Quatuor Modigliani / Knut Erik Sundquist / Bruno Schneider / Sabine Meyer / Dag Jensen SCHUBERT Octet

                                                               SCHUBERT OCTET

Nils Mönkemeyer / Julia Fischer / Sabine Meyer / William Youn MOZART WITH FRIENDS

Artistic brilliance and innovative programming are the trademarks with which Nils Mönkemeyer has rapidly made his name as one of the 'most internationally successful violists' (Harald Eggebrecht, Süddeutsche Zeitung), and dramatically raised the profile of his instrument.

Under his exclusive contract with Sony Classical, Mönkemeyer has released numerous CDs over the past years, all of which have won critical acclaim and prestigious awards. His programmes run the gamut from rediscoveries and first recordings of original 18th century viola literature, to contemporary repertoire and arrangements of his own.

Mönkemeyer has been a professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich since 2011 - the same institution at which he himself studied with Hariolf Schlichtig. Previous tenures include a two-year professorship at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden, and an assistant professorship at the Reina Sofia College of Music in Madrid.

Nils Mönkemeyer works together with conductors such as Mario Venzago, Markus Stenz, Sylvain Cambreling, Mark Minkowski, Michail Jurowski, Christopher Hogwood, Michael Sanderling, Karl-Heinz Steffens and Simone Young, performing internationally in London's Wigmore Hall, Vienna's Musikverein, Brussel's Bozar, Berlin and Cologne Philharmonie, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Hamburg Laeiszhalle, Frankfurt Alte Oper, and in concert halls in Munich, Dresden, Baden-Baden, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart, Bremen, not to mention countless festival venues. He is currently a '360º artist' at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival and artist in residence of both the Echternach International Festival and the Heidelberg Philharmonic Orchestra.

In the 2015/2016 season Mönkemeyer will perform with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Musiciens du Louvre, the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Hannover, the Weimar Staatskapelle, the Hamburg Philharmonic, the Dusseldorf Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Barocksolisten.
His various chamber ensembles, such as his trio with Sabine Meyer and William Youn, the Julia Fischer Quartet, his duo with William Youn and his Barroco Español project, are guests at numerous festivals this season: Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Mozartwoche Salzburg, Schubertiade Hohenems, Heidelberger Frühling, Kissinger Sommer, Musikfest Stuttgart, Audi Sommerkonzerte, Schleswig Holstein Musikfestival, and the Festspiele Mecklenburg Vorpommern, Further chamber concerts will take him to Taiwan, Korea and Benelux, and to concert halls such as the Bremen Glocke, Dusseldorf Tonhalle, Gothenburg Konserthuset, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Zurich Tonhalle and Berlin Philharmonie.

Alliage Quintett / Sabine Meyer FANTASIA

With four saxophones and a piano the line-up of Alliage is already unique. But for their new programme Fantasia the two-time ECHO Classic winners have invited the ‘queen of clarinet’, Sabine Meyer. The soloist and the quintet embark on a musical fairy-tale journey, narrated in a new and exciting sound synthesis that savours all symphonic possibilities of a large orchestra and yet promises the intimacy of subtle chamber music. On one hand, Meyer’s clarinet sets soloistic accents and leads the high registers; on the other hand, she elegantly fits herself into the chameleon-like saxophone sound, so, the listener could hardly differ within the family of instruments. 

Like a storyteller narrating his own adaption of a legend the Alliage Quintet and Sabine Meyer move through imaginative compositions of Alexander Borodin (Polovtsian Dances), Igor Stravinsky (The Firebird), Paul Dukas (Sorcerer’s Apprentice), Leonard Bernstein (‘Candide’ overture), and Dmitri Shostakovich (Five Pieces). Sebastian Gottschick, Rainer Schottstädt, Stéphane Gassot, Camille Pépin, and Itai Sobol are well experienced in writing perfect arrangements for the needs of Alliage. With this extraordinary chamber ensemble a bunch of well-known compositions re-sounds in a completely new tonal language. Let yourself be captivated by the magic of this fairy-tale evening.