Franziska Hirzel
has performed on many European stages as well as at the Salzburg Festival, Holland Festival, and Flanders Festival, Beethoven International Festival in Bonn, Prague Autumn Festival, Brno, Bratislava and Rheingau Music Festival. Her extensive concert and opera repertoire ranges from Rameau to contemporary composers. The soprano’s cooperation as Eurydice with Pina Bausch in a production of Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice took her to the Opèra Garnier in Paris and to the Teatro Carlo Fenice in Genova. The French first performance of Manfred Gurlitt’s Wozzek, in which she played the part of Marie, was awarded the Grand Prix de la Critique. She also sang this role in the Italian first production at the Teatro Regio in Turin. Hirzel has performed on a number of CD productions, including a recording of Schönberg’s Moses und Aron with the Concertgebow Orkest under Pierre Boulez, a release of Krenek’s Karl V on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the composer’s birth and in cooperation with the Beethoven International Festival in Bonn and the recording of Britten’s «Illuminations» under Roman Kofman with the Kiev Chamber Orchestra. The latest recordings are «Wagner and his contemporaries» (bmn20134), the 2nd stringquartet f-sharp minor by Alban Schoenberg with the Arditti Quartet(bmn20142) and the world premiere of the song-cycle «Lorca» by the swiss composer Jost Meier (bmn20155).

Tobias Schabenberger
studied Piano at the Music Universities in Stuttgart and Bern. He studied for 5 years with the renowned Italian pianist Bruno Canino. For the best Soloist Diplom in the year 1997 he won the «Eduard Tschumi Price» in Bern. He continued as assistant of Bruno Canino and teacher of fortepiano at the Music University in Bern. In 2003 he transferred to the Music Academy in Basel, where he teaches Piano, Chambermusic and Fortepiano.

He won several prices and is having a rich career as a chamber musician. He performed in concerts with singers like Kurt Widmer, Hans-Jörg Rickenbacher or Céline Wasmer and with instrumentalists like Hans Heinz Schneeberger, Thomas Demenga, Peter Hörr, Omar Zoboli, Christoph Ess, François Benda, the Gémeaux Quartet, the Cuarteto Gerhard and further more. On the Fortepiano he performed regularly with the famous baroque violinists Chiara Banchini and Daniel Sepec.

He recorded for German and swiss Radio and Television and was invited to Festivals like Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, Biennale di Venezia, Musikfestwochen Passau, Festival de Besançon, Festival de Rougemont and others. He was invited for lectures and concerts in 2012 to the WEF in Davos representing cultural leaders of Switzerland and gave Masterclasses in Germany, Austria and Spain.