Maria Milstein
Born in Moscow into a family of musicians, Maria Milstein studied in Amsterdam with Ilya Grubert, in London with David Takeno and at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Waterloo (Belgium) with Augustin Dumay.

Maria is a prizewinner of major international competitions both as a soloist and as a chamber musician, such as "Città di Brescia" and "Premio Rodolfo Lipizer" in Italy, the ARD Competition in Munich, the Lyon Chamber Music Competition and the Kersjes Prize in the Netherlands. In 2016, Maria is awarded the Fellowship of the Borletti Buitoni Trust, and in 2018, she receives the Dutch Music Prize - the highest recognition for a classical musician in the Netherlands awarded by the Ministry of Culture.

Maria performs extensively across Europe in halls such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, BOZAR in Brussels, Musikverein in Vienna, the Philharmonie of Cologne and Cité de la Musique in Paris. She has appeared as a soloist with a.o. The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Hague Philharmonic, the Brussels Philharmonic and Amsterdam Sinfonietta, and worked with conductors such as Vasily Petrenko, Giancarlo Guerrero, Michel Tabachnik, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Christian Arming and Reinbert de Leeuw.

A keen chamber musician, Maria formed the succesful Van Baerle Trio together with pianist Hannes Minnaar and cellist Gideon den Herder, one of the leading trios of its generation. After winning the ARD Competition and the Lyon Chamber Music Competition, the Trio made the ECHO Rising Stars Tour in 2014, peforming in famous concert halls all over Europe. The Trio already released two CD's, both praised in the international press, and is presently recording the complete works for piano trio by Beethoven for Challenge Records.

Maria's own debut CD « Sounds of War », recorded with pianist Hanna Shybayeva for Cobra Records and featuring Sonatas by Poulenc, Janáček and Prokofiev, received lavish reviews in the international press and won the Edison Klassiek Prize 2015 in the category “best chamber music album”. In October 2017 her second album “La Sonate de Vinteuil”, recorded with pianist Nathalia Milstein is released on the French label Mirare, and is voted "best CD of 2017" by the Dutch press. ​

Maria plays on a violin by Michel Angelo Bergonzi (Cremona, ca. 1750), on loan from the Dutch Music Instruments Foundation, and holds a teaching position at the Conservatory of Amsterdam.

Mathieu van Bellen
was born in the Netherlands and started studying the violin in Belgium with Nico Baltussen. He continued with Jan Repko, first at the Amsterdam Conservatoire and then at Chethams School of Music in Manchester, for which he was awarded a scholarship by The VandenEnde Foundation. He continued at the Royal College of Music in London with Itzhak Rashkovsky and at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, with Ulf Wallin.

Laureate of the Yehudi Menuhin Competition, Wieniawski Competition, Prinses Christina Competition and Oskar Back Competition he is a recipient of MBF, RPS Emily Anderson Prize, Philharmonia Martin Musical Scholarship Fund Awards and Making Music Awards. He was also awarded the Bach Prize and the String Player of the Year 2008 at the Royal College of Music. He has given concerts in Europe, Asia and the USA, playing in major music festivals such as the Festspiele MV in Germany, and chamber music festivals all over Europe. He has appeared several times on television and radio, and has performed in halls like the Purcell Room and Royal Festival Hall at the Southbank Centre, London, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Tel Aviv Opera House, and Megaron in Athens, performing with orchestras such as the National Orchestra of Belgium, Gelders Orkest, Holland Symfonia, Southbank Sinfonia, and Camerata Athena.

Violinist of the Busch Trio, Mathieu is an active chamber musician, having played chamber music concerts with artists including Shlomo Mintz, Miguel da Silva, Michael Collins and Bruno Giuranna. With the Busch Trio he has performed in Europe and Asia, playing in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall London, BOZAR Brussels and NCPA Beijing. They are currently recording the entire Dvorak chamber works with piano on Alpha Classics, and in 2016 they won the prestigious Dutch Kersjes Prijs.

In 2013 he founded the Scaldis Kamermuziek Festival, a yearly chamber music festival in the area of Zeeland in the Netherlands.

His first CD was released in November 2014, with solo works by Bach, Blaha and Bartók. In the same year he was concert master of the European Union Youth Orchestra, working with Vasily Petrenko and Vladimir Ashkenazy including concerts at the BBC Proms, London and Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

In 2015 Mathieu won the Grachtenfestival Prize, resulting in a residency during the 2016 Grachtenfestival. In 2017 he was soloist of the Netherlands Student Orchestra and he was asked to succeed Christiaan Bor as artistic director of the Reizend MuziekGezelschap, also known as the Amsterdam Chamber Music Society.

Mathieu plays on the ex-Adolf Busch G.B. Guadagnini violin (Turin, 1783), using a Dominique Peccatte bow, both on loan to him thanks to private sponsorship, for which he is most grateful.