Artists 2026
Susanna BRAUN / piano
Swiss pianist Susanna Braun is a young emerging talent on the classical music scene. In 2024, she made her debut at the Tonhalle Zürich performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto KV 466 and earned praise for her “sensitive touch, high virtuosity, and expressiveness” (Schaffhauser Nachrichten).
She regularly performs at renowned venues across Europe, including TivoliVredenburg Utrecht, Tonhalle Zürich (Great and Small Hall), ETH Zürich, BBC Philharmonic Studio, Manchester’s RNCM Concert Hall, Bridgewater and Stoller Hall, London’s Steinway Hall, St Mary’s Perivale, St James’s Church Piccadilly, Birmingham Town Hall, Weimarhalle, Bechstein Centrum Hamburg, Spiegelzaal of the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Teatro Comunale in Ferrara, and Ehrbar Hall in Vienna.
In June 2025, she appeared with the BBC Philharmonic for the first time, performing Bacewicz’s Piano Concerto, which was also recorded for a live BBC Radio 3 broadcast. The Arts Desk described her interpretation as “gentle, bittersweet and evocative”. She has also collaborated with the Manchester Camerata, the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, the Sinfonietta Schaffhausen, the Jena Philharmonie, the Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock, and the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory Orchestra of Florence, among others. This spring, she will perform Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra.
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She has already earned significant international recognition. In 2025, she reached the semifinals of the International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht; in 2024 she was a top ten candidate at the Rina Sala Gallo International Piano Competition in Monza and one of only 36 participants selected for the Concours Géza Anda. For her artistic achievements she has received numerous awards – among them the Brigitte Engerer Prize “Jeune espoir” at the 2023 Piano Campus in Paris. Her early achievements include first prizes at the International Competition for Young Musicians Enschede, the Ferrara International Piano Festival, and the Swiss Youth Music Competition, as well as the Encouragement Prize awarded by the Neues Orchester Basel.
Susanna, discovered by Maestro Danilo Manto, received her musical education at leading institutions in Europe and England. She holds the prestigious International Artist Diploma (IAD) from the RNCM (Royal Northern College of Music) and the Academy Diploma from the Imola International Academy “Incontri con il Maestro”. She earned her master’s degree at the Hochschule für Musik FRANZ LISZT Weimar and her bachelor’s degree with honours at the RNCM. Additionally, she received the Diplôme Supérieur with highest distinction from the Schola Cantorum in Paris. She is currently pursuing the “Specialized Music Performance – Soloist” programme at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) as well as the post-diploma programme at the Imola International Academy. Her principal teachers include Till Fellner, Grigory Gruzman, Boris Petrushansky, and Helen Krizos.
A passionate chamber musician, she is the founder and artistic director of BlenioMusica, the annual chamber music festival held in Valle di Blenio (Switzerland), now in its sixth year (2026) and recognized for its innovative programming featuring young artists from around the world.
Susanna is part of the Valaris Music family, with whom she recorded her first album, “OUROBOROS”. She has recently performed for the Orpheum Foundation and is grateful for the Excellence Scholarship of the ZHdK Foundation.
Alessandra DONINELLI / cello
The Swiss-Austrian cellist Alessandra Doninelli earned international recognition with her debut at the Berlin Philharmonie giving the premiere of Daniel Pacitti cello concerto. Her radiant personality and expressive musicianship, brought Alessandra on the stages of the world’s leading venues, including the Tokyo Opera City, the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Minato-Mirai Hall in Yokohama, the Swiss federal Palace, the Palau de la Musica Catalana in Barcelona, and the Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid.
Alessandra recently appeared as a soloist with the “Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana”, the “Basel Sinfonieorchester”, the “Stuttgarter Kammerorchester”, the “Camerata dei Castelli” and the “Eurasian Soloists Chamber Orchestra” under the baton of Andrey Boreyko, Kevin Griffiths, Andreas Laake and François Benda.
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“Music is capable of moving the mountains and when we share those fleeting episodes of sound with others, the entire planet finds itself in another galaxy” through those words Alessandra expresses the power that chamber music has for her. She worked with inspiring mentors including Günter Pichler (Alban Berg quartet), Eberhard Feltz, Oliver Wille (Kuss Quartet, Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quaret), Heime Müller (Artemis Quaret), Heinz Holliger and won the prize for the “most outstanding chamber music group with piano” of 2020-2021 academic year at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia awarded by the queen of Spain. Alessandra is member of the Trio Michelangeli, prize winner at the 2023 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in Japan.
Alessandra performed at various festivals including “Herbst in der Helferei”, “Pablo Casals Festival”, “Monighetti&Friends, “Musik Miteinander” at the Kronberg Academy, “Musique à Flaine”, “Eggenfelden Klassisch”, “Ceresio Estate” and collaborated with inspiring chamber music partners such as Vilde Frang, Yura Lee, Fabio di Casola, Mi-kyung Lee, Roland Glassl and Calogero Palermo.
BBC Radio3 broadcasted multiple times the live recording of her Saint-Saens cello concerto with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana. She created a long-lasting relationship with the Swiss-Italian Radio-television (RSI) giving a live-concert recital with the pianist Dominic Chamot, appearing in the tv program “Paganini” and in the documentary film “Archi nel Sol Levante”. For the RSI Alessandra also recorded the piano trio of the Dutch composer Elisabeth Kuyper, showing her passion for the discovery of neglected composers and her aim to bring their music to light.
Alessandra studied under the guidance of Ivan Monighetti and Sol Gabetta at the Hochschule für Musik Basel and later at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid. Furthermore, she was part of the 2019 class at the Pavia cello academy with Enrico Dindo and is currently studying with Wen Sinn Yang at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich.
Alessandra plays a 1840 cello by Bernard Simon Fendt II.
Micheal TEMPORAL DARELL – baritone
Michael Temporal Darell is a member of the Internationales Opernstudio at the Luzerner Theater and a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music.
Michael’s roles in 2025/26 are Ned Keene in Peter Grimes (Luzerner Theater), Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte (Luzerner Theater), Marchese D’Orbigny in La Traviata (Ouverture Opéra Sion), Bello in La Fanciulla del West (Opera Holland Park) in addition to a series of Korngold and Mahler recitals in London, Vienna, and Switzerland.
In the 2024/25 season, engagements include Flowerdew in ITCH at Opera Holland Park, Dr Blind/Cover Falke in Die Fledermaus and Jazztrio in Trouble in Tahiti at the Luzerner Theater, a solo recital at the Fidelio Cafe with long term collaborator Francesca Lauri, Adam in Haydn’s Creation at St John Smith Square, Ramiro in L’heure espagnole, Donald in Billy Budd for New Palace Opera, Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas, Clonter Opera Spring Showcase, and as a guest artist at the Great North Proms – Newcastle O2. In addition to this, Michael was an Opera Prelude Young Artist for 2024.
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Highlights from 2023 include, a return to New Sussex Opera to perform with Sir John Tomlinson, solo recital at Am Hof 8 in Vienna, and a recital with pianist Leslie Howard, Baritone solos in Carmina Burana and Brahms Requiem under the baton of John Lubbock, his role debut as Valentin in Faust for New Sussex Opera, Bach cantatas at the Royal Academy of Music under the baton of Masaaki Suzuki, The Prisoner for Gardner’s new opera ‘The Prisoner’ with libretto by author and historian Matthew Green and directed by Eleanor Burke, Troll in Waley-Cohen’s ‘Witch’ for Royal Academy Opera directed by Polly Graham and conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth,
Other notable performances include, Cox (Cox and Box) at the Reform Club for Opera at Home, Earl Mountararat (Iolanthe) for Green Opera directed by Eleanor Burke, King Alfred in Gardner’s ‘A New England’ at the Royal Academy of Music and Téte á Téte Opera Festival, Dr. Malatesta (Don Pasquale), Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), and Figaro (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) for Opera Scenes at the Royal Academy of Music. Michael was also a Southrepps Festival Young Artist in 2022.
Prior to studying at the Royal Academy of Music, Michael Temporal Darell was a joint principal study singer and composer at the Purcell School for Young Musicians and at the Royal Academy of Music’s Junior Academy. During this time, he was taught voice by John Lattimore.
Izzy HOWARD – violin
Izzy Howard is a British violinist who has extensively performed as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician. She has enjoyed playing in various international festivals around the world including the BBC Proms, Edinburgh International Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, the Mozarteum Festival, Virtuoso Belcanto, BlenioMusica, the Curtis Institute Young Artist Program and was a Prizewinner at the 2020 and 2021 Verao Classico in Lisbon.
This past year Izzy has given a series of performances of the Brahms Double Concerto with Danushka Erdirisinghe and orchestras around the UK. Prior to this she gave a series of recitals in Canada with the sponsorship of the Elton John Foundation with venues including the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre and Mazzoleni Concert Hall. Other recent chamber performances have seen her performing at Wigmore Hall, LSO St Luke’s, Kings Place and the Royal-over-Seas League and alongside such established names as Jack Liebeck and Voces8.
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Since playing on the London Symphony Orchestra’s prestigious string scheme in 2022/23 Izzy has enjoyed playing in a variety of orchestral settings. As an orchestral musician she is now playing as part of the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia, London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. She has enjoyed working with great conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Simon Rattle, Gianandrea Noseda, Antonio Pappano, Daniel Harding and Santtu-Matias Rouvali. This year she has been apart of orchestral tours across Europe, Asia and the US.
In 2024 Izzy finished her Masters degree at the Royal Academy of Music in London studying with Jack Liebeck and Clio Gould.
Michele FONTANA / clarinet
In 2021, he graduated with honors in Clarinet from the ISSM “G. Verdi” in Ravenna, under the guidance of Mº Stefano Franceschini. He is currently attending a Master’s program in Contemporary Music at Kunstuniversität Graz, led by the Ensemble Klangforum Wien.
He has collaborated as principal clarinet and soloist with numerous festivals, including Elevate Festival, Vevey Spring Classic Festival, Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte di Montepulciano, Trame Sonore, Sagra Musicale Malatestiana, Angelica Festival, Emilia Romagna Festival, Ravenna Festival, Verdi Festival, and Reggio Parma Festival.
He has performed for various artistic institutions, including the Venice Biennale, MamBo, Art City, Fabbrica del Vapore and Spazio Altrove. Finalist in several national and international competitions, he won First Absolute Prize at the “International Competition Luigi Zanuccoli,” the international competition “Premio Crescendo,” and the “UK International Music Competition,” performing Riul by Isang Yun, the latter in the Duo category. He also received the Jury Prize at the “Premio Crescendo A.GI.MUS.”
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As an orchestral musician, he has performed under conductors such as Marco Angius, Wayne Marshall, Timothy Redmond, Wilson Hermanto, Hossein Pishkar, and Matthew Taylor. He has collaborated with artists including Cuoghi Corsello, Massimo Bartolini, Yuval Avital, Italo Zuffi, Tommaso Silvestroni, Stefania Galegati, and Diana De Luca.
He has worked with major opera and symphonic institutions, including the Fondazione Arturo Toscanini and the Fondazione Teatro alla Scala, the latter as a member of the contemporary music ensemble “Giorgio Bernasconi.” He is co-founder of the contemporary music collective “WKO – Camerata Degli Ammutinati,” with which he staged the Italian premiere of the opera The Tell-Tale Heart by Dutch composer Willem Jeths. He is also a member of the contemporary music ensemble “Istantanea.”
He has collaborated with numerous composers, including Gene Coleman, Mauro Montalbetti, Giorgio Colombo Taccani, Paolo Marzocchi, Graziano Riccardi, Andrea Siano, Mattia Clera, and Vincenzo Parisi.
VERIKO TCHUMBURIDZE / VIOLIN
Since winning the 2016 International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition at the age of 20, Veriko Tchumburidze has built a reputation as a captivating soloist, chamber musician and recording artist. “She is a breath of future,” said Andrzej Wituski, the competition’s director, “She brings us closer to the world of her own imagination”. Andante, Turkey’s leading classical music magazine named her the country’s Best Emerging Musician.
In the highlights of 2025/26 season, Veriko Tchumburidze returns to the Gdańsk Music Festival, BlenioMusica and the Krzyżowa Music Festival. She appears for the first time at the Telavi International Music Festival, makes her debut at Dynamikfest Salzburg. She will also give her soloist debut in Spain with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias. Closely engaged with contemporary creation and composers, she will give the world premiere of Saturn Violin Concerto by Anastasia Laghidze at the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet.
Tchumburidze has appeared with the Warsaw Philarmonic Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony, NMF Wroclaw, Lahti Symphony and Sinfonia Varsovia, Borusan Philarmonic Orchestra (opening the Istanbul Music Festival), Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt, Lahti Symphony, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Musikkollegium Winterthur, as well as the Munich Chamber and Zurich Chamber Orchestra. She has collaborated with such conductors as Łukasz Borowicz, Ruben Gazarian, Sascha Goetzel, Howard Griffiths, Gemma New, Michael Sanderling, Andrey Boreyko, Aziz Shokhakimov and Dima Slobodeniouk. Her festival engagements have included the Beethoven Easter Festival, Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy, Olympus Musical Festival, Rosendal Festival and Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, performing with, among others, Leif Ove Andsnes, Nicholas Angelich, Lisa Batiashvili, Gérard Caussé, Sol Gabetta, Quatuor Ebene, Clemens Hagen, Maxim Vengerov and Tabea Zimmermann.
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As a keen exponent of chamber music, she partners in recital with Pianists Ketevan Sepashvili and Mamikon Nakhapetov and was formerly a member of Trio Arte, a piano trio which in 2016 won first prize at the Pietro Argento International Music Competition in Gioia del Colle, Italy. 2016 also brought the world premiere at the Istanbul Music Festival of Ludus Modalis, a work dedicated to Trio Arte by the distinguished Turkish composer Özkan Manav. Since 2022, she is a member of Trio Vecando, a piano trio.
Veriko Tchumburidze recorded Anton Wranitzky’s Violin Concerto in C for Sony Classical with the Munich Chamber Orchestra and conductor Howard Griffiths. Her recording on the Klanglogo label of John Williams’ music for the film Schindler’s List with Howard Griffiths conducting the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt led to a headlining appearance, under the aegis of the Orpheum Musik Stiftung, at the opening concert of the 2016 Zurich Film Festival at the Swiss city’s opera house.
Born into a Georgian family in Adana, southern Turkey, Veriko Tchumburidze initially trained at Mersin University State Conservatory with Selahattin Yunkus and Lily Tchumburidze. In 2010 she has started to study in with Dora Schwarzberg at the MDW in Vienna as a scholar of the Young Musicians on World Stages (YMWS) project. Between 2015-2022, she studied at Prof. Ana Chumachenko’s class. She has also participated in the masterclasses of Albert Markov, Shlomo Mintz, and Igor Ozim, in the Seiji Ozawa Academy Masterclass and, also in Switzerland, the Verbier Festival Academy.
Veriko Tchumburidze plays a Giacomo Zanoli violin, made in Verona in 1730.
Vittorio BENAGLIA / viola
Described by Rivista MUSICA as “a magnificent interpreter, capable of drawing from the viola unique sonorities and timbres, almost akin to the human voice,” Vittorio Benaglia stands out for his personal and magnetic sound, blending refined technique with deep expressiveness. The website pizzicato.lu praised his performance of Rebecca Clarke’s Sonata as “gripping, energetic, and lyrical, with moments of floating impressionistic magic.”
He has performed as a soloist in prestigious venues such as Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Wiener Saal of the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and the Madinat Theatre in Dubai.
As a soloist with orchestra, he has collaborated with I Musici di Parma, Master Orchestra of Verona, Eurasia Chamber Orchestra, Pazardzhik Symphony Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra of Breganzona, presenting a repertoire that ranges from major masterpieces to rarities of the viola literature.
He has been awarded in major international competitions, including First Prize at the 4th London International Music Competition and the New York Golden Classical Music Awards. In Italy, he has been among the winners of the National Arts Prize and the Vittorio Andretta Young Talents Award.
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Born in 1999, he studied at the G. Verdi Conservatory in Como, the L. Perosi Academy in Biella, and the Internationale Musikakademie in Liechtenstein. He was a student of Anna Serova and Alexander Gordon (Zemtsov), and took part in masterclasses with renowned musicians such as Nobuko Imai, Timothy Ridout, Thomas Riebl, Hartmut Rohde, Máté Szűcs, Wilfried Strehle, Paul Silverthorne, Danilo Rossi, Simone Gramaglia, Marco Rizzi, Oliver Wille, Andrea Lucchesini, and Zakhar Bron.
As a soloist and chamber musician, he has been invited to international festivals including the Livorno Music Festival, Spoleto Festival, Emilia Romagna Festival, Gog Giovine Orchestra Genovese, LacMus Festival, BlenioMusica, among many others, performing alongside renowned artists such as Bruno Canino, Pavel Gililov, Veriko Tchumburize, Boris Garlitsky, Alexandra Conunova, David Geringas, Alban Gherardt, Pavel Berman, Eva Bindere, Alexander Zemtsov, Mairéad Hickey, Ivan Karizna, Andrea Lucchesini, Teofil Milenkovic, Marco Rizzi, Hugo Ticciati, Denitsa Laffchieva, Vittorio Ceccanti, and Massimo Mercelli. He has also taken part in the Mit Musik Miteinander project of the Kronberg Academy.
His debut album English Music for Viola and Piano, recorded with Fabio Napoletano and released by Da Vinci Classics (2021), was met with critical acclaim (Rai Radio 3, Archi Magazine, Rivista MUSICA). His most recent recording for Da Vinci features him as viola soloist with the Pazardzhik Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Gordon, with the special participation of Denitsa Laffchieva.
Vittorio is a scholarship recipient of the Internationale Musikakademie in Liechtenstein and a winner of Villa Musica Rheinland-Pfalz, which will lead him to perform as both soloist and chamber musician in major festivals and concert halls across Germany.
Since 2022, he has been a Pirastro Artist.
Beatrice MANVATI – Dancer
Beatrice Manvati (2002) is an Italian dancer and performer. After beginning her dance training at a young age, she attended a dance-focused high school and later graduated from the DanceHaus Susanna Beltrami Academy, completing a three-year professional training program.
She has taken part in various contemporary dance productions, performing at Milan-based festivals such as MilanOltre Festival and Festival Exister.
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Alongside her artistic career, she is currently pursuing a five-year degree at the Italian Academy of Osteopathic Medicine, expanding her expertise in the field of movement and physical well-being.