LEVON CHILINGIRIAN

Jury leader
Violin

Levon Chilingirian, born in Cyprus, began violin with his great uncle, Vahan Bedelian. After emigrating to the U.K., he later studied with his uncle, Manoug Parikian, Hugh Bean, and the Amadeus Quartet. Chilingirian’s partnership with the late Clifford Benson was launched by winning first prizes in the 1969 BBC Beethoven Competition and the 1971 ARD Munich Duo International Competition. 

Founded in 1971, the Chilingirian Quartet continues today as one of the most celebrated string quartets on the international scene, its highly regarded recorded repertoire spanning classical to contemporary works. Most recently, the Quartet has performed the Brahms and Mozart Quintets with Andrew Marriner in London. It celebrated the 50th anniversary of its residency at Liverpool University with a concert at the wonderful new Tung Auditorium. 

Chilingirian also performs as a soloist and with other chamber music partners. He has been co- artistic director and soloist of the Pharos Festival (Cyprus), director of Mendelssohn on Mull, and has coached chamber music around the world, including for El Sistema in Venezuela. He continues annually at the UK’s West Dean College Chamber Music Course as well as other courses and academies around Europe and the U.S. He was soloist and artistic director of Camerata Nordica in Sweden where he performed and recorded many concertos, including the world premiere of the second violin concerto of Tigran Mansurian. An exciting opportunity came to play the solo violin part of the Sinfonia Concertante by Mozart in Peter Schafer’s Amadeus film with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.  As a soloist Chilingirian has appeared with the Bergen Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, the Philharmonia, the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra and Armenian National Chamber Orchestra.

Chilingirian has given master classes at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, at the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen, at the Manhattan School of Music, NYC, and the New England Conservatory in Boston.  As well as being chair of the Trondheim String Quartet Competition, he has served on numerous international competition juries such as the Osaka, ARD, and Sibelius Violin competitions. He is a regular mentor at the chamber music festival at Domaine Forget, Quebec, where the most talented young string players from North America rehearse and perform with established masters. 

Levon Chilingirian received the Cobbett Medal for services to music and in January 2000, an OBE in the Queen’s Honours List. He is Professor of Violin and Chamber Music Artist in Residence at the Royal Academy of Music (London) as well as Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London).

ASBJØRN NØRGAARD

Viola

Asbjørn Nørgaard, has established himself as one of the most sought-after viola players in Denmark and is the recipient of multiple accolades, including Jacob Gade’s large music grant and Leonoie Sonning’s Music Prize, the biggest cultural prize in Denmark. He has been a part-time teacher at the Royal Danish Academy of Music since 2020 and has given masterclasses in more than 20 universities.

Asbjørn is a founding member of the Danish String Quartet, with whom he has received many awards and accolades, most recently the Musical America Ensemble of the Year and the Leonìe Sonning’s Music Prize. The quartet tours all over the world, and in 2020 they completed a concert cycle of all Beethoven’s string quartets at the Lincoln Center in New York. Their CD series ‘Prism’ was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2019. 2021-2024 the Danish String Quartet was artist in residence at the Wigmore Hall in London and Carnegie Hall in New York. They have also been BBC New Generation Artists and members of the CMS program at the Lincoln Center in New York.

In 2007 Asbjørn founded Inviolata Duo with accordionist Andreas Borregaard. Together they have developed a pedagogical development project: “The Master of Practice"; a meta studio of the art of practicing. 

Asbjørn Nørgaard is often guesting festivals as soloist and chamber musician. He is also an experienced orchestral player and has led the viola sections of the Danish National Orchestra, the Copenhagen Philharmonic, the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra. Asbjørn Nørgaard has studied in Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Berlin. He graduated from the soloist scheme at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in 2013 performing Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante at the Radio Hall in Copenhagen.

BJØRG LEWIS

Cello

Bjørg Værnes Lewis is one of Norway's most renowned cellists. When Rostropovich heard her play, he invited her to study with him, stating that "Norway need not fear for its musical future when the country has a cellist like Bjørg".

She has collaborated with musicians such as Leif Ove Andsnes, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Paul Lewis, Elisabeth Batiashvilli, Truls Mørk, Steven Isserlis, Martin Frost and the Nash Ensemble. She has been a soloist with the Oslo Philharmonic conducted by Mariss Jansons and with orchestras throughout Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany and the Baltics.

Bjørg is a founding member of the Vertavo String Quartet, which has won numerous awards, including three prizes at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, 1st prize at the Nordic Chamber Music Competition and the prestigious Grieg Prize in 2005. Their recordings include all of Bartok's string quartets as well as quartets by Schumann, Brahms, Beethoven, Grieg, Debussy and Nielsen. Several of the recordings have received Diapason d'Or and Scandinavian gramophone awards. Their latest release for LAWO includes quartets by Verdi and Sibelius. The quartet celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2024.

A busy concert schedule takes Bjørg through Europe, North America and Japan. In the UK, she has performed at festivals in Edinburgh, Bath and The Proms, and she also plays regularly at Wigmore Hall with the Vertavo Quartet, The Nash Ensemble, and with her husband, pianist Paul Lewis.

After 15 years as artistic director of the Elverum Festival, Bjørg started the Vertavo Festival in 2016. She regularly participates in many other international chamber music festivals and last season she was a guest at both the Aldeburgh and Cheltenham festivals in England. In 2009, she and her husband founded the new festival Midsummer Music, an international chamber music festival in England that has established itself as one of the leading festivals in its genre.

The Dextra Musica Foundation has generously placed at her disposal the instrument on which she plays, a Gennaro Gagliani cello from 1748, whose previous owner was Martin Lovett of the Amadeus Quartet.

CAM KJØLL

Violin

Cam Kjøll is an internationally sought-after chamber musician, soloist and orchestra leader. After many years as 1st concertmaster of the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet and then in the same position in the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, they have continued their career as guest concertmaster all over the world, with several engagements, including with the WDR Symphony Orchestra (Cologne) and the Houston Symphony Orchestra.

In recent years, they have participated in several international festivals and have been a soloist with, and leader of, the largest chamber and symphony orchestras in Norway.

Their solo performance in the The Norwegian National Opera & Ballet in the demanding stage role in Alban Berg's "Lulu" received rave reviews. So did the premiere and recording of Mark Adderley's violin concerto, which was written for Kjøll.
In addition to being employed as a violin and chamber music teacher at the Barratt Due Institute of Music 2013–2017, Kjøll is now a professor at NTNU and 1st concertmaster of the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra since 2024. They play a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin (1747), on generous loan from Dextra Musica/Sparebankstiftelsen.

MINNA PENSOLA

Violin

Violinist Minna Pensola is known as an intense performer, invigorating soloist and energetic orchestra leader. As an inspiring fellow musician and teacher, she is a regular guest at many international chamber music festivals.

Pensola is a versatile player in the music field and has established regular club evenings combining a casual bar night and classical live music in her hometown Helsinki, as well as PuKamaChamber concert series, which she runs together with her spouse, violinist Antti Tikkanen. Active and close relationship with Finnish composers have produced many works dedicated to her. The upcoming seasons will bring premieres of chamber works by Lotta Wennäkoski and Magnus Lindberg and a Concerto for two violins by Osmo Tapio Räihälä (with Joensuu City Orchestra & Antti Tikkanen, violin).
 
Minna Pensola is the co-artistic director of Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival since 2021. During the seasons 2019-2024 she is the artistic partner of the Joensuu City Orchestra. Pensola was the artistic director of Sysmä Summer Sounds from 2006 to 2012 and a member of the curating group for the Helsinki Festival’s Wonderfeel-weekend in 2020-2021.
 
Pensola is a member of the award-winning string quartet Meta4, teaches chamber music at the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA) and violin at the Sibelius Academy. Her own studies started at the Helsinki Conservatory, continued at the Sibelius Academy and finally finished at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Zürich and the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA). Important guides on that journey include Leonid Mordkovich, Kaija Saarikettu, Ralf Gothoni, Ana Chumachenko, Josef Rissin, Hatto Beyerle, Johannes Meissl as well as countless inspiring colleagues along the way.  Minna Pensola's instrument is a Carlo Bergonzi violin from 1732, owned by the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation. Offstage the swinging up-tempo is maintained by two daughters, two cats and a hamster.

RADOVAN VLATKOVIĆ

Horn

One of the leading instrumentalists of his generation, Radovan Vlatković has travelled the globe performing extensively as a soloist and popularizing the horn as recording artist and teacher.
  
Born in Zagreb in 1962 he completed his studies in his home town and in Detmold with Michael Höltzel. He won first prizes in national and international competitions, including the Premio Ancona in 1979 and the ARD Competition in Munich in 1983. 
  
From 1982 until 1990 he served as Principal Horn with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin 
(now Deutsches Symphonie Orchester) under Maestros Riccardo Chailly and Vladimir 
Ashkenazy. In order to dedicate himself to a solo career he left the orchestra in 1990 and has since appeared as soloist with countless symphony and chamber orchestras wordwide as well as a guest at chamber music festivals. 

At the present time he teaches at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, at the “Queen Sofia” School in Madrid and is also Professor at the Zurich University of Arts as well as being an International Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London and visiting faculty at the Juilliard School in New York.  
  
From 2000 – 2003 he has been Artistic Director of the September Chamber Music Festival in Maribor, Slovenia. 

During more than twenty years he has been a member of “Les Vents Français” whom he performed with on numerous tours as well as recorded exclusively for EMI/Warner Classics. 
  
Radovan Vlatković has participated in first performances of works by Elliott Carter, Sofia Gubaidulina, Heinz Holliger and several Croatian composers who dedicated works to him. In May 2008 he premiered the Horn Concerto written for him by Krzysztof Penderecki together with the Bremen Philharmonic and the composer conducting. 
  
Radovan Vlatković has received the German Critics Award for several of his discs as well as the Echo Klassik and Ongaku no Tomo Record Academy Grand Prize. 
His numerous recordings including chamber music have been issued by EMI, DECCA, Warner, Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, Teldec, Dabringhaus & Grimm and Denon labels. 
 
In 2014 Vlatković was awarded an Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music (Hon RAM), an honour bestowed upon only 300 distinguished musicians worldwide. 
 
In recent years he has taken up conducting appearing as soloist/leader. 
During the 2022/23 season he was Artist-in-Residence with the Munich Radio Orchestra, a position he previously occupied with the Bremen Philharmonic in Germany and the Verdi Orchestra in Milano, Italy. 
  
Radovan Vlatković plays a full double horn Model 20 M by Paxman of London and BRIZ French Horns made in Tianjin, China.