Kristoffer Dolatko, Violin

Kristoffer Dolatko is one of the leading violin teachers in Denmark. He graduated from Feliks Nowowiejski School of Music in Gdansk (Poland) where he studied with Professor Krystyna Jurecka, continuing his studies at the Stanislaw Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdansk in the class of Professor Henryk Keszkowski.He moved from his native Poland to Denmark in 1990 where he started to teach in Northern Jutland and play in the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra. As a result of his distinguished teaching, Kristoffer Dolatko was invited to be a member of the jury of the Jacob Gade Youth Violin Competition in Vejle. In 2002 he began teaching at the Aarhus Musikskole - one of the best music schools in Denmark. For many years he has enjoyed a very close collaboration with Alf Richard Kraggerud and is often invited to Norway (Barratt-Due Musikkinstitut and Valdres Sommersymfoni). In 2008 he was appointed to the position of violin tutor at the famous and prestigious Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, where he is working at present with some of the most talented children from Great Britain and abroad.  In 2012 he accepted a teaching position at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus. His students have been awarded many prizes at regional, national (Danish) and international competitions. Kristoffer Dolatko is continuously exploring and searching for new methods of teaching, practising and developing talented young musicians in the best possible way. He has been Assistent Director  of the Astona International Summer Music Academy for many years.


Detlef Hahn, Violin

Detlef Hahn made his London debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1981. The press on that occasion praised his playing with such attributes as "irresistibly chic", "with a keen sense of fantasy", "Stylish and telling", "technical expertise and fine musicianship". He has since given concerts worldwide, broadcast for German, Austrian, Swiss and Australian radio, as well as for Swiss, German and Hong Kong television. In addition to his playing career, Detlef Hahn also enjoys a world-wide reputation as a teacher. This has led to invitations to give Masterclasses from Europe to the Far East and Australia, often combined with recitals. In the UK he has been Professor and Honorary Fellow at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. Since 2012 he he accepted a professorship at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He also teaches at the Hochschule der Künste, Bern, Switzerland and is Professor at the State Academy Oslo, Norway. In addition to this, he also teaches regularly at the Kuenstlerhaus Boswil and Valdres Festival, Norway and runs his own courses in Austria and Italy. Detlef Hahn records for the ASV Label in England. His latest CD’s with the complete music for violin and piano by Szymanowsky, as well as the complete works for violin and piano by Korngold were highly acclaimed by the critics. He has been a member of the faculty of the Astona International Summer Music Academy for more than twenty years.


Alf Richard Kraggerud, Violin

Alf Richard Kraggerud is one of the most successful and respected violin teachers in Scandinavia.  His students have won numerous international prizes over the past twenty years.  Several of his protégées presently enjoy extensive careers, performing with major orchestras, participating in prestigious festivals, as well as appearing frequently in the media, both nationally in Norway and abroad.  One of the first to receive Mr. Kraggerud’s mentoring in practicing skills was his younger brother, Henning Kraggerud, today considered one of the most interesting and exhilarating violinists of his generation. In 1992, after having completed his studies in pedagogy and violin with honors at the renowned Barratt Due Institute of Music (Oslo, Norway), he continued to study conducting in London (classes at the Royal Academyand Morley College). In 1999 he assumed responsibilities for the talent section (pre-school) of the  Barratt Due Institute of Music, an institution at the international forefront of musical education.  Presently, he is the co-director of Barratt Due. Alf Richard Kraggerud is the founder  of the Valdres Sommersymfoni in Norway (initiated in 1994) and has been a member of the faculty of the Astona International Summer Music Academy for many years.


Nathan Braude, Viola

The Belgian-Israeli violist Nathan Braude has performed in many of the world's most prestigious concert venues including the Wigmore Hall in London, Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Köln Philharmonie and the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. Nathan Braude has also appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras including the “Brussels Philharmonic”, “Orchestre National de Lille”, “Orchestra della Svizzera italiana”, "Stavanger Symphony Orchestra", “Gürzenich Orchester, Köln”, “Australian Chamber  Orchestra”, “Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège”, “Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen”, “Limburgs Symfonie Orkest”, “Solistes Européens Luxembourg”. Festival appearances include “Progretto Martha Argerich” in Lugano, “Ravinia Festival” in Chicago ,‘’Festival de Radio France” in Montpellier’’, "Oxford International Chamber Music Festival", Stavanger International Chamber Music Festival" amongst many others.
Nathan's numerous chamber music partners have included artists such as Patricia Kopachinskaja, Vilde Frang, Priya Mitchell, Ilya Gringolts, Mischa Maisky, Sol Gabetta and his wife Polina Leschenko. His début recording for the Fuga Libera label with the complete works for viola, by the Belgian composer Joseph Jongen, has been released to great critical acclaim. Other recordings include the Dvorak piano quartet op.87 released on EMI Classics as part of the “Martha Argerich and Friends: Live from the Lugano Festival 2012” series and Brahms horn trio (viola version) for the Warner Classic label. Prior to his position as first principal violist at the Gürzenich Orchester, Köln, Nathan has held solo viola positions at the Brussels Philharmonic and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.
Since September 2017 Nathan is a professor of viola at the Royal College of Music in London.


Francis Gouton, Cello

French cellist Francis Gouton has given concerts as a soloist and chamber musician in many of the major concert halls and festivals on all continents, such as the Columbia University in NYC, Kennedy Centre in Washington D.C., Boston, Los Angeles, the Wigmore Hall in London, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Shanghai, Sydney Opera House, Berlin Schauspiel Haus, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Teatro Colon Buenos Aires, the festivals of Ludwigsburg, Lyons (musicades), Gstaad, and Saint Barthélémy in the French carribean, with chambermusic partners such as Thomas Brandis, Josef Silverstein, Ana Chumachenko, Nelson Goerner, Anton Nel , Emmanuel Pahud, Bruno Pasquier, Jean-Claude Pennetier, the Jerusalem Quartet among others. As a soloist he played with the Stuttgart state orchestra, the Stuttgarter chamber orchestra, Realfilharmonia de Galicia (Spain) Orquestra sinfonica de Maracaibo (Venezuela), the Wurttemberg chamberorchestra Heilbronn, the Izmir National orchestra (Turkey), and in Japan with Century Orchestra Osaka, The Kanagawa Philharmonic orchestra Yokohama and the Gunma-, Nagoya- and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestras. As an eclectic musician he performs the 6 Bach Suites as well as contemporary music, such as concertos by Josef Tàl, Isang Yun and Philip Glass, or the sequanza XIV by L.Berio. A passionate teacher, Francis Gouton is a professor at the Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts (Germany) and gives master classes across the world, he is guest professor at the Jimei university Xiamen and the TongJi university Shanghai in China, passing on to his students the teaching of his masters Maria Kliegel, Janos Starker and Pierre Fournier. Invited to Venezuela many times in the project "el sistema", he also went to Haiti in January 2011 to teach in a school in Port-au-Prince, who was devastated during the 2010 earthquake. Francis Gouton plays a Cello by Domenico Montagnana, Venice 1734, and a violoncello made for him by Jean-Fédéric Schmitt- Lyon 2010. He has been a member of the faculty of the Astona International Summer Music Academy for many years.