Maighréad McCrann has been 1. Concertmaster of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra since 1993. In 1997 she was appointed Professor of violin at the University of Performing Arts in Graz. During this time she has also enjoyed a versatile career as a soloist, chamber musician and directing chamber orchestras from the violin. Her passion for teaching has resulted in many master classes and intense coaching with the youth orchestras of Spain, Catalunya, Columbia, the Vienna Jeunesse Orchestra and the National Orchestral Institute in Washington.
Born in Dublin where she studied with Brian McNamara, she graduated from Trinity College of music in 1984 and commenced studying in Vienna with Ernst Kovacic. Further violin lessons with Sándor Végh and David Takeno. She was a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and played baroque violin with Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s Concentus Musicus.
In 2020 she was appointed to the board of the Wiener Jeunesse Orchestra and became a member of the advisory committee of the Austrian National Bank for the allocation of valuable instruments.
She is artistic director of the Neuberg Masterclasses in Austria.
Violinist Alexandra Preucil is recognized internationally for her communicative leadership and expressive musicianship. She is a member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and collaborates with the world’s major ensembles such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Utopia Orchestra, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, and has led the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Ballet Orchestra, and Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra as concertmaster. Former Assistant Concertmaster of the acclaimed Cleveland Orchestra, Alexandra moved to Europe in 2017 and resides in Vienna, Austria.
Dedicated to music education and community engagement, Alexandra has always loved to create and perform programs for all ages. Early on, her passion for teaching led her to create her own violin class and collaborate extensively with the Cleveland Orchestra’s education department. As Director of the Britt Festival Fellowship Program, she developed a summer academy for string players to be mentored in a professional orchestra while guiding them to develop unique community and education programs. Recently, she has been teaching masterclasses around the world with a focus on chamber music and the orchestral repertoire. She also serves as Vice President of the Starker Foundation which carries on the mission of her grandfather to support aspiring professional cellists.
Born into a musical family, Alexandra began the violin at the age of three. She graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music with a bachelor’s degree in music performance and a minor in dance.
She plays on a violin by Sanctus Serafin from 1744.
Rachel Roberts is one of Europe’s leading violists, performing internationally as a soloist and chamber musician in venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Toppan Hall in Japan, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Musikverein Vienna, the Philharmonie in Berlin and London’s Wigmore Hall.
As a soloist she has collaborated with conductors Christoph von Dohnanyi, Andras Schiff and Richard Hickox, performing concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Koln Kammerorchester, Kammerphilharmonie Graubunden in Switzerland and the Manchester Camerata Chamber Orchestra amongst others.
Prizes and accolades for her chamber music recordings include thrice being awarded the coveted Diapason d’Or (2009, 2021, 2023), BBC Chamber Choice in BBC Music Magazine and CD of the month in Fonoforum magazine, Germany. She is a regular guest at international chamber music festivals such as Salzburg Festival, Wiener Festwochen, Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg, Heimbach “Spannungen” and Mecklenburg Vorpommern. She has recorded chamber music for Hyperion, Champs Hill Records, Signum Classics, cAVI, Deutsche Rundfunk, Alpha Classics, and BIS Records.
Rachel is the violist with the award-winning chamber music group Ensemble 360, and as such appears regularly at the Crucible, Sheffield and across the UK. She regularly performs and records with Wigmore Soloists and the Nash Ensemble, and has appeared with other celebrated ensembles such as the Tetzlaff String Quartet. She is also a member of Trio Meister Raro alongside pianist Tim Horton and clarinettist Robert Plane.
Building on their highly successful collaboration at Wigmore Hall, in 2021 Rachel joined Christian Tetzlaff, Florian Donderer, Marie Elisabeth Hecker and Tanja Tetzlaff in Germany, to record and perform Schubert’s String Quintet in C major, D. 956. The resulting disc was released on the Alpha Classics label to critical acclaim.
Rachel is Professor of Viola at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
https://www.rachelrobertsviola.co.uk
Julian Arp was born in 1981 in northern Germany into a big family of musicians. He began to study at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin and learned from Jens Peter Maintz, Boris Pergamenschikow, David Geringas and Eberhard Feltz.
As a soloist and chamber musician, he performs worldwide, playing at venues including Carnegie Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, and the Berlin Philharmonie.
For over twenty years he has formed the duo Arp/Frantz with the pianist Caspar Frantz. Together they have won a number of prestigious competitions, including the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Competition, the German Music Competition and the International Chamber Music Competition „Premio Vittorio Gui“ in Florence.
Julian Arp is dedicated to a broad repertoire and is increasingly involved in the performance and creation of new music. Composers such as Samir Odeh-Tamimi, Sven-Ingo Koch, Sarah Nemtsov and Violeta Dinescu have written works for him.
Since autumn 2013 Julian Arp has held a professorship for violoncello at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz and is also a sought-after lecturer at international master classes.
I-Ting Chen was born in 1986 in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. At the age of five she received her first piano lessons and, in a few years, later she also learned to play the violin. With piano teachers such as Yunae Lee, Mag. Dr. Mühlböck, she received a sound piano education in the music schools in Tainan City, Taiwan and continued with concert studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. She went to the classes of Professors Alexander Jenner, Heinz Medjimorec and Noel Flores and received valuable musical impulses. After graduation, she gained further chamber music experience while studying at the Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität, where she was able to expand her knowledge of instrumental correpetition with Prof. Denise Benda.
She won several national and international competition prizes, including 1st prize of Taiwan National Student Competition of Music in 1998, Taipei Chopin Piano Competition- 2nd and Polonaise special prize in 1999 and 2002, Dr. J. Dichler Piano Competition in Vienna- 4th and special prize in 2005.
She has been working as a répétiteur at the Institute for String Instruments at the University of Arts in Graz since 2012.
Among her solo and chamber music concert activities are debut with orchestra ( Mendelssohn 1st piano concerto) in Tokyo /Japan at the age of 14, solo recitals such as Chopin recital in Taipei and Tainan City, in Johannes Nepomuk Chapel, Bösendorfer Salon, Haus Hofmannsthal in Vienna. As a pianist and répétiteur, she was allowed to participate in many master classes and competitions as well as concerts in Switzerland, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Austria.
