Elizabeth Sombart, Nicolas Comi, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & Mihaela Cesa-Goje
Biography Elizabeth Sombart, Nicolas Comi, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & Mihaela Cesa-Goje
Elizabeth Sombart
Born in Strasbourg, Elizabeth Sombart started studying the piano at seven and gave her first public performance four years later. After receiving the National Piano and Chamber Music First Prize, she left France to study in Buenos Aires with Bruno-Leonardo Gelber and his mother. Her training was completed with great masters such as Peter Feuchtwanger in London, Hilde Langer-Rühl in Vienna, and finally Sergiù Celibidache at the University of Mayence, with whom she studied musical phenomenology for ten years.
Elizabeth has performed in the world’s most prestigious concert venues: Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Suntory Hall (Tokyo), Théâtre des Champs-Elysées (Paris). In addition to solo and chamber music recitals, she has played great piano concertos with L’Orchestre National de Lille and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Elizabeth has given piano masterclasses worldwide, and from a young age has sought to share classical music with the most diverse audiences possible, and with people from disadvantaged backgrounds. In 1988, she created Fondation Résonnance which is active today in seven countries.
Elizabeth has recorded extensively, published several books, and featured in a number of documentaries. She has recently appeared with tenor Andrea Bocelli by invitation in special gala concerts in Bucharest and Fatima. She has been honoured in France with the ranks of Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite and Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for lifetime achievements and services to music.
Nicolas Comi
is an Italian-Swiss piano virtuoso, composer and improviser. He started to play piano since the age of 5. From the age 7 he quickly became popular as a child prodigy, appearing in many national television channels as well as performing side by side with internationally established artists such as conductor Roberto Benzi and Phil Collins among others. Since 2017, he has been playing as a soloist and with other performers in many historical places of Switzerland and abroad. Since 2023 Nicolas Comi has been undertaking studies in Phenomenology of Sound and Gesture with Elisabeth Sombart, with whom he recorded Mozart’s 10th Piano Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London in March 2025.
Mihaela Cesa-Goje
Winner of the 2009 Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship, MIHAELA CESA-GOJE has been the recipient of several other conducting prizes and awards. The most recent is the 2010 Women Conductor Grant from the League of American Orchestras. Also, in 2003 she was awarded the "Sandor Vegh Prize" by the Romanian Mozart Society for an outstanding performance of Mozart's "Der Schauspiel Direktor" at the Cluj National Opera, Romania. In 2005, she completed her Conducting Diploma at the Royal Academy of Music in London and was awarded the Irene Burcher Prize. In 2009, she was selected as one of the three young Romanian conductors to debut at the Romanian Athenaeum, the most important concert hall in Romania.
Her conducting mentor is Maestra Marin Alsop, she also studied with Harold Farberman, Gustav Meier and Florentin Mihaescu.
Cesa-Goje is currently the Conductor of the Harmonia Cordis International Classical Guitar Festival.
Mihaela has appeared as guest conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Florida Orchestra, Colorado Symphony, Hartford Symphony,
Transylvania State Philharmonic, Sibiu Philharmonic, Dinu Lipatti Philharmonic, Oradea Philharmonic, Targu Mures Philharmonic.
She is a champion of contemporary music and has been involved in the presentation of many world premieres by Romanian composers. In 2008, Mihaela was selected as one of seven young conductors from around the world to participate in the prestigious Cabrillo Festival Conductors Workshop, California.
In April 2011 Mihaela was selected out of 160 candidates for a masterclass with Maestro Bernard Haitink with the Lucerne Festival String Orchestra.
