Picturesque Hergiswil on Lake Lucerne is home to a chamber music – the SEEKLANG festival. It was founded in 2017 by the young, aspiring violinist Jesper Gasseling. The chamber musician and soloist began his career in the talent programme at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and completed his studies there before passing his soloist exam in London with distinction. He won the J. Barbirolli String Quartet Competition and J. Byram Jeejibhoy Prize in London and was a scholarship holder of the Concordia Music Foundation. In 2022, he continued his studies with Rudolf Koelman in Zurich.

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The “soul of music” has a special meaning for László G. Horváth: in 2010, he founded the Anima Musicae Chamber Orchestra with students from the Budapest Liszt Academy of Music. Since then, the ensemble has won numerous international prizes and has performed in Europe's most prestigious concert halls alongside artists such as Ferenc Rados and Kristóf Baráti. László began playing the violin at the age of five and soon won national prizes and scholarships. He studied in Budapest, where he founded the Quartet Weekend, and gave his doctoral graduation concert in 2024, performing on stage as both soloist and orchestra leader.

Gareth Lubbe knows music from many perspectives – as a violinist and violist, pianist, conductor, composer and overtone singer. He grew up in Johannesburg (South Africa) and studied in Germany. Thereafter, he was principal violist of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig under Riccardo Chailly before becoming Professor of Viola at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. He also performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician, collaborating with artists such as Janine Jansen, Pinchas Zukerman and Dame Evelyn Glennie. As a soloist, he has appeared with the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester in the Berlin Philharmonie. Beyond instrumental performance, he is a polyphonic singer and has taught this technique worldwide, including at the Juilliard School. Numerous compositions have been written for his voice. He maintains strong ties to South Africa as a board member of Community H.E.A.R.T., and also serves as International Ambassador for the “Denis Goldberg House of Hope”, a social initiative in Cape Town.

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.

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Young, Irish, contemporary – that's Martin Moriarty. The violist received his first lessons from Gwendolyn Masin's parents and recently completed his studies in Zurich with world renowned violist Lawrence Power. Thanks to his passion for contemporary music, he has already worked with Garth Knox and played the Czech premiere of James MacMillan's Viola Concerto. He has been invited to perform at well-known festivals such as Verbier, Krzyzowa and IMS Prussia Cove. Martin Moriarty teaches at masterclasses in Ireland and has assisted Adrian Brendel and Hartmut Rohde, among others, at the NCH International Master Course founded by Gwendolyn Masin.

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Born in Montenegro, raised in Australia, playing at international festivals and working as a solo violist with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana since 2002, Ivan Vukčević is a true cosmopolitan. He obtained a diploma in performance and musicology from the University of Western Australia and studied with Johannes Eskaer and Alberto Lysy at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland, where he has been a professor of viola since 2012. As a founding member of the Quartetto Energie Nove in Lugano, he has made numerous critically acclaimed recordings, and he has been the director of the Mediterranean Notes Music Festival in Montenegro since 2017. Having produced and been the artistic director for Zarqa al Yamama, the very first grand opera in Arabic, he is also a co-founder of the Arabian Opera company. Ivan Vukčević plays a viola by C. F. Landolfi from 1753.

Spanish cellist and composer Alfredo Ferre Martínez combines an international career as a soloist and chamber musician with a distinctive creative voice rooted in presence and meditation. 1st Prize at A. Janigro cello competition in Zagreb and Firmenich Prize at Verbier Festival, he has appeared at venues like KKL Luzern, Auditorio Nacional de Madrid or La Fenice Theater in Venice. For several years he has been exploring the meeting point between classical tradition, electronics and meditative sounds in various projects. In this context, he has performed at the Verbier Festival, at the Theater im Hof, and the Septembre Musical Festival in Montreux.

Attila Kónya's mother, herself a flutist, awakened his love for music when he was a child. He began playing the cello at the age of nine and later studied cello and composition in Budapest. He has enjoyed great success at international competitions: In 2011, he won the Janos Starker cello competition in Hungary, which also earned him a place at a summer course at Indiana University in the USA and in 2013, he won second prize in the Popper Competition. Since 2012, he has been a recurring cellist at the Tiberius Festival in Romania. He performs regularly as a chamber musician and is currently solo cellist of the Anima Musicae chamber orchestra.

Samuel Niederhauser has been solo cellist of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra since 2022. Born in Bern, the musician studied with Thomas Grossenbacher in Zurich and Thomas Demenga in Basel. He completed his soloist master's degree in 2023 and won third prize at the International Paulo Cello Competition in Helsinki. In previous years, he had already been awarded the “Guy Fallot Prize” at the Concours de Genève, the “Göhner Musikpreis” and laureate of the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. He performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician, including with the Gstaad Menuhin Festival Orchestra the Royal Northern Sinfonia (Newcastle) or the Sinfonieorchester Basel and at festivals in Switzerland and abroad.

Martina Schucan was just 14 years old when she was accepted into the master class of André Navarra in Detmold. She later studied with Heinrich Schiff, Daniel Shafran, and Janos Starker, and won first prize at the Gaspar Cassadó competition in Florence. This laid the foundation for her international career. Today, she performs as a soloist with orchestras such as the Metropolitan Orchestra Tokyo and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, and appears at festivals both in Switzerland and abroad. Her chamber music partners include, among others, Yuri Bashmet, Heinz Holliger, and György Kurtág. She has a special passion for contemporary works – this love for the new is evident in her acclaimed interpretations. Martina is a professor at the Zurich University of the Arts.

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Jordi Carrasco Hjelm is a Swedish classical double bass player working with chamber music and improvisation. He lives in the Netherlands where he is a core member of the Asko Schönberg Ensemble who are a leading ensemble in the field of contemporary music and collaborates with composers from around the world premiering new works on their home stage Muziekgebouw aan’t IJ in Amsterdam. He is an original member of the O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra led by the violinist Hugo Ticciati. The ensemble consists of chamber musicians from all over Europe and plays regularly in the Wigmore Hall in London where they are ensemble in residence in 2024 as well as in different series and festivals across Europe.

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The solo album released in 2025 by Portuguese pianist Luis Magalhães is praised for its poetic and brilliant interpretation. As a soloist and chamber musician, he performs alongside renowned artists in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the USA. His impressive playing has been featured in publications such as Gramophone and the American Record Guide. He was Artist in Residence at Theatro Circo (Portugal), is a Yamaha International Artist, co-founder of the South African Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival, and has also taught at the university there. Additionally, he is co-founder and Artistic Director of the digital-native label Catalyst.Music, which is redefining classical music for the streaming age.

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For the 2024/25 season, pianist Caspar Vos was Artist in Residence at the Edesche Concert Hall in the Netherlands. However, he not only helps shape the concert programmes as a chamber musician and soloist, but has also been the artistic director of the Schiermonnikoog Festival since 2021. He is particularly committed to promoting young musicians. He began his own career at the Artez Conservatory, then studied in Amsterdam and graduated with top honours. Numerous competition successes also confirm his outstanding piano playing.

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Equipped with flute and baton, Kaspar Zehnder travels the world of music. He made his debut as a conductor at La Scala in Milan in 2007 and has since directed leading orchestras throughout Europe – he is currently chief conductor of the Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra in the Czech Republic. Away from the big orchestras, he performs as a flutist in chamber music formations, including the ensemble “mit vier”, the Ensemble Paul Klee, and with his wife Ana Oltean. He studied flute, piano, conducting and music theory at the Bern University of the Arts and discovered his interest in new music and music education at an early age.

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If you listen closely to the music in the Swiss cinema movie The Awakening of Motti Wolkenbruch, you can hear clarinettist Moritz Roelcke play. He is part of a Zurich klezmer band and performs chamber music with the Chaarts Ensemble and the Isabelle Faust & Friends ensemble. In 2023, he won the Carl Nielsen Competition (Copenhagen) with the Ensemble Astera. He has performed as a soloist with the Karlsruhe Philharmonic Orchestra and has worked as solo clarinettist with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and orchestras in Paris and Liverpool. He studied in Zurich and Lausanne.

Describing Alexander Boldachev as a “polystylist” is probably the best way to summarise his diverse musical activities. He studied harp, composition and conducting in Zurich and plays classical music as well as rock covers. This is also reflected in the venues where he performs: from the Bolshoi Theatre to Carnegie Hall to the opening of the FIFA World Cup. He has won over 20 competition prizes as a harpist and composer and has been invited by leading music academies such as the Juilliard School to pass on his knowledge to young musicians.

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Jorge Villoslada Durán is a young composer focused on transmedia and interdisciplinary creation. He studied composition at the Hochschule der Künste Bern and the Anton Bruckner University in Linz, as well as Art History at the Complutense University of Madrid. He has collaborated with renowned international ensembles and participated in festivals such as Wien Modern, Limina Festival, Darmstädter Ferienkurse, and Brucknerfest, receiving guidance from composers including Cathy van Eck, Simon Steen-Andersen, and Carola Bauckholt. 

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Stefan Kurt feels at home in opera houses, on theatre stages and on the big screen. He has played roles ranging from “Mack The Knife” in the Threepenny Opera to “Papa Moll” in the family film of the same name. For the latter, he received the Swiss Film Award in 2018 and was nominated as Best Actor. After completing his training as a primary school teacher, he studied at the Bern Conservatory of Music and Theatre and soon performed at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg. He made his film debut in 1993. Since 2006, he has also worked as a photographer and visual artist.

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