Antje Weithaas
Brimful of energy, Antje Weithaas’ brings her compelling musical intelligence and technical mastery to every detail of the music. Her charisma and stage presence are captivating, but never overshadow the works themselves. She has a wide-ranging repertoire that includes the great concertos by Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann, new works such as Jörg Widmann’s Violin Concerto, modern classics by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Ligeti and Gubaidulina, and lesser performed concertos by Hartmann and Schoeck.

As a soloist, Antje Weithaas has worked with most of Germany’s leading orchestras, including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Bamberg Symphony and the major German radio orchestras, numerous major international orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra and the BBC Symphony, as well as and the leading orchestras of the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and Asia. She has collaborated with the illustrious conductors Vladimir Ashkenazy, Dmitri Kitayenko, Sir Neville Marriner, Marc Albrecht, Yakov Kreizberg, Sakari Oramo and Carlos Kalmar. She enjoys a close working relationship with conductor Antonello Manacorda, with whom she made her debuts with the Orchestra Filharmonica del Teatro La Fenice in Venice as well as the SWR Symphony Orchestra and regularly gives concerts in her hometown Potsdam.

Highlights of the 2018/19 season include performances with the Het Residentie Orkest under the baton of Otto Tausk (Offertorium by Gubaildulina), Het Gelders Orkest under the baton of Antonello Manacorda (Bruch 1), the MDR Symphony Orchestra with Klaus Mäkela in Leipzig and Ludwigsburg (Beethoven), the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra under Olari Elts (Brahms), the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra under Eivind Gulberg-Jensen (Beethoven), and the NDR Radiophilharmonie under Andrew Manze (Bruch 1).

Antje Weithaas produced a reference recording of Beethoven and Berg’s violin concertos in 2013 with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra under Steven Sloane (CAvi-music). There were rave reviews of the two first CDs from Antje Weithaas’ latest project for CAvi: complete recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas and Eugène Ysaÿe’s solo sonatas. The label cpo recently released Vol. 2 and 3 of her recordings of Max Bruch’s complete works for violin and orchestra with the NDR Radio Philharmonic under Hermann Bäumer to great acclaim. Antje Weithaas continues her collaboration with the NDR Radio Philharmonic and cpo with recordings of Schumann’s Violin Concerto and Brahms’ Double Concerto with Maximilian Hornung, both conducted by Andrew Manze.

Antje Weithaas began playing the violin at the age of four and later studied at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin with Professor Werner Scholz. She won the Kreisler Competition in Graz in 1987 and the Bach Competition in Leipzig in 1988, as well as the Hanover International Violin Competition in 1991. After teaching at the Universität der Künste Berlin, Antje Weithaas became a professor of violin at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in 2004. She plays on a 2001 Peter Greiner violin.

Julian Steckel
Written music is potential energy that a performer must unleash. Audiences can tell if a musician really feels that energy, or if their expression is second-hand. When Julian plays, he is sharing something fragile and alive. “As an interpreter, I’ve started trusting my inner life more and letting the audience in,” he says. “It’s a kind of vulnerability that makes you stronger.” His first child was born at the end of 2018. Since then, his conviction has grown, his sense for metaphor expanded.

He knows that making music for an audience occasionally involves tipping the scales too far one way or another. But he is aware of his responsibility toward what is often called the “intentions of the composer.” He dives deep into scores, investigating the organic connections that give a work its unity. “If you know one room in an apartment, but not that the apartment has seven other rooms, you won’t even understand the room you’re in,” he says. When Julian plays, the music is in safe hands. You listen for his discoveries; what the music, through him, is trying to tell you.

Every life is a series of experiences, encounters, memories, places. Sometimes it’s possible to understand the contours of a musician’s ability through a list of these moments. Julian’s solo career was launched after he won the prestigious ARD Musikwettbewerb in 2010. Since then, he has soloed with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. He’s worked with the conductors Christoph Eschenbach, Sir Roger Norrington, Valery Gergiev, Christian Zacharias, Jakub Hruša, Mario Venzago, Fabien Gabel, John Storgårds, Antony Hermus und Michael Sanderling. His chamber music partners include Janine Jansen, Christian Tetzlaff, Karen Gomyo, Antje Weithaas, Renaud Capuçon, Veronika Eberle, Vilde Frang, Antoine Tamestit, Lars Vogt, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Paul Rivinius, Denis Kozhukhin, the Modigliani, Armida and Ébène quartets.

For Julian, these experiences and encounters are the result of organic growth, not external pressure. It’s a development that tends to happen when a musician of his ability goes through life with an open mind.

His playing is effortless, unhindered by technical boundaries. He derives energy from appearing not to try. It’s a quality that many look for and few find. He sees his talent and his musical upbringing as a gift. His mentors are responsible for the rest.

“My very first teacher considered lightness and simplicity to be at the core of cello playing,” Julian says. “Listen to yourself, plan what you’re doing, get it right the first time. I owe everything to these insights.” He studied with Ulrich Voss, Gustav Rivinius, Boris Pergamenschikow, Heinrich Schiff and Antje Weithaas. Now he is a teacher too, at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich.

This season, his solo career is both expanding and putting down roots. He will make his American debut with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, then solo with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. He’ll return to Amsterdam to play at the Concertgebouw and to Vienna to perform at the Konzerthaus. Chamber music will remain a fertile soil for his ideas. In the 2018-19 season he’ll collaborate with Tabea Zimmermann, the Armida Quartett, Denis Kozhukhin, Paul Rivinius, Tobias Feldmann, Lise Berthaud and others.

Julian’s relationship with music spans analytical intelligence and extreme commitment. His interpretations are grounded and accessible. He’s played his way to freedom.

Timothy Ridout
The British violist Timothy Ridout began his studies with Martin Outram at the Royal Academy of Music in London, which he completed 2016 with an award for special achievements. In the same year he was the first British violist to ever win first prize at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition. Additional competition successes include first prize at the Cecil Aronowitz International Viola Competition in 2014 and second prize at the Windsor Festival International String Competition in 2015. He was also awarded a special prize at the Max Rostal International Competition in 2015.

Besides giving numerous concerts with renowned orchestras such as the Rotterdam Philharmonic Strings and the Philharmonie Baden-Baden, Timothy Ridout has performed at international chamber music festivals such as the International Music Festival in Bad Kissingen, the Schubertiade in Hohenems and the Next Generation Festival in Bad Ragaz. Furthermore, he has taken masterclasses with Lawrence Power, Maxim Rysanov, Hartmud Rohde and Thomas Riebl. From 2011 to 2014 he was a member of the Celan Quartet.

He plays a viola by Pergerino di Zanetto from 1565-75, which is on loan to him by the Beares International Violin Society.

In 2017 he participated in the Kronberg Academy Festival. Timothy Ridout performed alongside Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff, Steven Isserlis and Sir András Schiff in Chamber Music Connects the World in 2018. From 2016 to 2019 Timothy Ridout studied at Kronberg Academy with Nobuko Imai. These studies were funded by the Lutz Raettig Stipendium.