INSPIRED TO SUCCEED

Find out where you can study with some of the string world’s most in-demand pedagogues

VIOLIN

Márta Ábrahám

Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest, Hungary (page 24)

Hungarian violinist and teacher Márta Ábrahám is the founder and leader of the Baroque ensemble Ábrahám Consort and has taught at the Franz Liszt Academy since 2005. She is a graduate of the academy and of the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg. From 2005 to 2009 she was concertmaster of the Hungarian Radio Orchestra and she has toured and recorded internationally as a solo and chamber musician.

Levon Chilingirian

Royal Academy of Music, London, UK (page 37)

Levon Chilingirian is a graduate of the Royal College of Music and the founder of the Chilingirian Quartet, with which he has toured extensively and won various awards. From 2003 to 2016 he was artistic director of the Mendelssohn on Mull Festival. Chilingirian teaches both violin and chamber music at the RAM and tutors at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, also in London.

Kaija Saarikettu

Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland (page 19)

Kaija Saarikettu is herself a graduate of the Sibelius Academy, and began her time as a violin and viola professor there in 1995. She was the winner of the 1980 Kuopio National Violin Competition and has played with most Finnish orchestras as well as the Swedish and Danish radio orchestras. She has given the world premieres of works by Einojuhani Rautavaara and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

VIOLA

Noémie Bialobroda

Haute École de Musique de Genève, Switzerland (page 35)

As well as teaching chamber music at Geneva’s Haute École de Musique, French violist Noémie Bialobroda is a viola tutor at conservatoires across Switzerland and the Geneva International String Academy. Bialobroda is a graduate of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, where she studied under Jean Sulem. As a member of the Aviv Quartet, she has travelled internationally and released several albums.

Julia Purgina

Music & Arts University of the City of Vienna, Austria (page 11)

Julia Purgina is both a viola and composition graduate from the Vienna’s University of Music and Performing Arts and Berlin University of Arts. Among other awards, she has won the Theodor Körner prize and Antonio Salieri Composition Prize. As both an orchestral player and composer, she brings her interests in contemporary music and theoretical analysis to her work at the university.

Tabea Zimmermann

Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, Germany (page 21)

Violist Tabea Zimmermann has been an artist-in-residence at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic and received multiple awards as both a solo and chamber musician. She has taught at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler since 2002 and gives masterclasses and teaches at the Kronberg Academy, all while performing internationally.

‘Practise as many options as possible, and narrow them down much later in the process’

Practising at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (see page 38)

CELLO

Richard Aaron

The Julliard School, New York (page 52); Robert McDuffie Center for Strings (page 44); University of Michigan, School of Music, Theatre and Dance (page 48), all US

Richard Aaron is on the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and has tutored at international institutes such as the Heifetz International Music Institute and the Innsbruck Summer Music Academy. He also regularly gives masterclassess and chairs international competition panels.

Marc Coppey

Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, France (page 20)

Marc Coppey is a solo and chamber musician having played with orchestras such as the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France and Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg. He is a former student of Mstislav Rostropovich. As a conductor Coppey has worked with the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss am Rhein and is the artistic and music director of various ensembles and festivals.

Zvi Plesser

Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, Israel (page 25)

Israeli cellist Zvi Plesser is a graduate of the Juilliard School where he studied under Zara Nelsova, and teaches both cello and chamber music at the Jerusalem Academy. He has played with the Israel Symphony Orchestra, Hamburg Symphony Orchestra and Berlin Philharmonic and is music director of the Voice of Music Festival in the Upper Galilee.

The members of the Calidore Quartet are artists-in-residence at the University of Delaware (see page 43)

Bassist at the Royal Irish Academy of Music (see page 25)

ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY PHOTO CHRIS DOWDALL. ECKERSLEY PHOTO JEAN-PIERRE CHABROL. MEYER PHOTO JIM MCGUIRE. THIERY PHOTO MARCO BORGGREVE

DOUBLE BASS

‘Ultimately, music lives in the imagination’

Damien Eckersley

Australian National  Academy of Music, Melbourne, Australia (page 10)

As well as teaching at ANAM, Damien Eckersley tutors across the country in masterclasses and youth programmes. He has studied in both Australia and Austria and is currently a member of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Australian Opera Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic.

Edgar Meyer

Curtis Institute of  Music (page 55), Blair School of Music (page 56), US

Edgar Meyer is a solo and chamber bassist and composer. He has played his own works with the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Boston Symphony among others. He has also recorded albums with Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell and Chris Thile. Meyer is a recipient of a MacArthur ‘genius grant’ and the only bassist to have received the Avery Fisher Prize.

Olivier Thiery

Conservatorium  van Amsterdam, The Netherlands (page 29)

French bassist Olivier Thiery is a graduate of the Folkwang University of Arts in Essen and is currently a member of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and RCO Camerata. He performs, as a soloist and chamber musician, at festivals around the world and tutors at summer academies. He has taught at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam since 2014.