Gwendolyn Masin
Violin, Founder and Artistic Director
Gwendolyn Masin relentlessly finds new ways to make more music more accessible: whether as a violinist, musicologist, educator, author, artistic director, or conductor. Gwendolyn is passionate about promoting contemporary music and regularly commissions and premieres works by emerging composers. During her violin studies in London, Berne, Zurich and Lübeck she received degrees with highest honours and completed her doctorate in 2012 with a thesis on violin pedagogy. Concerts take her all over Europe and the United States, as well as Asia, South Africa, and the Middle East, where she performs as a soloist with orchestras. She is the first Licensed Body Mapping Educator (Association for Body Mapping Education) in Switzerland.
Sandro Meszaros
Violoncello
Sandro Meszaros, born in Ticino in 2000, started playing the cello at the age of five. Today he performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician, such as at the Tonhalle Zurich or the GAIA Music Festival. Aged 15, he won the “Antonio Salieri” competition in Legnago. Three years later he began his studies with Thomas Grossenbacher at the Zurich University of the Arts. In 2022 he was a scholarship holder of the Rahn Cultural Fund. In January 2024, he won a position in the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich all the while continuing his studies with Maximilian Hornung in Munich.
Chiara Samatanga Enderle
Violoncello
Aged 21, Chiara Samatanga won both the Pierre Fournier Award and first prize at the International Lutoslawski Competition. She regularly performs as a soloist with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, among others, and is a member of the Carmina Quartet. She completed her studies in Zurich and Berlin with Thomas Grossenbacher, Jens-Peter Maintz and Steven Isserlis, and now teaches her own cello class at the Bern University of the Arts. She recently completed a master's degree in psychology and conducts research into the health of musicians.
Luis Magalhães
Piano
Portuguese pianist Luis Magalhães is not only a co-founder of the South African Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival, but also taught at the university there. He has given masterclasses at the Juilliard School (New York) and served as a jury member at the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition. In 2022-23 he was Artist in Residence at the Theatro Circo (Portugal), and he lives up to his title as a Yamaha International Artist with his excellent CD recordings. The soloist and chamber musician also acts as producer for the label TwoPianists, which he co-founded.
Juliana Steinbach
Piano
Whether Brazil, France or the whole world: Juliana Steinbach's busy concert schedule as a soloist and chamber musician spans the globe's most famous concert halls. On stage, she is accompanied by renowned orchestras or plays duets with such greats as Martha Argerich. She studied in Lyon, at the Paris Conservatoire, in Israel and Italy, and has been bestowed numerous prizes at international competitions. As founder and artistic director of the “Transylvania Chamber Music Festival” in Romania, she is dedicated to the folkloristic origins of European music.
casalQuartett
Ensemble
No work from the string quartet repertoire is off-limits for the casalQuartett. The four Swiss musicians consciously enrich their vast catalogue with compositions beyond the mainstream, thus moving between tradition and innovation. Since its founding in 1996, the quartet has performed around 2000 times on stages all over the world. They studied with the Carmina Quartet, the Alban Berg Quartet and artists such as Walter Levin, Martha Argerich and Regula Mühlemann. The quartet attaches particular importance to emotional proximity to their audiences and strives to create lively concert experiences.