SYLVIA HUANG

Appreciated for her "true lyricism and her touching musicality, her simplicity and her sensitivity", and delivering a "wide color palette" (Le Soir), the Belgian violinist Sylvia Huang is described as a “moving and honest” musician with a “rich sound” (De Standaard). In 2019 she became laureate of the Queen Elisabeth International Competition and won the two audience prizes: the Musiq'3 Prize and the Canvas-Klara Prijs. She also received the Caecilia Prize of the Young Musician of the Year 2019 by the Union de la Presse Musicale Belge.

Sylvia has been a member of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam since August 2014. As a passionate chamber musician, she founded the GoYa Quartet with three of her RCO colleagues. After having won the prestigious "Prix de Salon 2015" awarded by the business network of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the GoYa Quartet Amsterdam was able to make recordings of two live performances of all Brahms and Schumann string quartets.

She made her debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in February 2021 playing Mozart Violin Concerto K.218 with Andrew Manze and has collaborated with many other orchestras such as the Belgian National Orchestra, the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, the Bad Reichenhall Philharmoniker, in halls such as the Palais des Beaux-Arts and Flagey in Brussels, the Vlaamse Opera in Gent, deSingel in Antwerp and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. She took part in several international festivals including B-Classic Festival van Vlaanderen, Les Echappées Musicales du Médoc, Festival Musiq’3, Klara in deSingel, Collegium Vocale Crete Senesi and the Festivals de Wallonie.

Born in 1994, Sylvia had her first violin lessons with her father and continued her studies at the Académie des Arts de la Ville de Bruxelles, and later on with Alexei Moshkov and Liviu Prunaru. She won first prize at the Belfius Classics National Musical Competition in 2004 and at the Lions European Musical Competition in 2008. She was a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra from 2009 to 2010 before joining the second violin section of the Belgian National Orchestra in September 2012. She was promoted to the position of co-principal violinist in 2013 before joining the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra a year later.

She plays on a Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi from 1751, on loan from the RCO Foundation.

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STEPHANIE HUANG

Stéphanie Huang began playing the cello at the early age with lessons from her mother. She obtained her bachelor's degree with great distinction at the Koninklijk Conservatorium van Brussel in the class of Jeroen Reuling and her master's degree and the Artist Diploma in Performance at the Paris conservatory (CNSM) in the class of Marc Coppey as well as her master's degree of chamber music in the class of Emmanuelle Bertrand since 2020.
By winning a first prize of the national music competition of Belgium(Dexia) at the age of 12, she made her debut at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels playing the Variations on a Rococo Theme by Tchaikovsky. In July 2015, she received the Grand Prix at the Suggia International Cello Competition in Porto. She is a laureate of the SPES, Meyer and Kriegelstein Foundations, and was selected for the Jaroussky Academy 2019-2020 and the prestigious International Seiji Ozawa Academy 2019/2021 as well as the Musical academy of Villecroze, tutored by Frans Helmerson.
In expending her repertory Stéphanie Huang performed a range of the great classical repertory including concertos of Dvorak, Elgar, Tchaikovsky ... with various orchestras (Kamerfilharmonie van Vlaanderen, Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia, Orquestra Sinfonica do Porto / Casa da Musica ...) under the direction of conductors such as M. Sanderling, C. Izcaray ... and she also appears as a recitalist and chamber musician at various national and international festivals such as Festival des Midis-Minimes(Belgium), Festival Seiji Ozawa à Matsumoto(Japan), Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo( Monaco), Internationaal Kamermuziekfestival Schiermonnikoog (Netherlands), festival of the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel.
Stéphanie Huang plays on a 'Thomas Bertrand' cello generously loaned by the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel.
Stéphanie Huang is presently artist in residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel under the guidance of Gary Hoffman.

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BORIS KUSNEZOW

Boris Kusnezow is one of the most sought after collaborative pianists of his generation. He performs with eminent instrumentalists and singers worldwide. His performances have taken him to renowned concert venues such as the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, the Kioi-Hall in Tokyo, the Munich Gasteig and the Berlin Philharmonie.

His artistic activities are documented in 12 CDs and numerous radio recordings. The German press (FAZ, Süddeutsche, Fono Forum, among others) have repeatedly praised him as a chamber musician and several of his CDs have been nominated for prizes, including the Opus Klassik and Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.

Boris Kusnezow is in demand as an official pianist for some of the world’s most prestigious instrumental and singing competitions, most recently being invited to the ARD Competition in Munich, the Joseph Joachim Competition in Hannover and the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels.

Boris Kusnezow was born in Moscow and began his musical education at the traditional Gnessin Academy. He has lived in Germany from the age of eight and completed his musical studies in Hannover with Professor Bernd Goetzke. Thereafter followed first place at the German Music Competition, international awards such as Fellowship of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust and scholarships from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes.

In addition to his active performing activities, he is founder of the piano chamber music academy „Chamber Lab“ in Montecastelli/ Italy, organises an international music masterclass in Schloss Bückeburg (IMAS) and volunteers for the Loewe Foundation, where he focuses on the promotion of classical music.

Teaching has become an important element in Kusnezow‘s artistic career. In 2020 he was appointed professor for piano chamber music at the University for Music and Theatre „Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy“ Leipzig.