Korneel Bernolet is active worldwide as conductor, harpsichordist and pedagogue. He has guest-conducted Les Talens Lyriques, Anima Eterna Brugge, Collegium Vocale Gent, Il Gardellino, Flanders Symphony Orchestra and the Bach Akademie Australia He directs his own collective Apotheosis in a repertoire span from early baroque till the high romantic era, and released several press-rewarded reference recordings of opera and chamber music by Rameau, Benda, Weckbacher and Bernier.
As regular assistant to Christophe Rousset, he is a welcomed conductor at the most prestigious opera houses (La Scala Milan, Vienna State Opera, Théatre du Châtelet Paris, Theater an der Wien, La Monnaie, Opéra National de Lorraine, soon also in New York and Washington DC) and also concertizes with him as a duo partner on harpsichord. Besides his intercontinental solo career in recitals and concertos, he acts as continuo player on harpsichord, pianoforte and organ at the core of Les Talens Lyriques, Collegium Vocale Gent, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Il Gardellino, Brussels Philharmonic, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, B'Rock, Scherzi Musicali, Flemish Radio Choir...
He is Professor of Harpsichord and Co-ordinator for Historically Informed Performance Practice at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp, where he teaches on the famous original Dulcken 1747 harpsichord at Museum Vleeshuis. He is invited worldwide for masterclasses and has a rich discography as musician and recording engineer.

www.korneel.bernolet.com

© Dymphna Vandenabeele

Kristian Bezuidenhout is one of today’s most notable and exciting keyboard artists, equally at home on the fortepiano, harpsichord, and modern piano. Born in South Africa in 1979, he began his studies in Australia, completed them at the Eastman School of Music, and now lives in London. After initial training as a pianist with Rebecca Penneys, he explored early keyboards, studying harpsichord with Arthur Haas, fortepiano with Malcolm Bilson, and continuo playing and performance practice with Paul O’Dette. Kristian first gained international recognition at the age of 21 after winning the prestigious first prize, and audience prize in the Bruges Fortepiano Competition.

Kristian is a regular guest with the world’s leading ensembles including the Freiburger Barockorchester, Les Arts Florissants, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Orchestre des Champs Elysées, Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest, Chicago Symphony Orchestra & the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester; and has guest-directed (from the keyboard) the English Concert, Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Tafelmusik, Collegium Vocale, Juilliard 415 and the Kammerakademie Potsdam, & Dunedin Consort (Bach St. Matthew Passion).

He has performed with celebrated artists including John Eliot Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe, Bernhard Haitink, Daniel Harding, Frans Brüggen, Trevor Pinnock, Giovanni Antonini, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Isabelle Faust, Alina Ibragimova, Rachel Podger, Carolyn Sampson, Anne Sofie von Otter, Mark Padmore & Matthias Goerne.

Kristian’s rich and award-winning discography on Harmonia Mundi includes the complete keyboard music of Mozart (Diapason d’Or de L’année, Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, & Caecilia Prize); the complete Piano Concertos of Beethoven with the Freiburger Barockorchester; Bach Violin Sonatas w. Isabelle Faust; Mozart Violin Sonatas with Petra Müllejans; Mendelssohn and Mozart Piano Concertos with the Freiburger Barockorchester (ECHO Klassik); Beethoven, & Mozart Lieder, and Schumann Dichterliebe with Mark Padmore (Edison Award). In 2013 he was nominated as Gramophone Magazine’s Artist of the Year. Upcoming releases include two discs of Mozart Piano Concertos with the Freiburger Barockorchester to be recorded in May 2021.

In the 20/21 season, Kristian appears as a soloist with Essener Philharmoniker/Richard Egarr, Les Arts Florissants/William Christie, Kammerorchester Basel/Giovanni Antonini, Orchestre National de France/Emmanuel Krivine and Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra/Klaus Makela. His play-direct visits include Concerto Copenhagen, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Freiburger Barockorchester and English Concert. Kristian gives solo recitals, continues his close recital partnership with Anne Sofie von Otter and new collaborations with Voces 8 and Niek Baar.

Netherlands based Olga Pashchenko is one of today’s most versatile keyboard performers on the international stage and equally at home on fortepiano, harpsichord, organ, and contemporary piano. From Bach and Beethoven on historical instruments to Ligeti on contemporary piano, Olga enjoys a busy and eclectic concert career as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician.

Olga began her musical studies at the age of 6 at the Gnessin School of Music with Tatiana Zelikman, giving her first piano recital in New York at the age of 9. She continued her studies at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory studying forte and modern piano with Alexei Lubimov, harpsichord with Olga Martynova and organ with Alexei Schmitov and completed them at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Richard Egarr in 2014. In 2017, she was appointed as a Professor at the Sweelinck Conservatorium van Amsterdam and Royal Conservatory of Ghent.

She is a regular guest at early and contemporary music festivals alike, including the Jordi Savall Festival, where she just performed with the Capella Nacional de Catalunya under the direction of Maestro Savall and a programme together with the Spanish violinist Lina Tur Bonet. Furthermore, she appears at the Utrecht Early Music Festival every year since 2014 and held an artist residency there; the Radio France Festival in Montpellier; the Festival Musiq’3 in Brussels, the Maggio Musicale Florence; the fortepiano series of Milan and Padua; AMUZ Antwerpen; Concertgebouw Bruges, and the Cité de la Musique in Paris. Together with Jed Wentz, she has an ongoing partnership for a special cinematic project, performing an array of new arrangements of romantic music to accompany a selection of silent films from the 1920s such as Tartuffe, Faust and now Nosferatu by F.W. Murnau.

As a concerto soloist Olga has performed with the Orchestra of the 18th Century; Meininger Hofkapelle; Jenaer Philharmoniker, at the Musikfestspiele Potsdam with the Capella Augustina, the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, with the Collegium 1704 under Vaclav Luks at the Chopin Festival Warsaw; with Teodor Currentzis and with the Finnish Baroque Orchestra at the RSO Festival Helsinki with Alexei Lubimov. Her chamber music partners include Alexander Melnikov, Giovanni Antonini, Evgeny Sviridov, Dmitry Sinkovsky, Avi Avital and Erik Bosgraaf. Recently, Olga made her debut at the Salzburg & Berlin Festival in recital with Georg Nigl.

Olga has been Hausmusikerin at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn since 2012, where she gives regular recitals in the series Bongasse 20: music from Beethoven’s time. She also has a strong connection with the AMUZ in Antwerp where she will be artist in residence from 2025 – 2028. She is part of the Artistic collective of Noorderkerkconcerten in Amsterdam since 2022.

Keyboardist Anthony Romaniuk’s singular artistic voice stems from his relentless exploration of a vast range of musical styles.

A natural musical polyglot, his classical training is complemented by his improvising prowess, allowing him to fluidly traverse the borders between genres.

Jazz-obsessed in his youth in Australia, he studied classical piano in New York (Manhattan School of Music), spent several years specialising in early music (harpsichord and fortepiano in the Netherlands) and since then has continued his development across the realms of improvisation, indie rock and ambient/electronic music.

As a classical recitalist, his repertoire includes music from Byrd to Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Brahms (often on historical instruments), to Ligeti, Adams and contemporary music. He works regularly with violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and tenor Reinoud Van Mechelen and is also a core member of Vox Luminis. Other noteworthy collaborations include working with clarinettist Reto Bieri, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Bern and Danish indie rock group Efterklang.

He has played at many important concert venues in Europe, including Wigmore Hall (London), Salle Gaveau (Paris), Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Berliner Konzerthaus, Flagey (Brussels) and at the Thüringer Bachwochen, as well as frequent engagements in the US, Australia and Japan.

His two solo albums on Alpha Classics consciously push the boundaries of classical orthodoxy through their blend of innovative programming, timbral diversity and improvisation. “Perpetuum”, released in February 2023, features no fewer than six keyboard instruments colouring a programme based around the timelessness of perpetual motion. “Bells”, his debut solo recording, was released in 2020 to widespread acclaim.

Romaniuk was the winner of the 2011 Westfield Fortepiano competition in Ithaca, NY as well as being a laureate of the 2010 MA Festival Fortepiano competition in Bruges.

He is represented worldwide by Rayfield Allied.

© Sightways.be

Petra Somlai was born in Hungary where she graduated in conducting and piano performance at the Béla Bartók Conservatory (Budapest). She completed her modern piano degree at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music (Budapest) in 2007. During these years the focus of her interest gradually turned to the historical interpretation on period instruments. She studied fortepiano and harpsichord with David Ward (England) and later under the direction of Fabio Bonizzoni, Menno van Delft, and Bart van Oort at the Sweelinck Conservatory Amsterdam and the Royal Conservatory The Hague, where she graduated summa cum laude for her Master in 2011.

In 2010 Petra Somlai won first prize and the audience award at the International Fortepiano Competition in Bruges (Belgium). In the same year she received the National Junior Prima Primissima Award of Hungary as outstanding young artist. She performs at major international early music festivals, including the Brugge Musica Antiqua Festival; Utrecht Early Music Festival; Boston Early Music Festival, Early Music Festival New York, Haydn Festival Eszterháza; Beethoven Festival Bonn, Budapest Beethoven Festival; Bach Festival Dordrecht; Klara Festival Brussels; AMUZ Festival Antwerp, Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, etc. and has given concerts all over Europe, USA, Mexico, China and Japan. She is often a conducting soloist with various orchestras, a soloist and an active recording artist.

Petra Somlai held a professorship at the Liszt Academy in Budapest in the 2011-2012 season and she was a professor of Early Keyboards on the faculty of University of North Texas from 2013-2015. She is currently professor of Fortepiano, Historical Performance Practice and lecturer of Methods and Didactics at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.

© Zsofi Raffay