Members

Louisa Staples, Violin I

Multiple international award-winning British violinist Louisa Staples was born in 2000 and is currently studying at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler with Professor Antje Weithaas. Louisa is a major prize winner in competitions including the Long-Thibaud- Crespin International Competition, Louis Spohr International Violin Competition and the Carl Flesch International Competition, where she was awarded a total of four prizes including the Orchestra's Choice Award. In 2021 she was a finalist in the prestigious Premio Paganini International Violin Competition in Genoa. Recent concert highlights include a recital in New York’s Carnegie Hall, appearing as soloist in the Grand Hall of the Liszt Academy in Budapest, L’Auditorium de Radio France and St.Martin-in-the-fields in London and invitations to festivals including the Sommers Musicaux de Gstaad, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Festival Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Hamburg International Chamber Music Festival, in addition to numerous solo recitals across Europe. She is joint Artistic Director of the Alderney Chamber Music Festival- an annual summer music festival which she founded with her brother, Samuel Staples, which celebrates and brings together some of the world’s most promising young musicians for a series of summer concerts. Louisa is a scholarship holder of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and performs on the „ex- Michel Schwalbe“ Guadagnini, made in Piacenza in 1744, generously loaned by the German Instrument Fund.

Johannes Brzoska, Violin II

Johannes Brzoska had his first violin lesson at the age of four with Nikolai Mintchev in Essen. After studying for four years with Prof. Anke Dill in Stuttgart, he moved to Berlin in 2020 to study with Prof. Nora Chastain. He received further inspiration from highly renowned teachers such as Kolja Blacher, Mihaela Martin, Eberhard Feltz, Mintcho Mintchev, Svetlin Roussev and Stephan Picard. In 2023, he participated in the highly acclaimed Ozawa International String Quartet Academy as well as the Villars Music Academy. Since 2022, he has been an academist of the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin (DSO). He won several prizes at competitions such as the "Bundeswettbewerb Jugend Musiziert" in his childhood, and more recently at both chamber music and solo competitions by the Berlin music conservatories ("Alice-Samter Kammermusikwettbewerb" and "Ibolyka Gyarfas Violinwettbewerb"). In 2023, he performed four concerts of Brahms' Violin Concerto with "Das Junge Orchester NRW." His deep interest in chamber music has brought him together with many other young musicians and constitutes a major part of his concert life, leading him to join the chamber music organization Musethica in 2023. He plays a violin by Nicolas Lupot, generously loaned to him by the "Alice und Hans Joachim Thormählen" Foundation. In his childhood, he discovered his interest in composition and has composed several works for different instruments and ensembles since then. One of his latest works is the standalone movement "Symphonisches Fragment" for Solo Violin and Orchestra, which he premiered with "Das Junge Orchester NRW." Furthermore, his interest in filmmaking led him to create the experimental short movie "Dort, wo die Mühle steht," which can be watched on his YouTube channel.

Gordon K. H. Lau, Viola

Kwan Hon Gordon Lau, born in Hong Kong in 1999, is a versatile musician now based in Berlin. He graduated from the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin and is currently pursuing a master's degree in chamber music under the mentorship of Professor Tabea Zimmerman at HfMDK Frankfurt. Gordon is an active chamber musician. His chamber music partners include Torleif Thedéen, Sayaka Shoji, Rainer Schmidt, Karl-Heinz Steffens, Peter Bruns, Bruno Delepelaire, Roland Glassl and many other well-known artists. He also had successful experiences as a guest principal violist in orchestras at a very high level such as Kammer-Akademie Potsdam and Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra. During Corona time in 2020, he and his brother were invited by violinist Daniel Hope and ARTE.tv to the renowned TV show "Hope@Home" , and the performance was a sensational success. He had various opportunities to attend master classes with viola masters such as Nobuko Imai, Nils Mönkemeyer, Lars Anders Tomter etc. He has often been invited to various music festivals, such as the Seiji Ozawa Academy Switzerland, Zermatt Music Festival, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Villars Music Institute and many others. Gordon has been a scholarship holder of the "Villa Musica" Rhineland-Palatinate since the 2019/20 season, and was awarded as “Star of Villa Musica 2023”. In addition to playing the viola, Gordon is also a passionate singer. As a member of the Hong Kong Children's Choir, he has performed in Germany, Finland, Italy, England, Japan, Korea, China, etc. In the semester 2015/2016 he had singing lessons with Prof. Kai Wessel in Cologne, a well-known countertenor in Germany.

Umut Saglam, Violoncello

Born in Ankara in 1998, Umut Sağlam began his cello education in 2009 with Tufan Tolga, continuing with Dilbağ Tokay in Istanbul between 2014 and 2016. In 2016, he was accepted to the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin with a full scholarship, graduating in 2020 under the guidance of Prof. Frans Helmerson. He completed his master’s studies with Prof. Claudio Bohorquez at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin in 2024. As a soloist, Sağlam has performed with orchestras including the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Presidential Symphony Orchestra, Istanbul, Bursa, Eskişehir, Çukurova State Symphony Orchestras, and Orchestre des Jeunes du CRR de Paris. His awards include the Aydın Gün Award from the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), first prize at the Gaetano Zinetti Music Competition in Italy, and first prize at the Tremplin International Cello Competition in France. He was also a prize winner at various national competitions from a young age. He has participated in renowned festivals such as the Kronberg Academy, Aurora Music Festival, and Krzyżowa Music and Istanbul Music Festival working with distinguished musicians including Daniel Barenboim, András Schiff, Steven Isserlis, Gary Hoffman and Tabea Zimmermann. Since 2018, Sağlam has regularly performed with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra under the direction of Daniel Barenboim, taking part in major international tours. In addition, he has collaborated with orchestras such as the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Kammerakademie Potsdam, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra. In the 2019/2020 season, he was selected as one of six cellists for Gautier Capuçon’s “Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle” at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris. He currently plays a 1914 George Winterling cello.