“One of the most brilliant and inquisitive artists of the new generation”, said the New York Times of Christian Tetzlaff, one of today’s most highly demanded soloists on stages all over the world. As at home in the classical and romantic repertoire as in contemporary music, Christian Tetzlaff sets standards with his interpretations of the violin concertos of Beethoven, Brahms and Tchaikovsky as well as Berg, Schönberg, Shostakovich and Ligeti. He is particularly well-known for his incomparable performances of the Bach Solo Sonatas and Partitas. In 2005 he was chosen by Musical America as “Instrumentalist of the Year”. He frequently played recitals with Leif Ove Andsnes and Lars Vogt. As a soloist and chamber musician he has performed in all international musical centres, including amongst others New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Centre, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Vienna’s Konzerthaus and Musikverein, and in London, Paris, Berlin and Munich.
Christian Tetzlaff plays a violin by German violinmaker Peter Greiner.

In addition to her phenomenal career as a soloist and chamber musician, Antje Weithaas is a soughtafter conductor, particularly renowned for her play-conduct collaborations with leading international chamber orchestras.
As artistic director of Camerata Bern for nearly a decade, she helped shape the ensemble’s distinctive musical identity and continues to collaborate with them regularly. From the concertmaster’s podium, she has conducted large-scale repertoire, including Beethoven’s symphonies, and has recorded works by Tchaikovsky, Brahms, and Beethoven for CAvi.
She has also enjoyed a close artistic partnership as artiste associé with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris.
In 2025, she will embark on a South American tour with the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra. Her extensive discography includes Beethoven’s and Berg’s Violin Concertos (with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and Steven Sloane, CAvi) and the complete works for violin and orchestra by Max Bruch (with the NDR Radiophilharmonie under Hermann Bäumer, CPO). Her acclaimed solo recordings feature J. S. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas and Eugène Ysaÿe’s Six Sonatas. Further highlights include celebrated recordings of Robert Schumann’s Violin Concerto and Johannes Brahms’ Double Concerto—alongside cellist Maximilian Hornung and conductor Andrew Manze—which received the BBC Music Magazine Award in the „Concerto“ category. Her recording of Aram Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto and Concerto-Rhapsody with the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie, conducted by Daniel Raiskin, was also met with critical acclaim. Antje Weithaas began playing the violin at the age of four and studied with Professor Werner Scholz at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin.
She won the Kreisler Competition in Graz in 1987, the Bach Competition in Leipzig in 1988, and the prestigious Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition Hannover in 1991, which she now co-directs artistically with Oliver Wille. After teaching for several years at the Universität der Künste Berlin, she joined the faculty at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in 2004, where she has since become one of the world’s most respected violin pedagogues.
She performs on a 2001 violin by Peter Greiner.

Born in 1982 in Berlin, Martin Helmchen began his conservatory studies in the class of Galina Iwanzowa at the Hanns Eisler University of Music in Berlin; he pursued his studies under the guidance of Arie Vardi at Hanover University of Music, Theater and Media. Alfred Brendel and William Grant Naboré have also been his mentors. His career took off when he won the Clara Haskil Competition in 2001.
Since 2010, Helmchen has been Associate Professor for chamber music at the renowned Kronberg Academy. In 2020, his complete recording of the Beethoven piano concertos on the Alpha Classics label with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester conducted by Andrew Manze won the prestigious Gramophone Music Award. As a soloist, Martin Helmchen has concertized with a number of well-known orchestras including the Wiener Philharmoniker, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Wiener Symphoniker, Philharmonia Orchestra London, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, and the Cleveland Orchestra.
Helmchen collaborates on a regular basis with conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Manfred Honeck, Bernhard Haitink, Jakub Hr °uˇsa, Klaus Mäkelä, Paavo Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski, Andris Nelsons, Andrew Manze, Kazuki Yamada, Christoph von Dohnányi, Sakari Oramo, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Michael Sanderling, and David Zinman.
His passion for chamber music was kindled to a great extent by his early collaborations with cellist Boris Pergamenschikow. Helmchen now performs regularly with his wife Marie-Elisabeth Hecker, with Frank Peter Zimmermann, Julian Prégardien, Antje Weithaas, and Carolin Widmann. The year 2022 marked his 6th performance at the Ruhr Piano F estival.