Karol Danis was born in 1993 in Galanta and has been taking violin lessons at the conservatory in Bratislava since he was six. He has successfully participated in numerous competitions. He won the 1st prize in 2006 at the “Talents for Europe Competition” in Dolný Kubín.

contact: mandigal66(at)yahoo.de

Anna Savkina, born in 1994, received her first violin lessons at the age of five in Irkutsk, Russia. She has attended the Gnessin Music School in Moscow since 2005. In 2006, she won the first prizes at both the “Oistrach Violin Competition” in Moscow and the “4th International Russian Rotary Children Music Competition”. Anna is currently concentrating on the expansion of her repertoire and is gaining experience with various chamber music groups.

contact: 582006(at)mail.ru

Elena Kawazu was born in 1998 and took her first violin lessons at the age of three. One year later she had her first public performance at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Hall. Numerous other national and international concerts followed. Despite her young age, she has already been successful in numerous competitions. She is the Grand Prize Winner of IBLA International Grand Prize Competition in Italy. She also reached the finale of the "7th Osaka International Music Competition" in Japan and was the first winner of the "Chinese Fine Arts Society's Music Festival's Violin Junior Division Competition". She currently studies violin at the Music Institute of Chicago and was accepted into the Midwest Young Artists Orchestra this year.

contact: Elenakawazu(at)yahoo.com

Kyoko Ogawa was born in 1993 in Tokyo and began playing violin at the age of five. In 2005 she won the 1st Prize at the “59th All Japan Student Music Competition”. She has already performed with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.

contact: kyocongrazia_717(at)yahoo.co.jp

Yaegy Park was born in 1997 in Houston, Texas. At the age of three she received her first violin lessons and won the “Houston Young Artist Concert-Prize” at the age of four as the youngest participant. Yaegy Park has already made several public appearances. She played an instrument made by Carlo Guiseppe Testore from the year 1774 on loan from the Kumho Asiana Foundation.

contact: yaegy(at)yahoo.com

Hyeyoon Park was born in 1992 in Seoul. At the age of 6 she was taken into the preparatory classes at the University for the Arts in Seoul and later received a scholarship to study with Piotr Milewski. She made her debut with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of nine. In 2003, she went on tour as a soloist with the Starling Chamber Orchestra through Eastern and Western Europe.  She played her way to the 3rd prize as the youngest competitor at the “International Wieniawski Violin Competition” in Lublin. She is currently studying under Prof. Antje Weithaas at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. In 2009 Hyeyoon won as one of the youngest prize winners in the competition's history the ARD Music Competition Munich.

contact: hyp4ever(at)yahoo.com

Robyn Bollinger was born in 1991 and began taking violin lessons at the age of four. She has won awards in numerous national and international competitions. In 2003, she won 1st Prize at the “Greenfield Solo Competition” of the Philadelphia Orchestra. At the “Yehudi Menuhin International Young Violinists’ Competition” she won 4th Prize in 2005. She has already played as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Christoph Eschenbach. In 2008, she will play with the National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic. She has taken part in the master classes of Julia Fischer, Gil Shaham and Robert Lipsett among others.

contact: robynkb(at)gmail.com

Tobias Feldmann, born in 1991, began to play recorder and piano at the age of five. At seven he changed over to violin. One year later he began taking part in preparatory classes at the Musikhochschule Würzburg. He has studied there under Prof. Herwig Zack since 2005.
His extremely varied repertoire is documented by various CD and DVD recordings as well as recordings with Bavarian and Hessian Radio. Since February 2006, Tobias Feldmann has been playing a Giouanni Grancino violin (Milan 1673) as the winner of the 14th competition of the “Deutscher Musikinstrumentenfond der Deutschen Stiftung Musikleben”.

contact: RBAT-Feldmann(at)t-online.de

Yoriko Muto was born in Tokyo in 1988 and began taking violin lessons at the age of two and a half. At the age of ten she began competing successfully in Japan and later in Germany and France as well. In 2006, she won the 1st Prize at the “17th International Johannn Sebastian Bach Competition” in Paris. Yoriko Muto was a scholarship recipient of the Japanese Government. At the age of 14, she was the youngest student of Prof. Rainer Kussmaul at the Freiburger Musikhochschule. In addition to Kussmaul, her most important teachers have been Prof. Shiro Sumi, Prof. Gérard Poulet and Prof. Saschko Gawriloff. She plays a Francesco Ruggieri violin from the year 1696, on loan from the collection of stringed instruments of the state Baden-Württemberg.

contact: yorikomuto(at)gmail.com

Lea Birringer was born in 1986 in Quierschied. At the young age of three she began playing violin. She has been taking lessons since 2001 with Prof. Igor Ozim, and she will continue studying with him in his master classes after her Abitur at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Lea Birringer has won prizes at numerous competitions. She won 1st Prize at the Italian international competitions “Premio Vittorio Caffa Righetti” and “Concorso musicale europeo”. She also won the 1st Prize in 2004 at the German competition “Jugend musiziert”. She earned the highest number of points at that competition. She achieved further success in international competitions in 2004 at the “Premio Rodolfo Lipizer” and in 2005 at the international violin competition “Kloster Schöntal”. The young violinist has in the past years played as a soloist with the Berliner Symphoniker, with the Rundfunksinfonieorchester Saarbrücken, and the Romanian orchestra “Paul Constantinescu”. She gained further experience as a concert violinist in various master classes. At the “Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben” she played a violin made by Gianbattista Ceruti of Cremona, from circa 1800. contact: leabirringer(at)aol.com

Marie-Stephanie Radauer-Plank was born in 1986 in Salzburg. She received her first private lessons at the age of four at the Salzburger Musikschulwerk; at the age of ten, she took her first preparatory courses at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, where she began her studies in 2004. She has been studying under Prof. Ulf Schneider at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover since autumn of 2004. She has also taken part in various master classes by artists such as Igor Ozim, Stephane Picard, Christian Altenburger, Thomas Brandis and Friedemann Eichhorn. The young vionlinist has won several awards at the nation competition “Prima la Musica” in the categories of solo violin, solo piano and chamber music string player. She also achieved international success in competitions in Città di Pietra Ligure, Turin and Gorizia (Italy). From 2003 to 2005 she was a member of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. contact: m-st.radauer-plank(at)gmx.at