Isabelle van Keulen
Since her breakthrough in 1984 winning the Eurovision Young Musician of the Year, a competition that was broadcast all over Europe and watched live on television by millions, Isabelle van Keulen can now look back on many years of musical diversity. Not only is it always vital for her to approach the musical score with honesty and with an extremely consious approach to interpretation, she also strives to communicate with her audiences and musical partners, allowing her to perform in an inspirational, lively and enthusiastic manner.

Her versatility lies in the fact that she not only plays the violin, but as well viola with the same energy, performing chamber music in any thinkable combination and directing chamber orchestra performances. Whether in the over 20 year intense collaboration with the Dutch pianist Ronald Brautigam, concerts with mezzo Christianne Stotijn, performing/directing the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, combining violin and viola in one appearance, founding a chamber music festival – from 1997 until 2006 Isabelle van Keulen was Artistic Director of the Delft Chamber Music Festival – giving masterclasses or being a soloist with orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic or NHK Tokyo. Above all, being faithful to the music is her highest priority.

She has over the course of her career engaged works written by contemporary composers. She had many concertos written especially for her (Theo Loevendie, Erkki-Sven Tüür) and has many other 20th and 21st century works in her repertoire: Concertos by Henri Dutilleux, John Adams, Lera Auerbach, Oliver Knussen and Brett Dean. She also likes to perform less known works by Colin Matthews and Concertos by Krenek, Pettersson and Busoni.

Isabelle van Keulen has made many recordings in the past decades, the most recent ones are Berg Violin Concerto (Chandos), a CD of violin-piano sonatas by Strauss, Nino Rota and Respighi (Channel Classics), Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet with Sharon Kam (Berlin Classics) , Bach’s Goldberg Variations with the Leopold String Trio (Hyperion) and Prokofiev Complete Works for violin and piano with Ronald Brautigam (Challenge, December 2012). In May 2013 a high profile CD with music by Astor Piazzolla was released on Challenge Records, Tango!, combined with DVD/Bluray and documentary, with the Isabelle van Keulen Ensemble.

Since autumn 2012 she is professor for violin, viola and chamber music at the Luzern University of Arts.

Oliver Triendl
One can hardly imagine a more devoted champion of neglected and rarely played composers than pianist Oliver Triendl. His tireless commitment – primarily to romantic and contemporary music – is reflected in more than 100 CD recordings. The scope of his repertoire is surely unique, comprising some 90 piano concertos and hundreds of chamber music pieces. In many cases, he was the first to present these works on stage or to commit them to disc.

As a soloist Triendl has performed together with many renowned orchestras. The list includes the Bamberg and Munich Symphonies, Munich Radio Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, NDR Radio Philharmonic, Gürzenich Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, German Radio Philharmonic, German State Philharmonic of Rhineland-Palatinate, Munich, Southwest German, Stuttgart, Württemberg and Bavarian Radio Chamber Orchestras, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne, Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg, Tonkunstler Orchestra Vienna, Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Czech State Philharmonic, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, Polish Chamber Philharmonic, Georgian Chamber Orchestra, St.Petersburg Camerata, Zagreb Soloists and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.

The avid chamber musician has concertized with fellow musicians such as Christian Altenburger, Wolfgang Boettcher, Thomas Brandis, Eduard Brunner, Ana Chumachenko, David Geringas, Clemens Hagen, Frans Helmerson, Hervé Joulain, Isabelle van Keulen, Rainer Kussmaul, François Leleux, Lorin Maazel, Marie Luise Neunecker, Paul Meyer, Sabine and Wolfgang Meyer, Pascal Moraguès, Charles Neidich, Arto Noras, Raphaël Oleg, Gustav Rivinius, Benjamin Schmid, Hagai Shaham, Christian Tetzlaff, Radovan Vlatković, Jan Vogler and Antje Weithaas. He performed with Apollon musagète, Artis, Atrium, Auryn, Carmina, Danel, Keller, Leipzig, Meta4, Minguet, Pražák, Sine Nomine, Škampa, Talich and Vogler String Quartets as well as with excellent artists of the younger generation like Nicolas Altstaedt, Claudio Bohórquez, Mirijam Contzen, James Ehnes, Liza Ferschtman, David Grimal, Ilya Gringolts, Alina Ibragimova, Sharon Kam, Henning Kraggerud, Pekka Kuusisto, Johannes Moser, Daniel Müller-Schott, Alina Pogostkina, Christian Poltéra, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Baiba Skride, Valeriy Sokolov, Carolin and Jörg Widmann.

Triendl, a native of Mallersdorf, Bavaria, where he was born in 1970, and a prizewinner at many national and international competitions, studied under Rainer Fuchs, Karl-Heinz Diehl, Eckart Besch, Gerhard Oppitz and Oleg Maisenberg. He has concertized with success at festivals and in many of Europe’s major music centers as well as in North and South America, South Africa, Russia and Asia.