Musicians 2025

Praised for her expressive playing, musical intellect, and versatility, Suyeon Kang is a prizewinner of numerous international violin competitions, including the “Michael Hill,” “Menuhin Competition,” as well as competitions in Buenos Aires, Bayreuth, and Indianapolis. At the age of 16, she was named “Australian Young Performer of the Year.”

Her extensive repertoire spans styles from early Baroque to avant-garde. She is the founder of the Trio Boccherini (string trio) and, since 2023, the newest member of the renowned Belcea Quartet. As a sought-after soloist and chamber musician, Suyeon is a regular guest at numerous festivals.

Between 2019 and 2025, she was concertmaster of the Kammerakademie Potsdam, and from 2017 to 2024, she was a member of the Camerata Bern. Invitations as a guest concertmaster, as well as recent projects as a play/direct artistic director, have led her to many prestigious orchestras, including Camerata Bern, CHAARTS Chamber Artists, Orquestra Barroca de Sevilla, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Camerata Strumentale Città di Prato, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Munich Chamber Orchestra, and WKO Heilbronn.

Since 2023, she has been teaching violin at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin. She studied there under Antje Weithaas and worked for many years as her assistant.

Jon Mikel Martínez Valgañón was born in the small village of Fonzaleche (98 inhabitants) and grew up in the Spanish region of La Rioja. He began playing the double bass at the age of six at the music school in Haro and moved to London after completing his high school education.

After studying at the Royal College of Music and the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf under Rick Stotijn, which he successfully completed in 2020, he became a member of the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne. Even as a student, he was part of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra from 2016 to 2018 and has since enjoyed international engagements. These have taken him to renowned ensembles such as the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Spira Mirabilis, and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Jon Mikel is also a passionate chamber musician and founded his own ensemble in 2018. The goal of his Ensembles Vindeleia, is to bring music to the villages of his home region, La Rioja. For this project, he was awarded the DAAD Prize for Intercultural Exchange in the same year the ensemble was founded.

Leonid Gorokhov was born in St. Petersburg and completed his studies at the conservatory there in the cello class of A. Nikitin. Encounters with great cellists such as Daniil Shafran, Bernard Greenhouse, Alexander Rudin, and Anner Bylsma deeply influenced and inspired him.

In 1982, Leonid Gorokhov won the First Prize and Grand Prix at the International Concertino Praga Competition, followed by the First Prize and Grand Prix at the Concours International d’Exécution Musicale in Geneva in 1986, and the First Prize at the SACEM Chamber Music Competition in Paris in 1987. In 1995, the European Association for Encouragement of the Arts awarded him the Cultural Achievement Prize for “extraordinary talent and outstanding artistic abilities.”

In 1991, he made his solo debut with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra under Lord Yehudi Menuhin. Menuhin was so impressed by Gorokhov’s performance and personality that he became one of his greatest supporters. He invited him to teach at the Yehudi Menuhin School in the United Kingdom, which also gave Gorokhov the opportunity to perform under Menuhin’s direction with leading orchestras worldwide. He has played with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the English Symphony Orchestra, Musica Viva Moscow, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the State Academic Capella of St. Petersburg, and other orchestras, with an extensive repertoire.

For several years, composition—primarily for his own instrument—has been one of his passions, with the goal of expanding the repertoire.

His musical partners include Roland Krüger, Niklas Sivelöv, Boris Garlitsky, Ulf Schneider, and Alexander Rudin.

…one of the most sensitive interpretations ever recorded.
Diapason, Schubert “Aus der Ferne”

Performances of unsparing expressivity, intimacy and vitality are hallmarks of the Signum Quartet, pairing music making of the subtlest order with playing of the highest intensity. The dramatic composition of their programmes is innovative and distinct, and is realised with uncompromising perfection in interpretations of effortless transparency. (“enormously intelligent and knowledgeable programming”—Rondo Magazin)

The quartet has been a welcome guest at the Wigmore Hall London, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Philharmonie de Paris, Konzerthaus Vienna, Philharmonie Cologne, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and at the BBC Proms, with partners such as Nils Mönkemeyer, Dominique Horwitz, Jörg Widmann, Daniel Ottensamer, Nicolas Altstaedt and Elisabeth Leonskaja. In 2023 the ensemble will give its debut at Carnegie Hall in New York.

The Signum Quartet’s discography is a testament to their stylistic range: Next to the greats of the quartet literature, they have recorded works by Wolfgang Rihm, Thomas Adès, Jörg Widmann and Kevin Volans. Their recording of Erkki-Sven Tüür’s Second String Quartet Lost Prayers for ECM won Classical Album of the Year at the Estonian Music Awards 2021.

Following their multi-award-winning album “Aus der Ferne” (Diapason D’Or, Opus Klassik), the Signum Quartet continued its Schubert cycle for PENTATONE with “Ins stille Land”, deepening its exploration of the fascinating connections between his string quartets and songs. (“The Signum’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ is up there with the best from a crowded field”—The Strad)

In 2015, the quartet launched its innovative social media project #quartweet, where composers of all ages and abilities are invited to tweet a short quartet of 140 notes or less on Twitter. The project has received much media attention and been featured on Deutschlandfunk, BBC In Tune and BR U-21. Contributing composers include Bruno Mantovani, Grawemeyer Award winners Brett Dean and Sebastian Currier and Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw.

In 2022 the quartet established its Bremen-based project SIGNUM open space, supported by Neustart Kultur. This will be a site for rehearsals, recordings, workshops and education initiatives as well as an interactive exchange with the public. Additionally, there will be interdisciplinary projects such as exhibitions, readings, dance and seminars with renowned lecturers.

Violinist Florian Donderer, praised for playing with „exceptional beauty, breathtaking technique and shocking intensity“ is one of the most interesting musicians of his generation.

He is a versatile musician, highly valued as chamber musician, soloist, concertmaster and conductor, collaborating with distinguished musicians such as Christian Tetzlaff, Antje Weithaas, Viktoria Mullova, Tanja Tetzlaff, Julian Steckel, Kiveli Dörken, Alexander Lonquich, Sharon Kam, Matthias Görne and Paavo Järvi.

Florian Donderer is frequent guest at major festivals such as Bergen Festspielen, Beethovenfest Bonn, Festwochen Berlin, Schwetzinger Festspiele and is core member at „Spannungen“, one of Germany’s most prominent music festivals, founded by Pianist Lars Vogt.

Florian Donderer is artistic director of “Rottweil Musikfestival” one of Germany’s longest standing chamber music festivals. With his wife, Tanja Tetzlaff he is curating a chamber music series at Sendesaal Bremen.

Florian Donderer is especially renowned as an artistic leader, directing orchestras from the concertmaster’s desk. He was longstanding concertmaster of one of the worlds leading chamber orchestras, “The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen”, and was instrumental in defining what has become one of the orchestra’s hallmarks – playing without a conductor.

Top Orchestras such as Irish Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Estonian National Orchestra, Kammerorchester Basel, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonietta Riga, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Lapland Chamber Orchestra and Camerata Bern invite him as director and soloist.

He made his debut as conductor with Ensemble Oriol and Christiane Oelze at Berlin Philharmonic Hall, followed by a CD recording with Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Tanja Tetzlaff. He has conducted among others the Kammerakademie Neuss, the Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim and Festival Strings Lucerne.

He was professor at Hanzehoogschool Groningen and regularly gives masterclasses teaching violin, chamber music and orchestra playing, for example at Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, Zurich University of the Arts, Royal Academy of Music, Dublin, Basel Academy of Music, Latvian Academy of Music and Estonian Academy of Music.

Highlights of the upcoming seasons 2024/25 include concerts as soloist and director with the Estonian National Orchestra, Sinfonietta Riga, Lapland Chamber Orchestra, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and the Osnabrück Symphony Orchestra. He will have his first appearance at Ilumona Festival in Brasil as well as at Leif Ove Andsnes’ Rosendahl Chamber Music Festival.

He plays a violin built by German violinmaker Peter Greiner in 2003 and bows by Nico Plog from Antwerp.

Annette Walther studied in Düsseldorf, Essen and London with Ida Bieler, David Takeno and Vesselin Parschkevov. At the Guildhall School for Music and Drama in London she also took chamber music classes with Sir Colin Davis and the Takacs Quartet. Further masterclasses with Michelle Auclair, Yuri Bashmet, Thomas Brandis, Jürgen Kussmaul and Charles-Andre Linale have been of lasting importance to her musical development.

Annette has been a stipendiary of the Villa Musica and the Hartmut Schuler Foundations, and in 2004 she was awarded the Artland Musikpreis.

In addition to being a founding member of the Signum Quartet, Annette regularly performs with artists such as Carolin Widmann, Nils Mönkemeyer, William Youn, David Cohen, Liza Ferschtman and Priya Mitchell at festivals including the Musikfestspielen Mecklenburg –Vorpommern, Lofoten International Chamber Music Festival, Musiktage Hitzacker and Kammermusikfest Sylt.

She is a regular guest in the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and ensemble musikfabrik, concertmaster of the Cologne Chamber Orchestra, the Belgian Chamber Orchestra and the Folkwang Chamber Orchestra. She is a member of the Geneva Camerata and Ensemble Ruhr.

At the beginning of 2016, Annette has been appointed as violin lecturer at the Louis Spohr Music Academy in Kassel.

Xandi van Dijk was born in Cape Town into a musical family and started playing the violin at the age of 4, switching to viola in 1990. After completing his studies at the Universities of Stellenbosch and Cape Town with Prof. Jack de Wet, Xandi became a founding member of the Cape Town-based Sontonga Quartet, and held the viola position from the quartet’s inception in 2002 till December 2006. In this time, the Sontonga Quartet toured extensively both in South Africa and internationally, including performances at venues such as the Old Fort at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg; the Barbican Centre, London; Lincoln Centre and Central Park, New York and the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne as an adjunct to the Commonwealth Games 2006.

As a member of the Sontonga Quartet, Xandi has premiered over 30 South African works, as well as giving the South African premieres of works by Terry Riley, Osvaldo Golijov and Kevin Volans (with whom the quartet has worked), Pärt and Gorecki.

Prior to his involvement with the Sontonga Quartet, Xandi freelanced with various Cape Town orchestras. He has held the position of principal viola in the World Youth Symphony Orchestra at the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan, USA, as well as being principal viola of the South African National Youth Orchestra for a number of years. Xandi has had masterclasses with Wolfram Christ, Lawrence Dutton, Isabel Charisius, Alberto Lysy and Christopher Rowland, as well as chamber classes with the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Jürgen Kussmaul, Eberhard Feltz, Henk Guittart, Philippe Graffin and Yo-Yo Ma.

More recently, Xandi has performed in Cape Town with London Philharmonic concertmaster Pieter Schoeman and the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, and in London at the Purcell Room with the electronica artist Mira Calix and Cadogan Hall with the Brodsky Quartet.

Xandi holds a B.Mus in viola performance and a B.Mus (Hons) in conducting, both with distinction, from the University of Cape Town.

Thomas Schmitz received his first cello lessons at the age of nine, and already displaying a keen interest in chamber music before beginning his undergraduate studies, founded the Signum Quartet together with Annette Walther in 1994.

His studies in the class of Claus Kanngiesser at the Musikhochschule Köln were supplemented by a year of lessons with Dmitri Ferschtman in Amsterdam, as well as by the participation in various masterclasses with i.a. Wolfgang Boettcher (Berlin), Carter Brey (New York) and Arto Noras (Helsinki). In 1998 Thomas became a stipendiary of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes.

After completing his diploma in Cologne, he was accepted into the Solistenklasse of Thomas Demenga at the Musikakademie in Basel, where he graduated in 2004 with the Solistendiplom. After a season with the Essener Philharmoniker, Thomas left the orchestra so as to dedicate himself solely to his work with the Signum Quartet.

Since 2005, Thomas has been a lecturer at the Hochschule für Musik Köln.

Nimrod Guez was born in Israel in 1977. At the age of seven, he started playing the violin. His teachers were Nahum Liebermann, Ilona Feher, Shlomo Tintpulver and Haim Taub.
After meeting Tabea Zimmermann at the age of 16, he decided to shift to viola and started studying at her class at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts in 1996. After five years, he moved to Luebeck in 2001 and continued his studies at the violin class of Professor Nora Chastain.

Alongside his violin studies, Nimrod Guez attended viola classes with Professor Barbara Westphal from 2002 to 2004.

Nimrod Guez was a first prize winner of the”Aviv” competition in 2002.

2005 he became 1st principle violist at the Gewandhaus Orchester zu Leipzig.
From 2008 to 2012 he held the same position at the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.
Furthermore, he played as a leader of the viola section of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe on a regular basis.

Out of his great affection for early music, he plays the baroque violin since 2010. With musicians from the Bavarian Radio Symphonic Orchestra he founded
“L’accademia giocosa”, an ensemble for early music.

In 2012, Nimrod Guez was appointed professor for viola at the Wuerzburg University of Music.

Nimrod Guez performs as a violin, viola and baroque violin soloist. He is a highly sought-after musician for chamber music. He plays at the side of well-known artists such as Janine Jansen, Vilde Frang, Liza Ferschtman, Sebastian Klinger, Nicolas Altstaedt and Maximilian Hornung at various festivals, for instance the “Utrecht Kamermuziek Festival”(NL), the “Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival” (AT) and “ErstKlassik”(Sarnersee, CH).