Kreeta-Julia Heikkilä

Violinist/Finland

“Kreeta-Julia Heikkilä, through means of her technical ability and passionate playing, proved why she is one of the most interesting Finnish violinists of our time.” — HBL (6/2014) Kreeta-Julia Heikkilä served as a concertmaster of the Danish National Chamber Orchestra and Vaasa City Orchestra and the Oulu Symphony Orchestra in Finland.  Besides an extensive solo career, Heikkilä is also a recognized leader in Europe, holding engagements as a concertmaster in orchestras such as the London BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Arctic Philharmonic, the Norwegian National Opera and the Malmö Opera orchestras, the Copenhagen Philharmonic, the Stavanger and Trondheim Symphony orchestras, etc.  As a guest concertmaster and a leader of the London BBC Symphony Orchestra, she was the featured soloist on Rufus Wainwright: Prima Donna and Take All My Loves – 9 Shakespeare Sonnets, with the London BBC Symphony Orchestra, released on Deutsche Grammophon in 2015. Heikkilä has soloed with orchestras and given recitals as soloist and chamber musician across Europe, South-Korea, the USA, and Russia.  In recent years, she has performed at many leading festivals: the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, KuruFest, the Helsinki Festival, the Riga New Music Festival, the Classica NordicBaltic Conference in Latvia, the Ecuentro de Musica de Santander in Spain, the iPalpiti Festival of International Laureates in Los Angeles, the Gumi International Music Festival in Korea, the Music Alp Music Weeks in France, the Harmos Festival in Portugal and the Lake District Summer Music Festival in the UK.  Kreeta-Julia is also the artistic director, founder and a violinist of the TEOS - Finnish Chamber Music Series in Helsinki and is currently a violinist in the Copenhagen-based Trio Nord along with iPalpiti alumnus cellist Jacob Shaw.  The summer of 2017 inaugurates the 1^st Helsinki Chamber Music Festival of which she is an artistic director and violinist.  A prizewinner at numerous national and international competitions, including the prestigious Pro Musica and Nordea Awards, Kreeta-Julia graduated with distinction from the London Royal College of Music in 2012 and from the Sibelius Academy in 2015, where she studied under Jan Repko, Tuomas Haapanen, Mi-Kuyng Lee and Päivyt Meller.  Heikkilä plays an Andrea Guarneri (1680), kindly on loan from The Finnish Cultural Foundation. Kreeta-Julia Heikkilä’s Website

Yury Revich

Violinist/Austria

Yury Revich's website

Young Artist of the Year 2015 by the International Classical Music Awards, at only 23 years of age, Yury Revich already is a very mature and serious artist. He is one of the most expressive musicians of his generation and is based in Vienna, Austria.

Whenever he is not at performances in all corners of the world – in 2009, he played his debut at Carnegie Hall and in 2013 at La Scala, Milan, he has performed at the Berlin Konzerthaus, Vienna Musikverein, Vienna Konzerthaus, Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, Metropolitan Art Space Tokyo, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Cadogan Hall London as well as the Preston Bradley Hall in Chicago and many others, and can be heard at many international festivals – Yury tries to use his music for charitable events.

Together with the European-Russian Society for International Cooperation, where Yury functions as Artistic Director, he organized a concert in Vienna in 2011 for the victims of the tsunami in Japan. Additionally, he collaborates with the organisation „Kleine Herzen“ that helps Russian and Ukranian children.

He records for Sony Classical, ARS, Odradek and OnePointFM , WDR, BR, Radio France, among many other European and American radio and television networks.

Midori Maruyama

Violist/Japan

Midori started playing violin at the age of four and has studied at the Tokyo college of Music from 2004-2010 with Prof. Takashi Shimizu and Saiko Azuma. During these years she attended many master classes in Japan, Portugal, Italy, and Austria. In 2008 she won the third prize at the Japan Players Competition and also began to study the viola and play chamber music. She won the 2nd prize at the Osaka International Competition and received a Special award at the Japan Ensemble Competition with her quartet. Midori continued her studies as a violist at Scuola di Musica di Fiesole in Italy with Antonello Farulli and Felice Cusano as a scholarship student in Corso di Perfezionamento, and participated in the master class of Jürgen Kussmaul and in summer course of Jurij Bashmet at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena.  Midori is a recipient of numerous awards: the "Grand Prix d'Honneu" at the Concours International de Musique Léopold Bellan in Paris, France with piano quintet (2011), First Prize as a soloist at the 4th Concorso Musicale Europea Città di Filadelfia and 10th International Music Competition Premio Vittoria Caffa Righetti (2012), First Prize at Concorso Internazione di Musica “Euterpe” di Corato and VII Concorso Internazionale di Musica da Camera Città di Chieti as member of duo (2013).  As Mozarteum Summerakademie "praistreger", Midori performed in prestigious concert halls in the Salzburg Festspiele in 2012 and during the same season was selected to join iPalpiti. Midor has been a leading violist at The Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra, Japan since 2014; in 2017, Midori accepted a principal position at the Kyoto Symphony.  Midori has been member of iPalpiti since 2012.

Jacob Shaw

Cellist/UK-Denmark

Jacob Shaw's website

Award winning British cellist Jacob Shaw (b.1988) has given acclaimed concerts across Europe, USA and Asia, establishing himself as one of the most prominent young soloists based in Scandinavia. "Music Ambassador" for Dulwich College International and highly dedicated to helping and promoting young talents in his own field, Jacob also supports the next generation of musicians.

Called as “the cellist to follow” (Resmusica, 2014) - his unique program ideas, original style, and enthusiasm have gained huge support and admiration as a performer from the public and professional colleagues alike. Exploring the boundaries of what is possible on his instrument, he often collaborates with folk, indie, electronic and jazz musicians. This season he had two debuts in New York that reflected his eclectic styles, in Carnegie Hall (classical recital with piano) and in the Apollo Theatre (electric cello with works of Nico Muhly and improvisation with traditional singers from Tahiti).

During his studies in London, Paris, Augsburg and Copenhagen, Jacob became a laureate of numerous national and international competitions, and since has performed in some of the world’s prestigious stages such as Carnegie Hall, Guangzhou Opera House, Oslo Concert House, Salle Cortot, Copenhagen Radio House, etc. He has premiered pieces by composers such as Sofia Gubaidulina, Sir John Taverner, Frangis Ali-Sade and Haflidi Hallgrimsson.

A passionate chamber musician, he regularly plays in esteemed festivals such as Lockenhaus Festival, Gstaad, Sommets-du-Classique, iPalpiti and is the co-founder and artistic director of the Festival International de Musique de Chambre en Charente (www.chalaismusique.com ) A dedicated teacher, his students have won national and international competitions in Germany, Denmark, Japan, France and the UK, and Jacob has given masterclasses in important music conservatories across the world such as CCOM, Royal Irish Academy of Music, Northwestern University Chicago, Shanghai conservatory, in New York, and Chicago Northwestern University.

His debut 2 CD album will be released this summer by GPR records and he can be heard regularly on radio throughout Europe, Asia and the USA. More information at www.jacobshaw.de or on social media @jacobshawcellist.

Francisco Vila

Cellist/Ecuador

“Vila brought out the fervour and vitality…consummate projection.”  — The Strad Magazine, April 2012 Francisco Vila began playing the cello at age eight and had his solo debut with an orchestra at age fourteen.  Having performed in concerts throughout Europe, North and South America, Vila has been described by cellist Janos Starker as “an exceptionally talented young cellist and musician. He is heading for an important place in the world of music.”  As a chamber musician, Francisco has collaborated with Nobuko Imai, Cho-Liang Lin, Gary Hoffman, Martin Chalifour, and others.  As a soloist, he has appeared with the Houston Symphony, Liège Royal Philharmonic, the Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia, Aalborg Symphonyorkester, the Bolivia Clásica Youth Orchestra, Mexico National Orchestra, South Dakota Symphony and all principal orchestras in his native Ecuador.  He has been a participant in Ravinia Steans Institute festival in Chicago, guest artist at the Beaumaris, Santander and the Stavelot Music Festival, among others.  As an iPalpiti artist since 2009, he has performed at Zankel Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in a radio broadcasted recitals, Mozarteum Salzburg, and on international tours. Francisco was granted Presidential Scholarship to the Boston Conservatory for his Bachelor studies, after which he received a Performance Diploma from Indiana University where his teachers were Janos Starker, Sharon Robinson and Menahem Pressler. In 2012, he was selected to the inaugural cello class at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium, where he earned an Artist Diploma under the famed cellist Gary Hoffman. In the same year he became the second-prize laureate of the Sphinx Competition in Detroit Michigan. Francisco views teaching as an important aspect of music-making. In 2015 he has founded the International Music Festival of Esmeraldas (Ecuador), his hometown – supported by a grant from iPalpiti Artists International - social project of free master classes to young talents from Central and South America.  In its inaugural 2015 season, iPalpiti alumnus violinist Daniel Austrich was among its international guest artists. For his work, Francisco also received grants from the US State Department, Tarisio Trust, and the Sphinx MPower Grant. Francisco serves on the faculty at the Longy School of Music at Bard College, MA. He was a Principal Cellist of the Aalborg Symphoiorkester in Denmark – in a happy collaborations with concertmaster Vesselin Demirev and Principal 2nd Alexander Dzyubinsky, both iPalpiti alumni.  Francisco performs on a fine 1790 Vincenzo Panormo cello, on generous life-term loan from the “Karl McNutt Family Trust”, as well as the “ex-Janos Starker” E. Tubbs bow.

Svetlana Smolina

Piano/Russia-Belgium-USA

Svetlana Smolina Born in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, Svetlana performed with orchestras and in recitals worldwide. A recipient of “New Names” scholarship program, her notable appearances with orchestras include Mariinsky Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchestra National de France, Dublin Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, South Florida Symphony, Odessa Philharmonic and many others.    A frequent guest at festivals worldwide, Svetlana has performed at the Salzburg Festival, Hollywood Bowl, Ravinia Rising Stars, White Nights, Maggio Musicale, Rotterdam Phillips Gergiev, Hennessy Artists Series at Hanoi Opera House, Royal Covent Garden Opera, Mariinsky 3 Concert Hall, Mozarteum, Merkin Hall, Gulbenkian Foundation, Grand Artists Series in Tel-Aviv, Academia Santa Cecilia in Rome, and iPalpiti Festival, to name a few. Recordings include Stravinsky’s Les noces (Valery Gergiev, conductor on Decca/Phillips and on Mariinsky Label which received ICMA award for Best Choral Work in 2011), solo Chopin Album for the Chopin iTunes Project, Benjamin Britten’s Young Apollo live recording with iPalpiti from Walt Disney Hall for BCM+D records and many broadcasts for NPR, WQXR New York, BBC, PBS, RAI, Cultura TV and other networks.  Svetlana joined iPalpiti Festival of International Laureates in Los Angeles in 2011, with a debut at Walt Disney Concert Hall with iPalpiti Orchestra. Winner of 2014 “Live on Stage” showcases, she was chosen as their only Classical Pianist Artist for 2015-16 season, touring 20 states, and featured in the Keyboard Magazine.  Svetlana’s collaboration with violinist Vadim Repin in 2014-19 received an astonishing critical acclaim as they toured Canada, Monaco, London, Washington DC, Repin’s Trans-Siberian Art Festival, and Columbia.  Other collaborative highlights included performances and recordings with Christopher O’Riley released on Pentatone Oxingale Records, a Carnegie Hall recital with Lee-Chin Siow, Singapore for the International Women Day, Buenos Aires at CCK Symphony Hall in “The Best Pianists of the 21st Century” series, as well as a duo recital in Basel, Switzerland with violinist Charlie Siem. Collaborations with Dublin Philharmonic featured tour in China’s seven major halls with Rachmaninov concerto, India’s Nehru Stadium in New Delhi, and an orchestra recording of Beethoven Double Concerto with Maestro Derek Gleeson and Pavel Šporcl at Bulgarian National Radio in Sofia, Bulgaria. 2022 performances include Ushuaia International Festival in Argentina as their annual Artist in Residence Pianist, a tour in Brazil, solos with Symphonicity at the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts, Belarusian State Chamber Orchestra, and Nizhny Novgorod Soloists Chamber Orchestra. Svetlana is a Grand Prix Winner of numerous international competitions including Citta Di Senigallia International Piano Competition and the Dranoff International Duo Piano Competition. In the US, she studied at Indiana University with Professor Alexander Toradze, at Oberlin Conservatory with Monique Duphil, at Brussels Royal Conservatory with Eugeny Mogilevsky, and at the University of Michigan with Arthur Greene she received her DMA. Svetlana is a Director of the piano program at the Philadelphia International Music Festival, and, in 2020 was appointed as Program Director at the Piano Academy at the European Academy of Fine Arts, Sofia, a Division of Irish-American University.