Biographies

2023

Franz Hartmann

Oboe, Germany

Franz Hartmann was born in Berlin in 2005. He had his first oboe lesson at the age of 7 with Peter Michel. Since 2017, he has been attending the Philipp Emanuel Bach Music High School and has been taking oboe lessons with Prof. Dominik Wollenweber at the HfM Hanns Eisler Berlin.
He won the 1st prize at the German youth competition „Jugend musiziert“ in 2021 and received the special award from the Reinhard Lüttmann foundation. Furthermore, he receives scholarships from the Jürgen Ponto foundation and the foundation „Deutsches Musikleben“. 2022 Franz Hartmann won the second prize at the international „Norma Hooks Young Artists Competition“ in Boulder (USA).
In 2023 he won together with his schoolmates as a quartet again the first prize in the german youth competition „Jugend musiziert“
Franz is also a member of the german youth orchestra „Bundesjugendorchester“. As a soloist he has performed multiple times with different orchestras, such as the Italian chamber orchestra „I musici di Parma“ or the „Heidelberger Philharmoniker“.
He currently is playing an oboe made by Sergio Bulgheroni.

Zofia Olesik

Violin, Poland

She is a 17 years old student of Prof. Marcin Baranowski at the J. Kaliszewska music school in Poznań. She is the winner of the first prize in the 15th edition of the international competition addressed to young violinists - the Karol Lipiński and Henryk Wieniawski Competition in Lublin.

In June this year she had the opportunity to perform the Jean Sibelius violin concerto as a solist with the Zabrze Philharmonic Orchestra with which she performed the world premiere of Paweł Pudło's violin concerto "Gears of Time" last year. Zofia is also the winner of a prestigious award "Scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage YOUNG POLAND”.

Her recent achievements include GRAND PRIX at the International Violin Competition „Maestro dell Arco” in Ukraine, 2nd prize at the Kreutzer International Competition in Brussels, GRAND PRIX at the 3rd National Violin Competition "Jak Wieniawski", 1st prize at the "11th St. Serwaczyński National Competition for Young Violinists" in Lublin, Poland. She is also last year's recipient of the Morningside Music Bridge scholarship - an international scholarship program for young musicians. Thanks to the program's section, she worked under the supervision of world-famous professors: William van der Sloot, Midori and Noah Bendix-Bargley at the New England Conservatory in Boston, USA. Zofia has performed numerous solo concerts with an orchestra and concerts organized by the Katowice City of Gardens. She takes part in many master classes and violin workshops, including: The Violin Master Class of Prof. Michael Vaiman, Schlossakademia with Prof. Ulf Schneider or the Master Class of Prof. Florin Croitoru from the National Music University in Bucharest.

Weronika Kucharska

Flute, Poland

Weronika Kucharska was born in 2008 in Poznań. She began playing the flute at the age of six at the Tadeusz Szeligowski Secondary Music School.

Since 2022 she has attended Jadwiga Kaliszewska Secondary Music School in Poznań, in the flute class of Lidia Abucewicz.

Weronika regularly takes part in many music competitions under the direction of professors, such as Elżbiety Woleńskiej, Krystyny Gołaszewskiej, Antoniego Wierzbińskiego, Marii Peradzyńskiej.

Weronika is a laureate of numerous national and international competitions, including chamber ones. She has won e.g: 1st place in the King’s Peak International Music Competition in California, 1st place in Brussels International Music Competition, 2nd place in the North International Music Competition in Stockholm, 1st place in the National Flute Competition in Bielsko-Biała. Furthermore she has been awarded 1st place in International Chamber Music Competition KraCamera in Kraków.

In 2022, she became a laureate of the "Young Poland" Scholarship Program of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.

Gahyun Kim

Viola, Germany

Gahyun Kim was born in Busan, South Korea in 2006. She started playing the violin at the age of 6 with Younuk Han.

She eventually switched to the viola when she came to Berlin, Germany in 2019. Since then she has been studying at the Julius Stern Institut of UdK Berlin (University of Arts of Berlin) since 2020 and has been taking viola lessons with Mr. Yuta Nishiyama. A year later, in 2021, she became a student at the Secondary Highschool for Music Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach in Berlin.

Also she has won the 2nd prize at the German youth competition „Jugend musiziert" in 2022.

Rocco Pfeil

Violin, Germany

Rocco was born in Berlin in 2009 and received his first violin lessons at the age of four from Agata Sanocka-Morys. From the age of eight he studied with Professor Johannes Kittel (HfM Hanns Eisler) and became a student at the Musikgymnasium Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach Berlin in 2019. Currently, Rocco continues his studies with Professor Ulf Wallin at Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin.
He was awarded 1st prizes at the competition "Jugend musiziert" in the solo category as well as at the Märkische Musiktage, where he first performed as soloist with the Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt (Oder) at the age of 10.
Besides, Rocco was a first violinist for over four years since the founding of the Opernkinderorchester of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin in 2018. He holds a scholarship from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and regularly gains valuable experience at international master classes.

Andrii Shutko

Cello, Ukraine

Andrii Shutko was born in 2010 in Lviv into a family of famous musicians. In 2016 he entered Lviv State music Lyceum, where he is currently in 8^th grade and learning under his teacher Olga Shutko.

During his childhood Andriy visited numerous concerts with his parents and started to perform himself on stage very early.At the age of 13 he performed at different philharmonics throughout the country of Ukraine, including cities such as Dnipro, Zhytomyr, Lviv, Kirovograd, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi, Mariupol, Poltava, Kharkiv and Lutsk.

As a soloist, he has played with Lviv philharmonic orchestra ‘Virtuosos of Lviv ’, Cherkasy philharmonic orchestra, the chamber orchestra of Volyn philharmonic “Kantabile”, the chamber orchestra of Kirovohrad philharmonic “Kontsertino”, the Chernivtsi orchestra “Viva la vida”, the chamber orchestra of Poltava philharmonic named after Ahsharumova, the Mykachiv orchestra, the Mariupol orchestra “Renaissance”, Mykolaiv municipal chamber orchestra and many more.

Andriy is the laureate of the II International competition “Lviv virtuos” and the laureate of the international competition – Festival “Music lystopad”, Mariupol.

Remigiusz Skorwider

Conductor, Poland

Remigiusz Skorwider – born in Szamotuły, Poland, the orchestra conductor. Paderewski Academy of Music graduate, Poznań – specialisation in symphonic-opera conducting - Prof. Marcin Sompoliński class.

He trained at master classes for conductors led by Gabriel Chmura Jerzy Salwarowski and José Miguel Rodilla Tortajady (Spain). He also conducted early music groups, as part of Summer School of Old Music in Lidzbark Warminski, under the guidance of Zbigniewe Pilch and Marcin Szelest. He conducted, among others, Zielona Góra Philharmonic Symphonic Orchestra, „Collegium F” Orchestra, Poznań Academy of Music Symphonic Orchestra and Krakow Academy of Music Symphonic Orchestra .

For the last 13 years he has conducted Capella Samotulinus Chamber Orchestra where - with great success - he has prepared musical works ( symphonies, solo concerts) and vocal-instrumental pieces (''Dido and Aeneas” by H. Purcell, ''Messiah” by G. F. Händel). He also conducts three choirs.

In 2017 he was voted Personality Of The Year in category of culture in “Głos Wielkopolski” plebiscite. In 2022 he was nominated the conductor of Chopin State School of Music in Poznań Symphonic Orchestra.

2022

Vera Simkiv

Piano

Vira Simkiv was born in 2009 in Ivano-Frankivsk, Urkaine and started playing the piano at age . She is a student at Solomiya Krushelnytska Lviv Secondary Specialized Music Boarding School since 2017 and studies under Ljudmila Zakopets. Besides music, she is also interested in theatre, literature, especially in poetry, having even written poems of her own. Winning multiple medals, is also a passionate swimmer. As a pianst she had success at competitions, such as: Mozart Art Kids online Wettbewerb (1st prize, 2021), „Bieszczady bez Graniz“ competition in Sanok (Gold, Poland, 2019), „Bortnianski International Competition“ (2ⁿd prize, 2019, Ukraine), „Chopin Spring“ competition in Lutsk (2021, Ukraine).

Karol Łopiński

Trumpet

Karol Łopiński, born in 2004 in Poznań, began playing the trumpet at the age of 6 in a class of Marek Galubiński at the Karol Kurpiński Primary Music School in Poznań, with whom he continues his education at the Jadwiga Kaliszewska Comprehensive Secondary Music School. Karol took part in music courses many times, during which he collaborated with many trumpet players from around the world, including R. Gryń, R. Romm, G. Cassone, B. Ridenour, O. Antonsen and K. Braker. In 2020, he received the Prime Minister's Scholarship for the best results in science, and in 2022 for his artistic achievements he was awarded the Scholarship of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Karol's most important successes include: 1st place at the 29tʰ Poznań Competition for Wind Instruments in Poznań (2022), 1st place at the Kazakhstan International Music Competition (2021), 1st place at the 5tʰ International Contemporary Music Competition in Odessa (2021) and 1st place at the International Competition in Lviv (2020).

Zoya Nevgodovska

Conductor

Ukrainian born violinist Zoya Nevgodovska is living in Berlin, teaches violin at the college for music Hanns Eisler in Berlin since 2003 and since 2006 she leads the violin class for talented young violinists at the secondary music school C. Ph. E. Bach Berlin. She was born in Kyiv and finished her school education at the KSSMS - special music school for gifted children in Kyiv in 1994. In Germany since 1995, she was a student in the city of Hannover and finished her education at the Hanns Eisler college of Music in Berlin 2003. After that she started educating the gifted students of the Secondary School for music Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in Berlin where she also conducts the chamber orchestra „Bach-Juniors“. She aslo started uniting young musicians from countries all over Europe in her projects for years and since 2015 she is the head of the summer academy at the Pałac Morawa, concentrating on chamber music with students from Poland, Ukraine, and Germany. As the art director of the Young Classic Dialog Berlin Festival Zoya organizes chamber music gatherings for young instrumentalists from whole european continent.