Nowadays, Paul Roczek enjoys a high reputation worldwide as a top-class musician and highly successful teacher. Having built up an outstanding reputation as a quartet violinist, as a long-standing professor, vice-rector and director of the International Summer Academy at the Mozarteum and as a sought-after jury chairman and director of masterclasses at many leading institutions, he now devotes himself above all to highly talented young musicians such as the Menuhin Prize winners Ziyu He, Clara Shen and others.

Paul Roczek is the founder of the renowned International Youth Violin Competition ‘Zhuhai Mozart’ in South China and has been chairman of the National Youth Music Competition in Austria since 1999.

Born and educated in Soviet Union, Eduard Schmieder has been characterized as an “extraordinary musician of the late 20th century” (Henry Roth, 1997). As artist and teacher, Schmieder seeks to preserve and enhance the great traditions of American and European art. He maintains a concert schedule as conductor and violinist and teaches an internationally selected class of students.

Schmieder has performed in major concert halls worldwide including Cite de la Musique in Paris, Carnegie Hall in New York, Crown Hall in Jerusalem, Grand Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and has collaborated with such musicians as Yehudi Menuhin, Ida Haendel, Martha Argerich, Brooks Smith, Lynn Harrell, Jon Kimura-Parker, Erick Friedman, Julius Berger, Steven Isserlis, and many others. In 1996, Eduard Schmieder performed a recital in Genoa on Paganini’s famous Guarneri del Gesu “Il Cannone” violin which is only given for the performances to exceptional virtuoso violinists.

One of the most highly regarded violin pedagogues of his generation, Eduard Schmieder is the L. H. Carnell Professor and Artistic Director for Strings at Temple University in Philadelphia and the recipient of the Great Teacher Award (2020). Prior to his appointment at Temple University, he held the Distinguished Algur H. Meadows Chair of Violin and Chamber Music in the Meadows School of the Arts in Dallas (1990-2006), and a tenured Professor of the Violin at the University of Southern California, the position formerly held by Jascha Heifetz. Students of Professor Schmieder are winners of top prizes at the prestigious international competitions, have established careers as soloists, chamber musicians, and hold leading positions in orchestras in Europe, Asia, and the United States.

Together with Wynton Marsalis he received American Cultural Specialist Award from United States Information Agency (1999), and throughout the years, numerous awards for his accomplishments as a Musician and Teacher and recognition for his invaluable contributions to culture.  In 2016 he was awarded Honorary Doctor of Philosophy from Kazakh National University of Arts.

Schmieder has taught master classes in virtually every foremost conservatory in the world, including Mozarteum Summer Academie Salzburg for 15 years, and serves as a jury member at important international violin competitions. He has been performing, teaching, and conducting at international music festivals in Canada, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands, and other countries. In the United States he has worked in music festivals at Aspen, Interlochen, Musicorda, Idyllwild, and Summit in New York.  With the support of Lord Yehudi Menuhin, he founded iPalpiti Artists International with a mission help talented young artists in advancement of their careers; through annual iPalpiti  festival in California and other  programs, to this day, iPalpiti has featured and supported  over 400 musicians from 53 countries. Professor Schmieder also serves as advisory to numerous artistic projects and is also an Artistic Advisor to the Foundation “Remember Enescu” in Romania and Honorary Chairman of the European Academy of the Arts.
He has been written about in books by Henry Roth “Violin Virtuosos: From Paganini to 21st Century” and Margaret Campbell “The Great Violinists,” as well as the three featured articles in THE STRAD magazine.
www.EduardSchmieder.com

Barbara Westphal studied in London and New York and gained her concert maturity with Itzhak Perlman and Michael Tree (Guarneri Quartet). In 1983 she won the only prize for solo viola in the ARD Competition and the Busch Prize in the same year. She performs worldwide as a soloist and chamber musician. From 1978 to 1985 she was violist with the Delos Quartet (USA), first prize winner at the International Competition for String Quartets in Colmar (France, 1981), with whom she performed internationally and made many radio recordings and discs. She is a regular guest at international festivals such as Santa Fe (New Mexico), Sarasota (Florida), Great Lakes Festival (Michigan), Incontri in Terra di Siena and Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival. Of her critically acclaimed recording of the Brahms sonatas with pianist Ursula Oppens (Bridge Records), critic Leslie Gerber of the audio magazine Fanfare said: "...this recording far surpasses any currently available and seems to me worthy of comparison with the legendary Primrose. For lovers of a dark, characterful viola tone, it is absolutely unique." Her recording of the Reger sonatas with piano with pianist Jeffrey Swann (Bridge Records) also received the highest praise from the press. Her recording of the six suites by J. S. Bach was released in 2000. This was followed in 2001 by an album with Jeffrey Swann with works by Rebecca Clarke, Henri Vieuxtemps and Georges Enesco, in 2002 by a trio CD with works by Mozart and Beethoven (Helicon) and further recordings of a wide variety of repertoire, including some dedicated to her. In 1997 she founded the Trio da Salò with violinist Ani Kavafian and cellist Gustav Rivinius, which immediately enjoyed great success at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival. Since 2009, she has also performed with colleagues Anke Dill, Ulf Schneider, Volker Jacobsen and Gustav Rivinius in the Bartholdy Quintet. A sought-after teacher, Barbara Westphal held the viola professorship at the Lübeck University of Music from 1989 to 2019. Prizewinners of international competitions have emerged from her class. Her students are also engaged as soloists with first-class orchestras in Germany and abroad and have been appointed to W3 professorships at German music academies. Barbara Westphal regularly holds masterclasses in Europe and the USA and acts as a juror at important competitions.

Born in Karlsruhe, Simone von Rahden enjoys a varied career as a chamber musician, soloist, orchestral musician and teacher.
From an early age, she received piano, singing and violin lessons at the Mannheim Municipal Music School; at the age of nine, she switched from the violin to the viola and gained her first string quartet and orchestral experience. She completed her viola studies with Prof Wolfram Christ at the Freiburg University of Music and with Prof Tabea Zimmermann at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin, where she graduated with honours in 2011.

She has received further prizes and scholarships, including as a member of the Viktor Ullmann Quartet at national and international competitions, from the Baden-Württemberg Cultural Foundation, the German Foundation for Musical Life and the Jütting Foundation in Stendal. In 2004, she received support from Claudio Abbado, who passed on the prize awarded to him by the Düsseldorf Kythera Foundation to outstanding young musicians.
Her first engagements took her to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra while she was still a student. In addition to her membership of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe since 2009 and the Spira mirabilis project since 2007, Simone von Rahden has been active in the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and the Orchestra Mozart Bologna since Claudio Abbado founded the orchestras, and was also principal violist in the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment from 2016 to 2021.

Simone von Rahden has performed as a soloist with orchestras as diverse as the Philharmonie Baden-Baden, the Philharmonie Südwestfalen, the English Haydn Orchestra, the Hamburg Camerata, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne; Her intensive involvement with music from the Renaissance to the present day is also reflected in her work as a chamber musician, and she regularly appears at chamber music festivals throughout Europe, in recent years increasingly with ensembles on period instruments such as the Quartetto Bernardini and her string quintet "Spunicunifait".
From 2014-2024, Simone von Rahden was a lecturer for viola at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin, where she worked closely with her former professor Tabea Zimmermann. She also taught viola, orchestral studies, literature studies and chamber music at the Rostock University of Music and Theatre from October 2020 until she took over the professorship for string chamber music at the same institute in October 2023.
She lives with her family in Sanitz near Rostock, where she runs a weekly singing group for pre-school children on a voluntary basis.
www.simonejandl.com

A graduate of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw in the violin class of Professors Miroslaw Lawrynowicz, Andrzej Gebski and Janusz Wawrowski as well as the viola class of Professor Piotr Reichert. She is professor in the viola class at the University of Music in Warsaw. Since February 2014 she has been Principal Viola of the Sinfonia Varsovia.

September 2013 she was awarded the 3rd prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich, one of the most prestigious classical music competitions in the world. She has performed with success at numerous competitions, such as: the 47th Beethoven's Hradec Musical Competition (The Czech Republic, 2008, 1st prize), 15th International Johannes Brahms Competition in Pörtschach (Austria, 2008, 1st prize), 8th National Jan Rakowski Viola Competition (Poznań, 2008, 1st prize), International Max Rostal Competition in Berlin (Germany, 2009, 2nd prize), International Max Reger Chamber Music Competition in Sondershausen (Germany, 2009, 2nd prize and special prize for the best performance of Max Reger Suite for viola solo) as well as the 4th Michał Spisak International Competition in Dąbrowa Górnicza (Poland, 2010, 2nd prize and the Special Prize for the best performance of compulsory piece).

As a soloist and chamber musician she has given concerts in  Europe and Asia. In 2010 she participated in the Chamber Music Connects the World project, organized by the Kronberg Academy, where she performed along with such distinguished musicians as Gidon Kremer, Tatjana Grindenko, Yuri Bashmet and Frans Helmerson.Chamber Music Connects the World project, organized by the Kronberg Academy, where she performed along with such distinguished musicians as Gidon Kremer, Tatjana Grindenko, Yuri Bashmet and Frans Helmerson.

In 2019,2021 and 2023 she played several chamber music concerts with an outstanding pianist Krystian Zimerman, violinist Maria Nowak and cellist Yuya Okamoto in Italy, Japan, Monako, Switzerland, Austria, Luksemburg and France.

She has played at many prestigious festivals, including the Music Festival in Lancut, International Chamber Music Festival "Music on the Heights" in Zakopane or Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus (to which she was invited by Gidon Kremer). For her excellence she received scholarships of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the "Young Poland" scholarship programme.

With her versatility and expressive playing, Pauline Sachse has been a part of the international music scene for many years. She has performed with ensembles such as the Armida and Modigliani Quartet, as well as with Sabine Meyer, Jörg Widmann, Isabelle Faust, Janine Jansen, Carolin Widmann, Harriet Krijgh, Lauma Skride, and Martin Helmchen. As a sought-after chamber musician, she is a regular guest at festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, the Moritzburg Festival, the Schwetzingen SWR Festival and the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival. Concerts have led her to music centers such as Wigmore Hall London, Vienna Concert House, Rudolfinum Prague, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and the Berlin Philharmonic.

In her exploration of stylistic diversity, Pauline Sachse chooses performance practice means such as gut strings, various tunings, and corresponding bows that enable a lively articulation and sound language corresponding to the spirit of the epoch. She works with composers such as Jörg Widmann, Peteris Vasks, Christian Jost, and Kit Armstrong and has participated in various premieres. She explores her very personal sound language in her own compositions.

Pauline Sachse's broad repertoire is also reflected in her discography. In addition to works by Schumann, Brahms, Shostakovich, and Hindemith, she has also made various first recordings, such as the "Hamlet Echoes" by Christian Jost or various early classical sonatas by Franz Benda and Giorgio Antoniotto.

In October 2023, the Hamburg-born artist took over the professorship for viola at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” in Leipzig. She has already held the same position from 2013 to 2019 at the Hochschule für Musik “Carl Maria von Weber” in Dresden and from 2019-2023 at the Musikhochschule Lübeck, as well as a guest professorship at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin.

Before her career as professor, Pauline Sachse was the solo violist of the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin for several years and worked as a guest in orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio, and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

She received her education at the Hanns Eisler School of Music and the Hochschule für Musik Frankfurt a.M. with Tabea Zimmermann, whose assistant she became in 2007. She continued her studies at the UdK Berlin (with Wilfried Strehle), the Yale University USA (with Jesse Levine), as well as with the Alban Berg Quartet at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Cologne.

Pauline Sachse plays a viola by Paolo Maggini (Brescia) from 1610 and a new build by Patrick Robin (2017 Angers).