Peel, Chelsea Knox, Judy Dines and Anthony McGill.
In memoriam Fedja Rupel (1937-2021), his former students
The flutist Fedja RUPEL (1937-2021) studied at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana with Prof. Boris Čampa and later in France with Prof. Gaston Crunell and Prof. Henry Lebon. He has played chamber music with the renowned composers Jean Francaix and Michael Damase. He was a member of the RTV Ljubljana Symphony Orchestra and solo flutist of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra for more than twenty years. In the 1974/75 season he was also solo flutist in the Teatro Verdi in Trieste. He worked at the Ljubljana Academy of Music from 1974 to 2012, first as professor of chamber music and later as professor of flute. He was a member of Slavko Osterc’s chamber ensemble and a member of the Ljubljana Wind Trio. He has given concerts at home and abroad, in Europe and Asia, as well as archival recordings. His repertoire included important works by Slovene composers, many of which he performed for the first time, or which were dedicated to him. He has received several prizes and awards for his artistic and pedagogical work. His successful pedagogical work is confirmed by his successful graduates, who have achieved enviable success on concert stages at home and abroad, are members of symphony orchestras in Slovenia and throughout Europe, and are first prize winners of national and international competitions.
Zagorje Music School Flute Orchestra, Slovenia
The Flute Orchestra of the Zagorje ob Savi Music School was founded in the 2004/05 school year with the aim of helping flute students to acquire orchestral practice as quickly as possible, and above all to develop a positive attitude to work and to strengthen and consolidate social skills, cooperation and friendship by playing in the orchestra. The orchestra performs a variety of musical genres – from entertainment, folk, jazz, classical and contemporary music. We consider it a great honour that several renowned Slovenian composers have already dedicated their original works to us. They include Nana Forte, Blaž Pucihar and Igor Podpečan. The orchestra performs mainly at school performances and concerts organised by the Zagorje ob Savi Music School, charity events and at festivals. Almost every year, he also gives a solo concert. The greatest honour is the 8. Slovenia Flute Festival in 2010. The founder and leader of the orchestra is Nataša Burger, flute teacher at the Zagorje ob Savi Music School, who with this project has realised her long-standing wish to create an orchestra in which she could unite all flute players – from the youngest to the slightly older ones, regardless of whether they still attend music school or not. She has done so thanks to her great dedication, diligence and perseverance. With a great love for working with children, she continues to lead the orchestra, which will soon celebrate its 20th anniversary. We are justifiably proud of this and of the fact that the first flute orchestra in Slovenia was founded in Zagorje ob Savi.
Pianists:
Amedeo Salvato, Italy
Pianist Amedeo SALVATO performs as soloist, chamber musician and accompanist, and collaborates with many different instrumentalists and singers. He began piano lessons at the age of five and graduated with honours from the S. Pietro a Majella Conservatory in Naples, where he studied with Paolo Spagnoli and Antonio Florio. He then studied with Andrei Jazinski, Aldo Ciccolini, Alain Menieur and Christian Ivaldi. He has performed with various ensembles throughout Italy and throughout Europe, Russia, Japan and South America. He has given concerts in renowned halls such as Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Wiener Saal in Salzburg, Oji Hall in Tokyo, Burj-Kalifa Concert Hall in Dubai and many others. Since 2002 he has been the official accompanist of the International Singing Competition in Clermont Ferrand. Since 2010 he has been a member of “La Scuola dell’Opera Italiana”, an association of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, where he teaches opera singers and piano accompanists. He currently teaches at the G.B. Martini Conservatory in Bologna and in 2021 was appointed Artistic Director of the Scuola dell’Opera del Teatro Comunale di Bologna.
László Borbély, Hungary
Pianist László BORBÉLY graduated with honours (Master’s degree – concert and teaching) and then obtained his doctorate at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, where he is assistant professor of piano. He has won the Junior Prima and Artisjus prizes and several prizes at international competitions (including 2nd prize at the Liszt-Bartók International Piano Competition in Budapest and 2nd prize at the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in Los Angeles). He has given concerts in most countries of Europe, the USA and Asia. He has attended masterclasses with Dmitri Bashkirov, Gábor Csalog, Christopher Elton, Noel Flores, Pétre Frankl, Jan-Marissa Huizinga, Zoltán Kocsis, György Kurtág, Claudio-Martinez Mehner, Murray Perrahia, Livia Rév, András Schiff, Tamás Ungár and Rita Wagner. He has released five solo CDs (Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Bach’s Art of Fugue, Messiaen’s Catalogue of Birds…) and two more with flutist Szabolcs Szilágyi on Hunnia Records. He is currently recording three of Bartók’s piano concertos. www.borbelylaszlo.hu
Huw Watkins, England
Pianist and one of Britain’s foremost composers , Welsh-born Huw WATKINS performs with orchestras and as a chamber musician at festivals around the world. He is very committed to performing new music and several piano concertos have been written for him. His compositions have been commissioned and premiered by the Nash Chamber Ensemble, the Belcea and Elias String Quartets, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. In 2016, he received the Elise L. Stoeger Award from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in recognition of his significant contributions to the field of chamber music composition. He is regularly broadcast as a performer and composer on BBC Radio 3. He has recorded several CDs for Wergo and EMI Classics. NMC Records has released an album of his songs In My Craft or Sullen Art. He is currently a professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and also works as a composer with the BBC National Orchestra Wales.
Lorenzo Cossi, Italy
Pianist Lorenzo COSSI studied at the Tartini Conservatory in Trieste with Prof. Giuliana Gulli. He also studied music with other important artists such as Nino Gardi, Elisso Virsaladze, Joaquìn Achùcarro, William Grant Naborè and Jerome Lowenthal. His performance of Brahms’ First Piano Concerto in D minor with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra under Robert Minczuk received a standing ovation. In the last year, as a member of the Hamburg ensemble Resonanz, he has played in some of the most important concert halls, such as the Berlin Philharmonie, Hamburg’s “Elbphilharmonie” and the Vienna Konzerthaus. His repertoire ranges from baroque to contemporary music, with a particular interest in jazz and improvisation. Lorenzo has always been fascinated by chamber music and has had the opportunity to collaborate with many important musicians, e.g. with flutist Walter Auer of the Vienna Philharmonic. He is also a dedicated teacher, having spent three years as piano professor at the G. Paisiello Conservatory in Taranto, Italy, and is now piano professor at the Gustav Mahler Private University in Klagenfurt. www.lorenzocossi.it
Lecturer:
Dr. Ana Kavčič Pucihar, Slovenia
Assist. dr. Ana KAVČIČ PUCIHAR is a lecturer in Special Didactics of Wind Instrument Teaching at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, where she is a member of the class of prof. Prof. Fedja Rupel, graduated (1999) and completed her artistic specialisation (2001). Under his mentorship and co-mentorship of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Branka Rotar Pance completed her Master’s degree in 2011, and in 2019, under the mentorship of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Branka Rotar Pance received her PhD. She and her husband Blaž Pucihar are co-authors of the textbook Playing the Flute, which has been adopted into the flute curriculum. Their English translation, Fluting Stars, won the 2016 National Flute Association/USA Newly Published Music Competition. As a Fulbright Visiting Scholar in 2015 at Boise State University/USA, Ana researched effective teaching strategies in instrumental instruction, lectured and performed. In 2015, she received the Gerbič Award for outstanding achievements in the field of music education and music performance. He lectures on various topics in the field of instrumental didactics at numerous seminars in Slovenia and abroad. He teaches flute at the Kamnik Music School and in his own private school Glasbénium.