Mathis Rochat
is a Swiss-French violist based in Berlin.

Inspired by Yuri Bashmet's saying "Nobody knows how viola should sound!", he enjoys the freedom that his instrument gives him in terms of sound coloring and likes to explore all kind of repertoire, new and old, originals or transcriptions.

He has appeared as a soloist with the Walton Viola Concerto, Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante and the Hoffmeister Viola Concerto with orchestras such as the Norddeutsche Philharmonie and the Da Capo Ensemble.

A keen chamber musician, Mathis Rochat appears in different formations around Europe, China and South America and has been taking part in festivals and music series such as Kronberg Academy's Chamber music connects the world(GER), Krzyzowa music (POL) or Festival de Pâque and Août musical de Deauville (FR). Through chamber music he got the chance to play with some of the greatest artists alive such as Gidon Kremer, Pinchas Zuckermann, Lynn Harrell, Augustin Dumay, Christian Tetzlaff and Antje Weithass and some of the most promising classical artists such as David Kadouch, Alasdair Beatson ,Pierre Fouchenneret, Victor Julien-Lafferière, Nadège Rochat, Anastasia Kobekina, Amaury Coeytaux or Will Hagen.

A winner of the national German competition “Jugend Musiziert” in solo and chamber music categories he was awarded special prizes at the “Cecil Aronowitz” and “Beethoven hradec” international competitions.

Mathis Rochat is a scholarship holder of the LYRA foundation Switzerland, Villa Musica foundation Rheinland Pfalz and is a regular guest of the Fondation Singer-Polignac in Paris.

Born in 1994 in Geneva where he started his musical studies on the violin before moving to Cologne (Germany) and discovering his passion for the viola, Mathis started his studies as a 15 year old “young student” at the Cologne HfMT in the class of prof. Antoine Tamestit. He then moved to Leipzig to follow the teaching of prof. Tatjana Masurenko at the Felix Bartholdy Mendelssohn HMT.

He has also taken masterclasses in IMS Prussia Cove, Kronberg masterclasses and Blonay masterclasses with renowned violists and teachers such as Tabea Zimmermann, Nobuko Imai, Lars Anders Tomter, Thomas Riebl et Garth Knox.

He plays on a viola by Pierre Vidoudez (1949).

Erdem Mısırlıoğlu
was born in Ipswich in 1989 to a Turkish father and British mother. Neither of his parents are musicians, but he started his own musical training at the age of six, having piano lessons from the age of nine. At the age of thirteen he was recommended to attend a conservatoire on Saturdays and studied for five years under Mark Fielding at Junior Guildhall. He is now in the third year of his undergraduate course at GSMD, where he has won a full scholarship to study with concert pianist, Martin Roscoe.

In 2006, Erdem was a prizewinner in the International Rachmaninov Competition for Young Pianists, held in the composer’s birth place, and was also awarded the Keyboard Instrument Prize at GSMD. In 2008 he won the Principal’s prize at GSMD and was the piano winner of BBC Young Musician of the Year. Subsequently, he performed Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

He has enjoyed receiving masterclasses from top pianists including Ronan O’Hora, Bernard Roberts, Peter Donohoe and Lang Lang, who said about Erdem’s playing: “Such a special sound...I really enjoyed everything he does, it’s quite stunning playing”.

He is an active performer, regularly appearing as recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician. Next season’s concerto performances are to include Liszt’s 1st Piano Concerto, Rachmaninov’s 3rd Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s 1st Piano concerto. His past performances have taken him to France, Poland and Russia and he has played in venues such as St Martin in the Fields, Snape Maltings, Cardiff Millennium Centre and the Wigmore Hall. A recital of Beethoven’s op 109 Sonata and Chopin’s 4 Ballades at the Wigmore Hall was broadcast on Radio 3.

A keen chamber musician, Erdem is part of a piano trio formed with friends at GSMD as well as the Arnold Camerata, a larger ensemble of string and wind players from GSMD and RAM, with whom he recently performed Schubert’s Trout Quintet and Poulenc’s Wind Sextet among other works. He enjoys working with other musicians and always wants chamber music to be a part of his musical life.