Alexandra Soumm

French violinist Alexandra Soumm is a multi-faceted artist who is equally at home in concerto and chamber repertoire.

Alexandra has appeared with the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal,Galicia Symphony, Danish National Symphony, NHK Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, and the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl among many others. She has given recitals at the Auditorium du Louvre (Paris), Palais des Beaux- Arts (Brussels), and Wigmore Hall (London) and has also appeared at the City of London Festival, and the festivals of Deauville, Schleswig-Holstein, Verbier, and Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad. A passionate supporter of the newest generations of musicians, Ms. Soumm has loved her work with Youth Orchestra of the Americas, the Animato Foundation, the Sphinx Foundation, and Orchestre Français des Jeunes, and has maintained an involvement with the Seiji Ozawa International Academy in Switzerland for over 10 years.

Alexandra’s strongest ties are to France and England where she has ongoing relationships with many leading orchestras including Paris, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lyon, Montpellier, and most of the BBC ensembles with whom she worked as former BBC 3 New Generation Artist and London Music Masters Awardee.

Born in Moscow, Alexandra started to learn the violin at the age of five and gave her first concert two years later. She later moved to Vienna to study with the renowned pedagogue Boris Kuschnir and won the Eurovision Competition in 2004. In 2012, along with two friends, she founded the non-profit organization Esperanz’Arts, whose goal is making the Arts in all its forms accessible to people in schools, hospitals, prisons and homeless shelters. Alexandra was named Godmother of El Sistema France.

Passionate for teaching and communicating her artistry, she has given masterclasses in the United States, Venezuela, Brazil, UK, Japan, Israel, and Kenya. In 2018, she joined the Artistic and Pedagogical Committee of the Musica Mundi school, based in Belgium, and was named teacher at the The University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna from October 2021.

Alexandra defends a wide range of repertoire, from baroque to contemporary music, as well as the transversality between the arts, creating numerous projects around poetry, literature and philosophy. Alexandra Soumm works regularly with contemporary composers, such as Christoph Ehrenfellner, who composed a string quartet and his second violin concerto for her, Kryštof Mařatka, Benoît Menut, Emile Daems, and Eric Tanguy, who composed a piece for soprano and piano, based on her poem “Cercle.”

Alexandra plays on a Gioffredo Cappa violin, made around 1700.

 Dmitri Makhtin

Born in St Petersburg in 1975, Dmitri Makhtin started his musical education at the age of 4 with his parents, both professional violinists. In 1981 he entered the Conservatoire for highly talented children. In 1989 he won the prize of the National Competition for Young Violinists in Novossibirsk, Russia. He was then invited to perform recitals in his native country and appeared as a soloist with St Petersburg Philharmonic and Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestras.

In 1990, he obtained a scholarship from the Young Musicians' Foundation in the USA and gave his first recitals in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Dallas.

From 1992 to 1995 he continued his musical education with professors Philip Hirshborn and Hermann Krebbers. From 1993 until 1996 he won the following international competitions : Kloster Schontal violin competition, Premio Paganini and Louis Spohr, Tibor Varga, Montréal and Sibelius and Pretoria.

Dmitri Makhtin made his French debut in Paris in 1997 with Evgeny Svetlanov and the Russian State Symphony Orchestra followed by his American debut in 1998 with the Cleveland Orchestra with Leonard Slatkin. From then on, he has performed orchestras such as : Het Residentie, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, St Petersburg Philharmonic and Symphony Orchestras, Sydney Radio and TV Orchestras, Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, Montpellier National Orchestra, New Sinfonietta Amsterdam, Geneva Chamber Orchestra, Prague Philharmonia, Solistes Européens du Luxembourg and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

  Alexei Volodin

Acclaimed for his highly sensitive touch and technical brilliance, Alexei Volodin is in demand by orchestras at the highest level. He possesses an extraordinarily diverse repertoire from Beethoven and Brahms through Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Scriabin, to Shchedrin and Medtner.

Highlights of the 2022/23 season include returns to Singapore Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, and Euskadiko Orkestra, and first appearances with Kyoto Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal. Volodin will join Orchestre de chambre fribourgeois at Besançon International Music Festival and tour with Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen throughout Belgium and the Netherlands with Chopin Piano Concerto No.1. He returns to SWR Symphonieorchester in a chamber concert of Franck and Schoenberg at the Pentecost Festival Baden-Baden and joins forces with Igor Levit for duo performances at Wigmore Hall and Lucerne Piano Festival.

Previous seasons have included performances with Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, NCPA Orchestra China, BBC Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, The Mariinsky Orchestra and St Petersburg Philharmonic, working with conductors Semyon Bychkov, Stanislav Kochanovsky and Robert Trevino.

  Danielle Akta

Born in 2002 to a family of musicians, Danielle plays an Enrico Orselli cello graciously put at her disposal by Dr. Moshe Kantor through the Vladimir Spivakov International Foundation. Danielle currently studies with Prof. Frans Helmerson at the Barenboim-Said Music Academy in Berlin.

An active soloist from an early age, performed with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, The Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra & Vladimir Spivakov, National Philharmonic of Russia, DARMSTADT Staatsorchester - Germany, Budafok Dohnányi Orchestra - Budapest, ORCHESRE FILHARMONIA DE BELLO HORIOZANTE - BRAZIL, National Symphony of SLOVAKIA, Macedonia national Philharmonic, Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, Cannes symphony orchestra, Georgian Chamber Orchestra Ingolstadt, Vadim Repin & The Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion, Israel-Jerusalem Camerata, Haifa Symphony orchestra, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble and many more.

Danielle performed as soloist on some of the world's most prestigious stages, among them: Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium (NY), Tchaikovsky Concert Hall (Moscow), The Barbican (London), Lincoln Center (NY), Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires), Sala Sao Paulo (Brazil) Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico City), Symphony Center (Chicago), Roy Thomson Hall (Toronto) and many more.

A grant-holder of the Vladimir Spivakov International Foundation, she is also a recipient of the 'Oleg Yankovsky' Prize of artistic Discovery of 2016, the Young Artist Award for young promising artist awarded by Maestro Vladimir Spivakov, the America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarships with distinction since 2013 'the Wolfganag Laufer Memorial Cello Scholarship for Outstanding Merit'.

Praised by music critics around the world as one of the leading young prodigy cellists, named by the Daily Gazette among the Top 10 classical music performers 2016, and earned the Critic's Choice by the Times Union.