Lise
Berthaud
Professor of Chamber Music - Professor of Viola (NE)
Lise Berthaud was born in 1982 and started studying the violin at the age of 5. She studied with Pierre-Henry Xuereb and Gérard Caussé at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris and was a prize winner of the European Young Instrumentalists Competition in 2000. In 2005, she won the Hindemith Prize at the Geneva International Competition. She was short listed by the Victoires de la Musique Classique 2009 as “Révélation de l’Année” (Newcomer of the Year).
Lise Berthaud is unanimously praised as an outstanding figure on the international music scene. She has performed in various prestigious concert venues throughout the world (Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Het Concertgebouw, Baden Baden Festspielhaus, Elbphilharmonie, Musikverein, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall, Bridgewater Hall, The Sage Gateshead, Philharmonie de Paris, Moritzburg Festival, Schwartzenberg’s Schubertiade Hohenems, Rencontres Musicales d’Evian) with such artists as Renaud Capuçon, Baiba Skride, Lauma Skride, Harriet Krijgh, Julian Steckel, Daishin Kashimoto, Eric Le Sage, Augustin Dumay, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Emmanuel Pahud, Gordan Nikollich, Martin Helmchen, Marie-Elisabeth Hecker, Alina Ibragimova, Veronika Eberle, Christian Poltera, Quatuor Ebène, the Modigliani Quartet.
As a soloist, Lise has played with all BBC orchestras, including for her BBC Proms Debut in 2014 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Litton. Other solo engagements include the Croatian Radiotelevision Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Belgique, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Orchestre National de Lyon, les Musiciens du Louvre, Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Sao Paulo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Orchestre de Chambre de Wallonie, Hong-Kong Sinfonietta, Hallé Orchestra, and various orchestras in France, with conductors like Sakari Oramo, Pascal Rophé, Fabien Gabel, Emmanuel Krivine, Andrew Litton, François Leleux, Paul Mc Creesh, Marc Minkowski, Leonard Slatkin who invited Lise to perform and record (for Naxos) Harold in Italy with the Orchestre National de Lyon as part of the orchestra’s Berlioz complete works recording for Naxos.
During the 2013-2015 period Lise was part of the prestigious BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists Scheme which allowed her to perform with all BBC orchestras and record a great amount of repertoire both live and in studio.
After taking part in Eric Le Sage’s successful recordings of Schumann and Fauré complete piano chamber music works, she released her first solo album in 2013 with pianist Adam Laloum under the French Aparté label. The disc featuring works by Brahms, Schumann and Schubert was unanimously praised and won several awards in France.
In 2018-2021 she took part in the recording of Brahms’ complete chamber music for B-Records with Eric Le Sage, Pierre Fouchenneret, François Salque and others, which has been critically acclaimed since then.
Her passion for contemporary music has also lead her to collaborate with various composers, including Philippe Hersant, Thierry Escaich, Henri Dutilleux, Gyorgy Kurtag, Guillaume Connesson, Florentine Mulsant or Eric Tanguy
Learn more about Lise Berthaud
Cédric
Pescia
Professor of Piano
Born in Lausanne, holding Swiss and French nationality, Cédric Pescia studied at the Conservatories of Lausanne (with Christian Favre) and Geneva (with Dominique Merlet), at the Universität der Künste in Berlin (with Klaus Hellwig), and at the International Piano Academy Lake Como (with D. Bashkirov, L. Fleisher, A. Staier, W. G. Naboré, and Fou T’song). Additionally, he perfected his skills with P.-L. Aimard, D. Barenboim, D. Fischer-Dieskau, I. Gage, I. Gronich, C. Zacharias, and the Alban Berg Quartet.
He won the First Prize at the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition in 2002 in Salt Lake City, USA.
He gives recitals and concerts with orchestras in Europe, the USA, China, and South America: Philharmonie and Konzerthaus Berlin, Konzerthaus Vienna, Wigmore Hall London, Mozarteum Salzburg, Carnegie Hall New York, Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, Tonhalle Zurich, Prague Spring Festival, Lucerne Festival, Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Davos Festival, Klavierfestival Ruhr. He has a long-standing collaboration with violinist Nurit Stark.
He is the artistic director of the chamber music series Ensemble enScène in Lausanne.
He is a laureate of the Leenaards Foundation in Lausanne and the Music Prize of the Vaud Foundation for Culture. For Claves Records, Aeon, BIS, Genuin, La Dolce Volta, he has recorded works by Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Schubert, Couperin, Messiaen, Debussy, Cage, Busoni, Enescu, and Gubaidulina.
In 2012, he was appointed Professor of Piano at the Haute école de musique de Genève.
Learn more about Cédric Pescia
Charlotte
Perrey Beaude
Professor of Writing Practice - Cadence Writing - Music Theory
Charlotte Perrey began her musical studies with piano, quickly developing a strong inclination for improvisation and composition.
After studying in advanced mathematics classes, she fully devoted herself to music and specialized in writing under the guidance of Stéphane Delplace. She continued her studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, where she earned First Prizes in Harmony, Counterpoint, 20th-21st Century Writing, Fugue and Forms, as well as the Marcel Dautremer Prize. She studied notably with Jean-François Zygel, Thierry Escaich, and Marc-André Dalbavie.
She currently teaches at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne and the Haute école de musique de Genève.
Nicolas
Bolens
Professor of Counterpoint, 20th-Century Writing, and Practical Writing
En associant traditions et explorations nouvelles des matières sonores, les œuvres de Nicolas Bolens investissent l’espace en valorisant les éléments et les sujets qui se présentent à lui.
Combining traditions and new explorations of sound materials, the works of Nicolas Bolens invest in space by enhancing the elements and subjects that present themselves to him.
His music is regularly connected to other elements: texts, films, places, evocations... In each context, he seeks an authentic dramaturgy that promotes unprecedented settings.
For example, with the Batida ensemble, he imagined "Welcome to the Castle" (2017), three musical acts for musicians moving through the Allymes Castle near Amberieu-en-Bugey.
For the Gémeau Quartet, he wrote "La Ville Oblique" (2013), a string quartet conceived as a musical extension of the short film "Un Chien Andalou" by Dalí and Buñuel.
Written words, most often poetic, permeate his entire production. He has composed on poems by Celan, Sachs, Mallarmé, Char, Blok, Khayyam, Michaux, Éluard, Basho, Neruda, Rilke, Adonis, Shakespeare... These authors, from various times and origins, have led him to integrate many languages into his works, considering their sonic as well as semantic potentials.
Orchestration also holds an important place in his work, rethinking the instrumentation of certain past works. In 2018, he re-orchestrated "Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen" and the 4th Symphony by Gustav Mahler for the Lemanic Modern Ensemble under the direction of conductor Pierre Bleuse.
Commissioned by the association Ouverture Opera, his recent rewriting of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" follows the same approach.
Nicolas Bolens has notably collaborated with the Batida ensemble, the Lemanic Modern Ensemble, the Swiss Chamber Soloists, the Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne, the Ensemble Vocal Polhymnia, the Ensemble Vortex, the Basler Madrigalisten, and the Ensemble Vocal Séquence...
Born in Geneva, he first studied piano at the Conservatoire de musique de Genève, then completed his training in the composition class of Jean Balissat. He further honed his skills with Rudolph Kelterborn, Klaus Huber, Edison Denisov, and Eric Gaudibert. He is the recipient of numerous composition prizes, including those from the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne (1993) and the Banque Cantonale Neuchâteloise (2002), as well as a scholarship from the Leenaards Foundation (1998).
An engaged pedagogue and artist, he teaches counterpoint, 20th-century writing, and composition at the Haute école de musique de Genève, where he has been the head of the Composition and Theory Department from 2015 to 2024. He is also involved in several institutions related to musical creation in Switzerland, including the Swiss Musicians Association, the Archipel Festival Association, the Nicati-de-Luze Foundation, and the Artistic Council of the Geneva Competition.
Learn more about Nicolas Bolens
Sarah
Verrue
Professeure of harp - chamber music with harp
Belgian harpist Sarah Verrue made a name for herself early on as a prize winner at the Dutch International Harp Competition, the Rotary Competition, the UFAM and the Martine Geliot Competition. At the age of 24, she became principal harpist of the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra under the baton of Paavo Järvi. Since 2019, she has been guest harpist with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra.
Sarah holds a Master's degree in music and chamber music from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris under the direction of Isabelle Moretti. She was a member of the Munich National Opera Academy in 2012 and, a year later, she took classes with Marie-Pierre Langlamet and played at the Karajan Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Sarah has performed as a chamber musician at renowned festivals such as the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Salzburg Festival, the MDR Musiksommer, the Festival van Vlaanderen and the Festival de Menton.
As a soloist, Sarah has performed with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht, the Graubünden Chamber Orchestra and the Cannes Symphony Orchestra.
Sarah has often worked in musical theatre at the Philharmonie du Luxembourg, in productions such as Cendrillon and Wolkenwanderer. In Zurich, she is involved in specialised schools for children with disabilities. In the summer, she is a coach at the Verbier Festival Orchestra, where she teaches and supports young musicians.
Romain
Guyot
Professor of clarinet
Romain Guyot won the prestigious Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York in 1996.
Noticed at the age of seventeen by Claudio Abbado while playing in the European Union Youth Orchestra, he served as principal clarinet of the Opéra National de Paris (1991-2001) and later with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (2003-2006). In 2008, he was chosen as the new principal clarinet for the renowned Chamber Orchestra of Europe (COE).
Romain Guyot is an artistic advisor for Buffet Crampon and Rico International.
Since 2009, he has been a professor at the Haute école de musique de Genève.
Learn more about Romain Guyot.
Milena
Viotti
Professor of horn
Milena Viotti was born in Lausanne in 1988 and began playing the horn at the age of eight at the Forbach Music School. In 2007, she went to study at the Musik Akademie in Basel before obtaining her Master's degree with Erik Penzel and Christian Lampert in Stuttgart.
In 2010, she joined the prestigious Munich Opera Orchestra, the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, as a high horn player and also played in renowned orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Orchestre de Paris.
Milena Viotti has won numerous prizes in major international competitions, such as the Prague Spring Festival Competition and the Luxembourg Competition.
Passionate about chamber music, she gives a large number of concerts each year with various ensembles in a wide variety of formations. Eager to share her experience and expertise, she participates in numerous workshops and masterclasses in Europe each year. As a teacher, her curiosity for new pedagogical approaches and innovative solutions makes her an educator who is ready to inspire and guide her students towards musical excellence.
Lambert
Colson
Professor of Cornetto
Lambert Colson studied with Françoise Defours, Pedro Memelsdorff, Bart Coen, Marleen Leicher, Bruce Dickey, and Gebhard David at institutions including the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel, ESMUC in Barcelona, the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, and the HFK in Bremen.
His collaborations include working with ensembles and conductors such as Scherzi Musicali, Le Poème Harmonique (Vincent Dumestre), Holland Baroque, La Fenice (Jean Tubéry), Pygmalion (Raphaël Pichon), B’rock, Collegium Vocale (Philippe Herreweghe), Correspondances (Sébastien Daucé), Cappella Mediterranea (Leonardo Garcia Alarcon), and Continuum.
He leads his own musical projects, directly derived from research undertaken in recent years with his ensemble InAlto. InAlto's most recent recordings have been critically acclaimed by the European press: Diapason d’Or & Diapason d’Or of the Year 2017, Choc de Classica, 5 stars Rondo Magazin, Joker Crescendo, Clé d’Or Res Musica, and selections of the year for Libération and Le Monde.
He currently teaches cornetto, ensemble music, and ornamentation at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel and the Haute école de musique de Genève.
In his continuous exploration of his instrument, he is pursuing a doctoral program focused on the mute cornett and its use in 17th-century Germany, in a joint project between the Koninklijk Conservatorium and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. The thesis will be publicly presented in 2024.
He has had several pieces dedicated to him by contemporary composers such as Zad Moultaka, Fabrice Fitch, and Bernard Foccroulle.
Eager for unusual collaborations, he works with choreographer Catherine Contour and explores the practice of hypnosis. He increasingly explores the possibilities offered by his instruments in contemporary music, collaborating with artists like Liesa van der Aa, Shara Nova (My Brightest Diamond), Petur Ben, Mugison, and Efterklang. He is also involved in several jazz and improvisation projects with artists such as Emmanuel Baily, Xavier Rogé, Franck Vagané, Adam Woolf, Jon Birdsong, and Eric Vloeimans.
Learn more about Lambert Colson.
Sergey
Ostrovsky
Professor of Violin
Sergey Ostrovsky was born in 1975 in Nizhny Novgorod into a family of musicians. His first violin teacher was David Lapidus. He then studied with Lazar Gantman and Yury Gluchovsky before emigrating to Israel with his family, where he continued his training with Yair Kless and Irina Svetlova. In 1996, he founded the Aviv Quartet, with which he first trained at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne with members of the Alban Berg Quartet, and at the Rotterdam Conservatory with members of the Daniel Quartet. He also participated in master classes with renowned musicians such as Isaac Stern, Herman Krebbers, Dorothy Delay, and Ivry Gitlis.
With the Aviv Quartet, he won the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition (a grand prize and four special prizes), the Bordeaux String Quartet Competition, the Aviv National Competition in Tel Aviv, and the Rodolfo Lipizer Prize. Whether as a chamber musician or soloist, Sergey Ostrovsky has performed in major venues (Carnegie Hall in New York, the Library of Congress in Washington, Wigmore Hall in London, the Louvre Auditorium and Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, and the Sydney Opera House) and in many countries (Israel, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, China, Canada, and Brazil). His solo repertoire includes works by Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Lalo, Chausson, and Sibelius, among others. He has also played with numerous orchestras conducted by maestros such as Zubin Mehta, Yoel Levi, Philippe Entremont, Maxim Vengerov, and Uriel Segal.
Sergey Ostrovsky has recorded for Naxos and EMI Classics, notably with Maxim Vengerov and the UBS Verbier Chamber Orchestra. He is the first violinist of the Aviv Quartet, performing major classical and romantic quartets, and the concertmaster of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. He plays a Giovanni Grancinno from 1716 and teaches violin at the Haute école de musique de Genève, Neuchâtel site.
Learn more about Sergey Ostrovsky
Axel
Schacher
Professeur de musique de chambre - quatuor à cordes
Born in 1981, Axel Schacher began studying the violin at the age of four. At the age of twelve, he won the Royaume de la Musique competition, organised by Radio France in Paris, and played E. Lalo's Spanish Symphony at the winners' concert, accompanied by the Republican Guard Orchestra. At the age of thirteen, he entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in the class of Boris Garlitski.
In 1998, he was awarded the Prix de la Ville de Paris, and in 2000, he received his first prize with honours from the Conservatoire National de Musique de Paris. He was a prize winner at the Andrea Postacchini International Competition in 1998, then in 2000 he won second prize at the Tibor Varga International Competition, as well as special prizes for the best interpretation of Bach's work and Paganini's caprice. Since 2003, he has held the position of first violin soloist with the Basel Symphony Orchestra.
He taught chamber music at the Guildhall School of London from 2010 to 2015. For more than twelve years, he was a member of the Belcea Quartet, an internationally renowned ensemble that has been performing for almost thirty years in the most prestigious venues (Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall, Boulez Saal,
Helbphilharmonie, Konzerthaus Wien) and with numerous musicians such as Tabea Zimmerman, Piotr Anderszerwski, Matthias Goerne, Jean Guihen Queyras, Antoine Tamestit, Martin Fröst, Elisabeth Leonska, Jorg Widmann and Ian Bostridge. The Belcea Quartet has recorded more than twenty-five albums, which have been acclaimed by the international press.
