Jan Dobrzelewski

Born in Neuchâtel, Jan Dobrzelewski started the violin at the age of 4 and was very quickly chosen for his talent to participate in the Youth Orchestra as a soloist in his native country. At the age of 5, he made his first solo appearance on French television (ORTF) on Jean Nohain's show.

He studied conducting alongside the violin and began his career as a conductor at a very young age. During his studies he obtained the 1st Prize of the International Competition of Colmar. Founder of several festivals, orchestras, artistic Director in Switzerland, France, USA, Costa Rica and Mexico.

He has created more than 50 new works and was the director of the Academy of Tibor Varga from 2006 to 2012. He regularly teaches and conducts in the USA, France, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Mexico and Central America, Chile, and in China.

In 1996, he was awarded of Prize from the Foundation for the influence of his hometown, and in 2006 he was named to the Direction of the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne, Valais site in Sion.

Susan Rybicki-Varga

Susan Rybicki-Varga is a concert performer in recital and with orchestra, particularly attracted by chamber music, she regularly performs in France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Norway, Belgium, Holland, with musicians such as Peter Frankel, Rudolph Buchbinder, Roberto Szydon, Tibor Varga, Martin Ostertag and Gyula Stuller. From 1978 to 1989, Susan Rybicki-Varga was a solo cellist with the Detmold Chamber Orchestra and participated in numerous recordings. A recognized teacher, she frequently gives masterclasses of the Tibor Varga Academy of Music and has been invited to teach at the Cyprus Summer Music-school since 2008. She has taught at the Conservatoire de Lausanne, at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne (Lausanne and Sion locations) as well as at the Conservatoire de Sion, and her extensive teaching experience makes Susan Rybicki-Varga a very appreciated and much sought-after teacher.

Louis Schwizgebel

Louis Schwizgebel has been described as “a genuine virtuoso, a spirited young genius with real depth” (Fono Forum) and an “insightful musician” (New York Times). He is praised repeatedly for his poise, elegance, imagination, expressive lyricism and crystalline articulation. He performs regularly in recital and with the finest orchestras across the globe and has received critical acclaim for his recordings.

Schwizgebel’s 2021/22 season include debuts with the Oslo Philharmonic (Gershwin Piano Concerto under Vassily Petrenko), Orchestre National de Metz (Saint-Saens Nr 2 under David Reiland) and Royal Northern Sinfonia in Europe, with Richmond Symphony and Sacramento Philharmonic in the US and with Singapore Symphony in Asia. He will return to the Royal Scottish National Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony, BBC Concert Orchestra (performing their 2022 New Years Concert), Utah Symphony and perform Beethoven Piano Concerto Nr 5 at the closing concert of Septembre Musical de Montreux-Vevey together with the Lucerne Symphony under the baton of Michael Sanderling.

In recent seasons, highlights have included performances with the Philharmonia Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony, all BBC Orchestras, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Bamberg Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Danish National Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Vienna Symphony, Tonkünstler Vienna, Cincinnati Symphony and Auckland Philharmonia. Conductors he has worked with include Edward Gardner, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, Emmanuel Krivine, Nicholas Collon, Thierry Fischer, Charles Dutoit, Marek Janowski, Fabio Luisi, Lahav Shani, Robin Ticciati, Louis Langrée, John Wilson, James Gaffigan, Santtu Matias Rouvali, Ben Gernon, Elim Chan, Allondra della Parra and Fabien Gabel.

In solo recital and chamber music, Schwizgebel performs regularly at the major festivals and halls including most recently London’s Wigmore, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Rheingau Festival, Klavierfest Ruhr, Lille Piano Festival and Singapore International Piano Festival and performs chamber music with Benjamin Beilman, Narek Hakhnazaryan, Renaud Capuçon and Alina Ibragimova.

Schwizgebel performs frequently in his native Switzerland; he has played in the major festivals such as Verbier, Lucerne and Gstaad and Meisterinterpreten series at Zurich Tonhalle. In 2014 he made his BBC Proms debut with an electrifying televised performance of Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 1 and in 2018 at the Festival de Radio France in a televised performance of Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue.

Schwizgebel records for Aparté and his latest recording of Schubert Sonatas D845 and D958 was described as an “album of extraordinary precision” by Le Figaro. Previous releases include Saint-Saens Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 5 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, described as “gorgeously singing and wonderfully delicate” by BBC Music Magazine and Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra hailed as a “beautifully nuanced account” by Gramophone.

Schwizgebel was born in 1987 in Geneva. He studied with Brigitte Meyer in Lausanne and Pascal Devoyon in Berlin, and then later at the Juilliard School with Emanuel Ax and Robert McDonald, and at London’s Royal Academy of Music with Pascal Nemirovski. At the age of seventeen he won the Geneva International Music Competition and, two years later, the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York. In 2012 he won second prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition and in 2013 he became a BBC New Generation Artist.

Pavel Vernikov

Pavel Vernikov, a student of David Oistrach and S. Snitkowsky, gained a reputation as virtuoso violinist more than twenty years ago. Among other prizes he won the International ARD Violin Competition in Munich and the Grand Prix at the International Violin Competition “Vittorio Gui” in Florence. He has appeared at such prestigious venues as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, La Salle Gaveau in Paris, La Scala in Milan and Santa Cecilia in Rome.

For the last 30 years, he has been a member of the Tchaikovsky Trio. His artistic partners have included Sviatoslav Richter, James Galway, Alain Meunier, Patrick Gallois, Maria Tipo, Natalia Gutman, Oleg Kagan, Yuri Bashmet, Elisso Virsaladze, Christian Zimmermann and Anthony Pay. He inaugurated the Russian Academy of Higher Learning in Portogruaro and was the Artistic Director of the Gubbio Music Festival, the Dubrovnik Chamber Music Festival and the Eilat Chamber Music Festival.

He teaches and gives master classes around the world, in Italy, France, Finland, Spain (Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofia Madrid), Israel (Rubin Academy), Germany (Kronberg Academy), etc. and has been invited to be a member of the jury at international competitions (Szigeti, Kreisler, Gui, ARD-Competition in Munich, Sendai (Japan), Budapest, Sarasate, Wieniawski, etc.). Pavel Vernikov has recorded for RCA, Ondine and Dynamic. He was Professor at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Lyon.

At present, he’s Professor at the famous Konservatorium Wien University and at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne (Site de Sion). Among his many laureate students are people like Massimo Quarta (1. Prize Paganini International Violin Competition, Genua), Fumiaki Miura (1. Prize Hannover International Violin Competition), Lorenza Borrani (Leader of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe), Fanny Clamagirand (1. Prize Fritz Kreisler International Violin Competition, Vienna and 1. Prize International Monte Carlo Violin Competition) and Miki Kobayashi (2. Prize Wieniawski Competition). In 2013 he was appointed Artistic Director of the Sion Festival in Switzerland. He plays the beautiful Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin.