Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam

Aleksandra Tonelli is an Argentinian pianist and composer. With an international career, she performed in numerous theatres and festivals in the UK, Europe and Latin America. Aleksandra is also music professor in classical piano, and holds a Master of Music in piano tango. She also studied both classical and jazz composition. Aleksandra received several national and international recognitions in the Netherlands, the UK, and Argentina. She is currently bandleader of Quinteto Irreal and Cocoliche Trio, with whom she performs her own music blending Argentinean tango and folklore, jazz and classical influences. She works as an artistic research coach (Codarts Rotterdam/Antwerp Conservatorium), and as a freelance pianist, composer and arranger.

Bolivian-Brazilian violinist Eduardo Paredes began his musical studies in Cochabamba (Bolivia) before coming to the Netherlands at the age of 14 to continue his studies, thanks to a scholarship from the Rotary Club. He studied with Hans Scheepers, Ofer Falk, Pinchas Zukerman, Gordan Nikolic and Joan Berkhemer. Chamber music instruction he received from members of the Parkanyi Quartet, Dmitri Ferschtman, members of the Alban Berg, Vermeer and Fine Arts Quartets. As a soloist and in chamber music, Eduardo has performed at The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam (Small Hall), Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall) in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, and various countries in Europe, South and North America, China and South Africa. In 2018, he was a finalist of the renowned New York Concert Artist World Debut Audition and prize winner of Ibla Grand Prize. In 2020, he impressed with his live performances of all ten Beethoven Sonatas for violin and piano. Eduardo performs regularly in Europe with his piano trio, Trio 258, and the highly successful Hydra String Quartet, and plays regularly in the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra.

Invited by Daniel Barenboim to perform under his baton at the opening concert of the season 2017-2018 in Pierre Boulez Saal, the young Italian pianist Giuseppe Guarrera is currently based in Berlin, where he is part of the faculty at the Barenboim-Said Akademie. Giuseppe forms a successful piano duo together with pianist Nathalia Milstein.

In recent years Giuseppe has performed as soloist and as chamber musician in some of the most prestigious halls of Europe such as Wigmore Hall in London, Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, Scherzo Foundation in Madrid, Cappelle Paoline del Quirinale in Rome, Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival, Verbier Festival Academy, Ruhr Klavierfestival, Estivales musical in Medoc, Auditorium Sony in Madrid, Lingotto Giovani in Turin, Amici della Musica in Padova, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Bologna Festival, Settimane musicali of Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, Teatro Verdi in Trieste, L' Auditori in Barcelona, Musikverein in Vienna, Stockholm Konzerthuset, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Philarmonie in Cologne, Mupa Center in Budapest, Andermatt Festival, Herkulessaal in Munich, Philharmonie in Luxembourg, Casa de Musica in Porto, Megaron in Athens, Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden etc.

Solo highlights of his career include appearances with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and the Orchestra del Teatro la Fenice.

Prior to joining the Barenboim-Said Academy under the guidance of Nelson Goerner, Giuseppe studied in Italy with Siavush Gadjiev and Giuseppe Cultrera, and in Berlin with Eldar Nebolsin.

The Dutch-Indonesian cellist Jan van der Plas (1997) is a versatile musician who constantly tries to push boundaries and connect people through music.

Together with his brother Kris van der Plas Jan forms Duo Saraswati in which they make the musical connection between the Netherlands and Indonesia. In 2023 the duo toured the archipelago, were guests at Podium Klassiek and NPO Klassiek and performed at several prominent venues in the Netherlands such as De Vereeniging in Nijmegen and the Grachtenfestival. In September 2024 the duo will present their debut CD entitled 'Srikandi' referring to a character from a Javanese legend. As a guest, Jan has played with Amsterdam Sinfoniëtta, Lichtbende and Club Classique, among others. He will also play as a guest with the Oorkaan Ensemble.

Jan studied at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Jelena Očić and Gideon den Herder. He plays an instrument built by Jaap Bolink in 1969, made available by the National Music Instruments Fund. Besides being a cellist, Jan is also a conductor and is, among other things, permanent conductor with Con Brio Amsterdam and youth orchestra Arcato Ensemble Zutphen.

Leonard is a cellist and cultural entrepreneur. His artistic heart beats faster to constantly search for formulas to bring classical music to new audiences and combine it with other art forms. As a cellist, Leonard is also associated with Trio 258 and gives numerous performances with ensembles such as Camerata RCO, Vrienden van de Kamermuziek, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and Le Cercle de l'Harmonie.

Together with filmmaker Gijs Besseling, he made several music documentaries for television and fulfilled the role of presenter in the YouTube series Roadtrip la Bohème about opera composer Giacomo Puccini. The series became part of a nationwide concert tour by Club Classique in 2018.

Leonard plays on a cello built by his father Matthieu Besseling, a violin maker in Amsterdam.

Born in 1995 to a family of musicians, Nathalia Milstein started the piano at the age of 4 with her father Serguei Milstein, and completed her studies with Nelson Goerner at the Geneva Haute Ecole de Musique as well as with Sir András Schiff at the Barenboim-Saïd Akademie in Berlin. Together with pianist Giuseppe Guarrera she forms a successful piano duo.

Nathalia launched her international career in 2015 by winning 1st Prize at the Dublin International Piano Competition and has since then been invited to renowned halls such as the Victoria Hall in Geneva, the National Concert Hall in Dublin, the Zankel Hall in New York, the Wigmore Hall in London, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin or the Radio France Auditorium in Paris, as well as to perform with orchestras such as the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, the WDR Sinfonieorchester, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss, the Boulez Ensemble, the Paris and Geneva Chamber Orchestras, with among other conductors Jonathan Nott, Mikko Franck, Matthias Pintscher, John Storgårds, Christoph Koncz or Arie van Beek. In 2017 she was also awarded the Young Soloist Prize by the Médias Francophones Publics.

Throughout her studies, Nathalia Milstein has received valuable advice from renowned professors and pianists such as Daniel Barenboim, Menahem Pressler, Mikhail Voskressensky, Emanuel Krasovsky, Elena Ashkenazy, Jan Wijn or Enrico Pace.

Nathalia performs in France and abroad, giving recitals all over Europe, appearing in major festivals such as Klavier-Festival Ruhr, La Roque d'Anthéron, Piano aux Jacobins, the Hitzacker Summer Music Festival, Flâneries Musicales de Reims, Grachtenfestival, New Ross Piano Festival, Zaubersee Festival and Radio France Festival.

In 2021/22, Nathalia has been playing in various venues across Europe as part of the “Building Bridges” concert program curated by Sir András Schiff.

A keen chamber musician, Nathalia also performs regularly with renowned musicians and is invited to international chamber music events, such as the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, Berlioz Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Intonations Festival in Berlin, the West Cork Festival in Ireland, Lavaux Classic in Switzerland, the Schiermonnikoog Festival in the Netherlands. She also appears on the last CD recording of the Prazak Quartet dedicated to works of Smetana.

Furthermore, Nathalia owns already a rich discography : supported by the Safran Foundation (Paris) and the Foundation “Tempo” (Geneva), Nathalia's debut solo CD, featuring works of Prokofiev and Ravel, was released in 2018 on Mirare. Her second album « Visions Fugitives » was released in September 2021 and was awarded the critic's prize « Choc Classica » as one of the best recordings of 2021. She also recorded Stravinsky's Capriccio with Mikko Franck and the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, released on Alpha Classics in September 2022 as part of an album dedicated to the composer.

For several years she has been playing in duo with her sister violinist Maria Milstein, with whom she recorded two albums together - “La Sonate de Vinteuil” (2017) and “Ravel Voyageur” (2019) - both on the French label Mirare and praised by international critics.

Noelia Sinkunas is an Argentinian pianist, composer, and music producer. She won the 2023 Gardel Award for Best Alternative Folk Album with "Salve," her third record, the result of an experimental process with chamamé and Argentine folklore songs.

Her piano style bridges traditional tango and a new musical fusion. The press praises her as a key composer of new metropolitan music. She leads her own orchestra, performs in several projects as a session musician and tours solo, with performances across Latin America and Europe.

As a producer, she collaborates with various artists, including rapper YSY A, and has directed significant cultural events like the 8M concert at CCK.

At the latest since winning a special prize at the ARD Music Competition 2021, the piano duo regularly performs in major concert halls. Recently, they made their debut at the Vienna Konzerthaus, in the Brahms Hall of the Vienna Musikverein as well as at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest as a substitute for Martha Argerich. Tereza Gugg-Kalabova (Czech Republic) and Johannes Gugg (Austria) were both born in 1998 and have formed a piano duo since their teenage years.

Thanks to their early collaboration they have experienced a significant part of their musical development together, resulting in a profound mutual understanding and finely nuanced, well-balanced interpretations. The aspiring duo was awarded numerous first prizes, for instance, at the Austrian competition Prima la Musica, the International Schubert Piano Duo Competition in Jesenik, the Music and Earth Competition in Sofia, the Vlastimil Lejsek Piano Duo Competition in Brno, the International Duo Competition Suzana Szörenyi in Bucharest, the International Summer Academy of the mdw, the Martha Debelli Scholarship Competition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz and at the ArtePiano Competition in Castelnuovo di Farfa. In addition to that, they won 2nd prizes at the 14th International Piano Competition in Rome and the Duettissimo Piano Duo Competition in Krakow, where they were also awarded the Mozart Prize. The young musicians have performed multiple times with various orchestras, including the Krakow Philharmonic, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Webern Chamber Philharmonic and the Orchestra of the Brno Conservatory. Their performance of Carl Czerny's Piano Concerto for Four Hands with the Webern Chamber Philharmonic was broadcast on ORF as part of a charity concert for 'Licht ins Dunkel'. In June 2022, they both finished their solo studies with Ayami Ikeba at the University of Music in Graz with distinction and are now continuing in the class of the renowned piano duo Silver & Garburg. For the years 2025 and 2026 they have been selected for the NASOM sponsoring program of the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs.

Katie Yao Morgan (2000) and Jorian van Nee (1999) first crossed paths in 2013 during a masterclass conducted by Dominique Merlet in France. It wasn't until they reunited as fellow students at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in 2018 that their shared passion for piano four hands repertoire blossomed. Studying under the guidance of Frank Peters, both pianists frequented the conservatory library, delving into a diverse array of repertoire for their duo. Late-night sight-reading sessions of the discovered music sparked their decision to debut their collaboration, known as Duo Morgan/van Nee, at the Grachtenfestival Conservatory Concours in 2024.

Inspired by the dynamic performances of their favorite American piano duo, 'Anderson and Roe,' they curated a selection of arrangements alongside an original composition by Jorian. Their performance at the competition earned them the Jury prize in the finals, with the jury praising them as "playful, spontaneous, colorful, and extremely virtuosic."

Lestari Scholtes and Gwylim Janssens have been a piano duo since 2003. Today they are recognized as one of the most promising piano duos of their generaKon. Their debut at Car- negie Hall in May 2009 was hailed as 'it might as well have been 25 or 30 fingers, so grand and fused was their sound. Sublime duo in top form'. The duo is known for their mesmerizing sound, very high technical dexterity and their intense and energetic performances. This has earned them concerts throughout Europe and in the United States, Dubai, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Georgia, Mongolia, Brunei, Singapore, Vietnam, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Chile and Bolivia.

Their concerts have been broadcast nationally and internationally on television and radio, including Radio4, BBC3, Kol Hamusica (Israeli radio) and Klara. They have also soloed with orchestras such as the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Noord Nederlands Orkest, Residentie Orkest, the Brabant Orchestra, Sinfonia Rotterdam and the Israel Symphony Orchestra. The duo has been featured at various festivals, including the Festival of Bath, Grachtenfestival Amsterdam, TonLagen- Dresdner Festival der zeitgenössischen Musik, Braunlage Maikonzerte, Basilica Festival of Flanders, Klevische Klaviersommer, Almere Chamber Music Festival, Festival Classique and the International Piano Duo Festival Poland.

The duo was winner of more than a dozen (inter)national competitions, including the prestigious Vriendenkrans Concours of the Concertgebouw, the Concours Musical de France, the International Chamber Music Competition Almere 2009 and IBLA Grand Prize International Music Competition and was named Radio 4 Talent of the Year in 2010. Lestari and Gwylim are regular judges at various (inter)national competitions. They also gave many master classes at various conservatories worldwide.

The duo initiated the annual Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam, which had its first edition in October 2013.

As a piano duo, they studied with the renowned piano duo Gil Garburg and Sivan Silver at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hanover. Together they attended many master classes with Nikolai Petrov, Alexander Tamir, Victor Derevianko, Alon Goldstein, Peter Takács, Paul Lewis, Jean-Bernard Pommier and Menahem Pressler, among others. Both began their training in the Young Talent Class of the Brabant Conservatory with Ton Demmers. Lestari followed her Bachelor and Master studies at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Jan Wijn; Gwylim completed his Bachelor phase at the Fontys Conservatory with Ton Demmers and followed his Master studies at the Codarts Conservatory with Bart van de Roer.

In November 2010, their debut CD was released with works by Rachmaninoff, Debussy and Ravel, under the label of QuattroLive. In May 2014, their second CD "Paris!" was released by Etcetera Records with works by Stravinsky, Debussy and Ravel. This CD was awarded a Luister10 and a 5-star review in the Nederlands Dagblad. Their 3rd CD of works by Mozart and Schubert was released in 2021 by Challenge Records International. BBC Music Magazine wrote about this CD: 'They breathe together, agree on relaKve dynamics and tonal color and understand the balance of the textures.' and awarded the CD no less than 4**** stars.

Thomas van Dun (Netherlands, 1995) is a contemporary composer and visual artist. His pieces have been played by ensembles and orchestras such as Asko|Schönberg, the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and the Residentie Orkest, and have won several awards, including 1st prize at the 70th International Rostrum of Composers (category 'Under 30'). His work as a visual artist is exhibited at venues such as the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Centraal Museum in Utrecht.

Van Dun has studied with composers such as Martijn Padding, Yannis Kyriakides, Dai Fujikura and Calliope Tsoupaki at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and the Royal College of Music in London. His work for classical ensembles is distinguished by rhythmicity, links to electronic dance music, colorful use of instrumentation and grand spatial gestures. In 2018, his music was heard at the inauguration of the 2018 Olympic Games. In August 2021, his percussion concerto In Transit premiered at the Dutch Student Orchestra 2021 concert series, with Dutch Music Prize winner Dominique Vleeshouwers as soloist. In October 2023, his new piece “Rocailles de l'après-vie...” debuted during the NTR Saturday Matinee at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam with Asko|Schönberg and Bas Wiegers. In 2024, he won the first prize of the 70th International Composers Rostrum, with his piece 'Rocailles de l'après-vie...'. In March 2024, he also won the Keep an Eye Foundation Production Prize, for which he will create a new production at Wonderfeel 2024. In 2024, he participated in the renowned TV competition 'Project Rembrandt' where he won the first prize. His grand final painting was exhibited at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Musician and theater maker Tobias Wenting has been playing the piano since the age of seven. After studying classical piano at the School for Young Talent, he decided to broaden his horizons by studying Composition for Film and Theater at the ArtEZ Conservatory of Music in Arnhem. At ArtEZ, his love for piano playing, composition and theater came together. Besides giving solo theater performances, Tobias is active as an actor for children's shows throughout the Netherlands. He has already been seen as a heroic Roman, puppeteer, and as a storyteller in classic shows such as Peter and the Wolf and Babar, the Little Elephant.