Spring 2021
Founder and Director, Gonzalo X. Ruiz, “a master of expansive phrasing, lush sonorities, and deft passagework” (San Francisco Chronicle) is one of America’s most sought-after historical woodwind soloists. He has appeared as principal oboist and soloist with leading groups in the US and in Europe. Featured on dozens of recordings, Ruiz has received a Gramophone Award and Grammy nominations. He is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and his former students fill the ranks of most top groups across the country.
Artistic Director, European Division Jeanine Krause is praised as “delightful and so refreshing” (Boston Musical Intelligencer) and performs on oboes and recorders with orchestras and as a soloist in North America, Europe, and worldwide. Her many fruitful collaborations include giving the first period performance of J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion in Cape Town together with South African talent, participating in the provocative stage production “Giacomo Variations” with John Malkovich, the Wiener Akademie and Musica Angelica and performing in the East and Far East with Japanese and European orchestras together with Joshua Rifkin’s Bach Ensemble.
Since 2005 Beate Bartelmeß has devoted herself intensively to the baroque oboe, expanding her musical activities to include cantatas, oratorios and orchestral works. She studied recorder and instrumental pedagogy from 1980-1985 and is mainly active in the pedagogical field and also with chamber music. Her teachers were Matthew Peaceman and Jeanine Krause, and she attended courses with Xenia Löffler and Hans-Peter Westermann.
Peter A. Bauer is a specialist in percussion in the field of baroque and renaissance music. In addition to his duties teaching world music percussion and leading ensembles at Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Leipzig, he also directs his own chamber music projects for which he composes music (Ensemble Alcantara, the Trio Bauer, Vogt & Dame). Since 2003 he is the percussionist of Lautten Compagney Berlin and since 2008 he is a member of Capella de la Torre. He has recorded over 50 CDs with both ensembles, has won the Echo Klassik and Opus Klassik several times and has given concerts on all continents of the world. In addition to his concert activities and teaching, he is also professionally involved in illustration and cartoon drawing.
Antonello Cola studied modern oboe with M. Marchi at the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome and historical oboes with A. Mion at the ISSM G. Briccialdi in Terni and P. Grazzi at the Conservatorio E.F. Dall’Abaco in Verona. He then continued his studies with A. Spehr at the HfMDK Frankfurt. He plays in many baroque orchestras and chamber music ensembles of various formations. As an orchestral musician and soloist, he has performed at numerous festivals across Europe.
Wolfgang Dey studied recorder and oboe at the Musikhochschule in Cologne. Following his passion for early music, he soon specialized in historical instruments. As a soloist and ensemble member (among others at Musica Antiqua Cologne and Concerto Cologne) he has given concerts at most of the major international early music festivals. He teaches recorder, Baroque oboe and Baroque bassoon at the Hochschule for Music and Dance in Cologne.
Victor Gutu has been a specialist for historical performance practice since 2008. He first studied historical bassoons at the HfMDK Frankfurt am Main and later completed his Master’s Degree at the HfK Bremen. He worked professionally in the Orchestra de L’Academia del Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona and in the Philharmonic of Nations. Concert tours have taken him to Asia, Mexico, and the Orient as well as across Europe. He is active in various ensembles and orchestras in the field of ancient and modern music.
Joachim Hopp – Pictures, Movies, Documentations – Music and movement have been the leitmotifs in his vita since his youth. They have always accompanied him as a dancer, father, IT consultant, masseur and as a teacher for dance, TaiChi, QiGong and yoga. He is always fascinated by bringing moods and situations in connection with music, using moving images to evoking emotions in the viewer.
Arie Hordijk studied recorder and historical performance practice at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He has now been playing historical bassoons for more than 20 years and has performed with various ensembles and orchestras all over Europe. His repertoire ranges from Monteverdi to Schubert.
Dagmar Nilles plays in chamber music ensembles and baroque orchestras, especially in the Rhine-Main area. As a recorder player and oboist, she also performs as a soloist. she is very fascinated by the ensemble “Symphonie des Dragons”, which consists mainly of double reed instruments.
Yoshio Takayanagi is in demand both as a soloist and as a continuo player. He is a member of numerous ensembles including PassaGallo, Aquila and Banchetto Musicale. In 2009 and 2012 he gave was a featured soloist at the Bach Festival in Hesse and Thuringia (Germany). He studied voice at the Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo and in London where he also took lute lessons with Jacob Heringman. From 2003 to 2011 he studied lute with Yasunori Imamura at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt. At the same tiem, he studied medieval music with Maurice van Lieshout.
Toshinori Ozaki gives concerts all over Europe, Japan and Taiwan as a guitarist and lutenist. In 1981 he won the Kyushu guitar competition (Japan). Ozaki studied early music (lute) in Osaka and later in Frankfurt with Yasunori Immamura. As a soloist and continuo player, he regularly performs with well-known ensembles such as Camerata Köln, La Stagione Frankfurt, Les Musiciens du Louvre, L’arpe festante Munich, Kammerorchester Basil, Le Parlement de Musique and many renowned European opera houses.
Clemens Schlemmer lives and works in Frankurt and as a bassoonist he is at home on the modern as well as the historical bassoons and contrabassoons. For nine years he was principal contrabassoonist of the Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock. During that time he played with the Deutsche Sinfonieorchester Berlin and the Berlin Philharmonic. He has played historical bassoons since 15 years with the Lauttencompagney Berlin, La Banda, the Munich Hofkapelle and Elbipolis Hamburg to name a few.
Wolfram Schweickhardt is a longstanding student of the renowned oboists Matthew Peaceman (+2008) and Jeanine Krause and has specialized in historical oboes. A particular focus of his work are the sacred works of Johann Sebastian Bach; he regularly participates in the performances of cantatas, passions and oratorios in concerts and church services in Hesse. He is also dedicated to Baroque chamber music and is a member of the Symphonie des Dragons ensemble.
Naomi Sladdin is the newest member of Symphonie des Dragons. Naomi has performed a wide repertoire of sacred and secular music as a soprano under the direction of Andreas Köhs, (Kurt Thomas Chamber Choir) Robin Doveton (Vocalis Frankfurt) and David Watkin (St. Endellion Music Festival, UK). As a Bach enthusiast, she is living her dream and playing Baroque oboe under the great direction of Jeanine Krause.
Katharina Starlay is a fashion designer and image consultant. There is hardly anything she has not yet seen regarding (corporate) clothing, style, and the need to perform in public. With her you would never have to feel awkward. Her readers love her Manager Magazine column “Starlay express” as well as her published books. Her leadership experience in retail in the fields of fashion and cosmetics gives her a unique bouquet of practical knowledge and an authentic presence as trainer, coach, and designer. Since 2014 Katharina is member of the German Knigge-Council, where she represents sustainability of clothing and the “grace of mind”.
Gabi Vogel plays oboe and English horn in various constellations. She is a member of a symphony orchestra, takes part in wind ensembles, takes part in choral projects abroad and is dedicated to chamber music. In recent years, her focus has been on baroque music, preferably trio sonatas and quartets. Here she also likes to use the recorder. Gabi Vogel has been playing the baroque oboe and baroque oboe d´amore for several years in order to get closer to this era.
Ursula Vogt, Bassoon and recorder, has dedicated herself to the interpretation of solo, chamber and orchestral music with historical instruments for many years. She participated in numerous concerts as well as CD and radio productions. Her playing is described as “excellent, with impressive virtuosity, spacious phrase formation and directly skipping sculpture”.
After completing her diploma in modern oboe at the Freiburg University of Music, Elisabeth Wagner devoted herself to studying historical oboe and flute instruments at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with great success. There she was a permanent member of the oboe band on historical instruments. Since then there have been many appearances with chamber music ensembles and orchestras, e.g. under Ton Koopman, Hervé Niquet and Andreas Scholl. Elisabeth Wagner also gained a good reputation as a soloist.
After studying as a qualified recording producer in Detmold, Uwe Walter worked for 10 years in public broadcasting and at the Südwest-Tonstudio in Stuttgart, including several years as chief recording producer and curator.
For 30 years he has been working as a freelance recording producer for numerous classical labels at home and abroad; Since then, more than 400 CDs have been produced under his leadership. Many of them have been awarded prizes.
Eduard Wesly, born and raised in Amsterdam, studied the oboe with Bas Prinsen, Carlo Ravelli and Jan Spronk and then spent eleven years playing in the reed ensemble Calefax. For some years he has specialised in the music and oboes of the eighteenth century. He gained valuable experience with the English Baroque Soloists under John Eliot Gardiner, with Musica Antiqua Cologne under Reinhard Goebel and with Al Ayre Español under Eduardo Lopez Banzo. He is currently a member of the Orchestra Libera Classica in Tokyo and works on a freelance basis with various orchestras in Europe and Australia.