François Benda | Clarinet
François Benda was born in Brazil and studied the clarinet, composition, theory and conducting in Graz, Geneva and Vienna, making his debut as a soloist at the Zurich Tonhalle and Geneva’s Victoria Hall in 1988. Three years later he was awarded the Premio Internazionale per le Arti dello Spettacolo in Rome. Among the major festivals where he has appeared as a soloist and chamber recitalist is the Berlin Festival. He has also performed in all of Europe’s leading concert halls. His extensive discography includes all of Brahms’s works for the clarinet as well as pieces by Nielsen, Debussy, Busoni, Rossini, Messiaen and Schumann. 2014 will see the release of a complete recording of all of Penderecki’s works for clarinet and orchestra as well as a CD of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto and Clarinet Quintet performed on a basset clarinet designed by Benda himself. He teaches the clarinet at the University of the Arts in Berlin and also holds a teaching post at the Basel Academy of Music in addition to giving international masterclasses on both the clarinet and chamber music.

Wardy Hamburg | Saxophone
Wardy Hamburg, born and raised in the Netherlands, studied at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam under Arno Bornkamp and at the Robert Schumann-Hochschule in Düsseldorf under John-Edward Kelly. Wardy Hamburg won awards at important competitions, amongst others she won the Wolfgang-Jacobi competition for modern chamber music in Munich and the Yehudi-Menuhin society in London awarded her a scholarship. The internationally sought-after saxophonist performs as a soloist and chamber musician at important festivals. Concert tours have taken her to South America, Finnland, Russia and Portugal. She was part of the Raschèr Saxophone Orchestra, the Ensemble Modern, the Bochum Symphonics and the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen. Together with the pianist Nageeb Gardizi, she released the CD “Undulations“, which was well-received by the press. Since 2009, Wardy Hamburg works as an associate professor at the Academy of Music in Mainz.

Andrea Lieberknecht | Flute
Andrea Lieberknecht was principal flautist with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the West German Radio (WDR) Symphony Orchestra. For three years she was also the principal flautist at the Bayreuth Festival. In 2002 she was appointed professor of flute at the Academy of Music and Theatre in Hanover, moving to a similar position at the Munich Academy of Music and Theatre in 2011. She studied the flute with Paul Meisen and was still a student when she won the International Flute Competitions in Kobe (Japan) and at the Prague Spring Festival. As a member of the Arcis Quintet and with the pianist Jan Philip Schulze she also won prizes at the ARD Music Competition and the German Music Competition. In demand all over the world as a soloist and chamber recitalist, Andrea Lieberknecht also gives international masterclasses and has made countless CDs and taken part in many radio broadcasts.

Stefan Temmingh | Recorder
Stefan Temmingh was born in Cape Town and hails from a South African and Dutch family of musicians. He is now regarded as one of the finest recorder players of the younger generation. Specializing in early music, he has appeared at major international festivals and in concerts with his own Baroque ensemble. As a soloist he has performed with various Baroque ensembles, chamber groups and symphony orchestras in Europe, Asia and Africa. He has additionally initiated and taken part in various projects and world premières of new works. His debut CD, Corelli à la mode, was enthusiastically received by the world’s musical press in 2009, and his second CD, The Gentleman’s Flute, was nominated for an International Classical Music Award in 2011. Since then Stefan Temmingh has repeatedly been compared to the legendary Frans Brüggen. He teaches at the Munich Academy of Music and Theatre.

Alfred Rinderspacher | Bassoon
Alfred Rinderspacher studied at the Mannheim, Frankfurt and Freiburg Academies of Music. After working in various orchestras he was appointed to a professorship at the Saarland Academy of Music, where he taught from 1973 to 1988, later teaching the bassoon, chamber music and wind method at the Mannheim State Academy of Music, where he remained until 2011. From 1994 to 1999 he was also visiting professor at the Frankfurt Academy of Music. Throughout this period he was active as a lecturer and juror at national and international masterclasses and competitions. At the same time he pursued a busy career as a soloist and chamber musician, notably as a member of the West German Wind Soloists, the South-West German Baroque Soloists and the Philharmonic Sextet of Baden-Baden. For his services to the arts and to teaching he was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz in 2001.

Ivan Podyomov | Oboe
Ivan Podyomov was born in Archangelsk and studied with Ivan Pushechnikov at the Gnessin School in Moscow, later switching to the Geneva Conservatoire, where he was taught by Maurice Bourgue. Among the many prizes that he has won are the 2011 ARD Music Competition, the 2010 Concours de Genève and the International Music Competition at the Prague Spring Festival. As a soloist he has appeared with all the leading European orchestras, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the German Symphony Orchestra of Berlin and the Basel Collegium Musicum. He regularly plays principal oboe with the Orchestra Mozart of Bologna and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under Claudio Abbado and Daniel Harding. He has given solo recitals at the Lucerne and Salzburg Festivals. Among his chamber music partners are the Hagen Quartet, Sabine Meyer, Jacques Zoon, Olga Watts and the Sine Nomine Quartet.