As violinist, leader and conductor, Hugo Ticciati imbibes all forms of creativity, whether it be performing world premieres, improvising with monks, or devising innovative programmes for O/Modernt, which he founded in 2011. Alongside his passion for discovering the music of previous epochs and non-western traditions, Hugo embraces the world of contemporary music. With his growing reputation for innovative programming, he is frequently asked to devise and present concerts and festivals with a unique twist, while his love of chamber music has led him to develop special artistic partnerships with members of the O/Modernt Soloists as well as other internationally renowned artists. Hugo collaborates regularly with top-level chamber orchestras, including the Manchester Camerata (where he is an Artistic Partner), Kremerata Baltica and the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra. Most recently, he has been invited to work with both the Swedish and Australian Chamber orchestras. Hugo gives master-classes and lectures on music-related subjects both in Scandinavia and internationally.

Johannes Marmén enjoys a varied, international career as a chamber musician and orchestral leader. He is the first violinist of the award winning Marmen Quartet, member of the O/Modernt chamber orchestra and a regular guest leader of various orchestras and ensembles. He studied with Radu Blidar and Carolin Widmann at the Royal College of Music, and was mentored by Peter Cropper of the Lindsay Quartet. Since winning the Banff and Bordeaux international string quartet competitions in 2019, the Marmen Quartet is one of the most sought-after young quartets around, appearing at Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall, Lucerne Festival, Amsterdam Quartet Biennale amongst others, as well as touring Japan, New Zealand and North America. As a composer and interpreter of contemporary music, Johannes is regularly commissioned and has recently had works and arrangements performed in the Wigmore Hall, Kings Place and Berlin Konzerthaus as well as being featured on releases by Signum Records and Orchid Classics.

Annette Walther studied in Düsseldorf, Essen and London with Ida Bieler, David Takeno and Vesselin Parschkevov. At the Guildhall School for Music and Drama in London she also took chamber music classes with Sir Colin Davis and the Takacs Quartet. Further masterclasses with Michelle Auclair, Yuri Bashmet, Thomas Brandis, Jürgen Kussmaul and Charles-Andre Linale have been of lasting importance to her musical development.
Annette has been a stipendiary of the Villa Musica and the Hartmut Schuler Foundations, and in 2004 she was awarded the Artland Musikpreis.
In addition to being a founding member of the Signum Quartet, Annette regularly performs with artists such as Carolin Widmann, Nils Mönkemeyer, William Youn, David Cohen, Liza Ferschtman and Priya Mitchell at festivals including the Musikfestspielen Mecklenburg –Vorpommern, Lofoten International Chamber Music Festival, Musiktage Hitzacker and Kammermusikfest Sylt.
She is a regular guest in the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and ensemble musikfabrik, concertmaster of the Cologne Chamber Orchestra, the Belgian Chamber Orchestra and the Folkwang Chamber Orchestra. She is a member of the Geneva Camerata and Ensemble Ruhr.
At the beginning of 2016, Annette has been appointed as violin lecturer at the Louis Spohr Music Academy in Kassel.

Hannah was very fortunate to be born into a house full of music. At that time, her mother was a violinist in the LPO, and her father an opera singer. Her passion for playing music with others was ignited by violin duets with her mother, and later on by becoming a member of a chamber orchestra ‘National Isis String Academy’, and the Kent County Youth Orchestra where she met Ben and Robin. She started violin lessons with Howard Davis at the age of 14. He was a very inspirational teacher, and encouraged her to be less inhibited and to really communicate with her playing.
She then studied with Ani Schnarch at the Royal College of Music, and it was there that she joined the quartet in her 2nd year.
Outside quartet, other musical pursuits include; John Wilson Orchestra and Aurora Orchestra. Hannah had a violin study guide published by Sanctuary in 1995. Recently she travelled to Mumbai on behalf of the charity ‘Songbound’, and helped choir leaders prepare their children’s choirs for Christmas concerts. She hopes to return someday with the quartet. Hannah loves going to Prussia Cove, Cornwall and taking part in the International Musicians Seminar and playing chamber music with musicians from around the world.
She adores living in South East London in a big house full of lovely friends.

Siljamari Heikinheimo is known as a violinist and recently also as an opera director.
As a violinist she appears regularly as a chamber musician and as a soloist. She has been a member of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra during years 2012-2016 and nowadays subtitutes frequently as a concertmaster and a section leader in Scandinavian orchestras like Tapiola Sinfonietta, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Danish Chamber Orchestra. She appears regularly at several festivals like Kuhmo chamber music festival and Crusell Festival. She has recorded numerous Finnish compositions for the Finnish Broadcasting Company. Heikinheimo is the artistic director of Sounds Of Books -concertserie, which takes place in Helsinki and the new artistic director of Rauma Festivo. She works as a lecturer in the Arts Academy of Turku.
In the field of opera directing Heikinheimo has worked in Stefan Herheims directing team in Deutsche Oper im Rhein in Düsseldorf and in Komische Oper Berlin. She has also worked as an assistant director in the Finnish National Opera. Her own productions include staged classical concerts and opera Bluebeard’s Castle by Bartók at Rauma Festivo 2019.
Heikinheimo has studied at Edsbergs musikinstitut in Stockholm with Ulf Wallin and at Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Petri Aarnio.

Swedish violinist Sofie Sunnerstam has been a member of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra since early 2019. She has also worked in orchestras and ensembles in Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands. As part of her active career as a chamber musician she also runs the chamber music series Wasahof Underground Chamber Music in Stockholm. She has performed in chamber music festivals and concert tours in Europe, New Zeeland and South America. The Album Fjärran, recorded with the Dalacarlia Clarinet Quintet, was awarded the distinction of Best Classical Album at the New Zeeland Music Awards 2016. Sofie has performed as a soloist with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra and several Swedish amateur orchestras.
Sofie studied with Henrik Kowalski at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and at Indiana University in Bloomington. In 2012 she won the soloist competition at the Royal College in Stockholm and performed Beethoven violin concerto in Berwaldhallen, the main hall of the Swedish Radio. She finished her Artist Diploma in 2014 after studying with Per Enoksson at the Edsberg Castle.
Sofie plays on a violin by the Finnish violin maker Ero Haahti.

Liana Svensson, violinist, has been performing with O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra since it’s launch in 2014. She grew up in Florida where she played her debut concert with the Hollywood Philharmonic, and since 2005 has been based in Stockholm.
Liana studied at Lilla Akademien’s Musikgymnasium during which time she performed regularly on international stages with Hugo Ticciati and many others who would become founding members of O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra. In 2009 she won a gold medal in Berlinske Tidendes Musikkonkurrence, and later would receive the top prize from the Erik Grudd Foundation. She continued her studies with Marco Rizzi at Mannheim Musikhochschule, and Per Enoksson at Edsberg Manor’s chamber music academy in Stockholm.
Since 2018, Liana has been performing as a full-time member of Västerås Sinfonietta, and has returned to Lilla Akademien as violin teacher and ensemble leader, committed to preserving and elevating a tradition of open-minded and zealous musicianship.

photo: Björn Carlén

Laura Lunansky (1995, Utrecht) is a Dutch violinist with Argentinian origins. She's first violinist of the London-based Behn Quartet and is founding member of ‘de Formule’, a Dutch ensemble that focuses on interdisciplinary chamber music performances, winner of the Grote Kamermuziek Prijs 2018 and ensemble in residence of Festival Classique.
Laura is a recipient of the Villa Musica stipendium since 2021 and appears regularly with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Dresdner Festspielorchester, Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Asko| Schoenberg ensemble and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra amongst others.
She's active as a contemporary, classical as well as baroque violinist.
She has performed for the Dutch Embassy as a soloist and with her ensemble in Kroatia, Mexico, Canada, Slovenia, Iceland and Italy.
Besides playing the violin she works as a presenter and judge in competitions and hosts a radioshow about the ins and outs of classical music on Echobox radio.

New Zealand born violist Bryony Gibson-Cornish has established herself in London as a dynamic and committed chamber musician, orchestral musician and teacher. Various accolades include being awarded the Tagore Gold Medal upon graduating from the Royal College of Music and studying at The Juilliard School as a Fulbright Scholar. She is a member of the Marmen Quartet, winners of the Banff and Bordeaux International String Quartet Competitions. Bryony also loves spending time with the London Mozart Players, where she is No. 2 Viola. As a teacher, she assists her former professor Andriy Viytovych at the Royal College of Music. Recent visits to New Zealand have included performing and teaching at the International Akaroa Music Festival and recording New Zealand composer Philip Norman’s When Gravity Fails with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Bryony plays a 1932 Vincenzo Sannino Viola, made in Rome, and is grateful to the Loan Fund for Musical Instruments for their assistance.

Australian-born violist, Francis Kefford, enjoys a diverse career as a chamber musician, teacher, festival director and orchestral musician.
After studying in Toronto with Steven Dann, his most affecting musical influence, Francis remained in Canada as Acting Principal Violist of the Canadian Opera Company. In the UK, Francis is a frequent performer with the LSO and the Royal Opera House Orchestra, and he has led the viola sections of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the RTE Symphony Orchestra, Ireland, and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. Francis has been a member of O/Modernt since 2018.
Francis is Co-Director of the Saronic Chamber Music Festival, an annual chamber music festival in Greece, where he fostered a culture dedicated to deep exploration of the repertory in ensembles based in both profound friendship and dedicated artistry. Here, and at many other chamber music festivals across Europe, Francis has collaborated with some of the finest musicians of his generation. He studied chamber music with Levon Chilingirian OBE, and David Takeno in London, and with Mikhail Kopelman in Spain. He has performed chamber music in many of Europe's most prestigious venues, including at the Musikverein in Vienna, and at the Wigmore Hall in London.
Francis has recently begun teaching and is developing a studio at Zodiac Music Academy, France.

Jenny Augustinsson is a viola player from Linköping, Sweden. She started to play the violin as a five-year-old, switching to the viola while studying for her BA at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. After finishing her studies in Oslo, she later received her Master’s degree at the Royal Academy of Stockholm, Edsbergs Manor. She is now working in Norrköping Symphony Orchestra. Before that she played with Norrlandsoperan, Umeå, and Musica Vitae, a chamber orchestra in Växjö. Jenny is also a very engaged chamber musician, and has been active in numerous ensembles, including trios, quartets and chamber orchestras. She plays a viola made in 2012 by Michael Stürzenhofecker.

Julian Arp studied at the Academy of Music ‘Hanns Eisler’ in Berlin with Boris Pergamenschikow. He continued his studies with David Geringas and Eberhard Feltz. As a soloist and chamber musician Julian appears regularly at festivals, including the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn, Beauvais, Montreux, SoNoRo Bucharest, Stellenbosch, Stift Festival, the Oxford Chamber Music Festival and IMS Prussia Cove. The Duo Arp/Frantz has released three CDs. In the words of Fono Forum: ‘They make music into pure celebration. It all sounds and sings.’ Contemporary composers, including Odeh-Tamimi, Koch, Nemtsov and Dinescu have written pieces for him. He is a co-founder of the festival Zeitkunst which has been a guest at the Centre Pompidou, Radialsystem Berlin, Israel, England and Rio de Janeiro. Julian regularly gives master classes in Germany and abroad, and teaches at the University for Arts in Graz, Austria.

The Italian cellist Claude Frochaux began playing the cello at Suzuki Talent Center, then at the Conservatory of Turin. Studies followed in Frankfurt, Essen and Madrid. As a sought-after and passionate chamber musician, he is a guest at festivals including Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Mozartfest Würzburg, Beethovenfest Bonn, Oxford, Enescu Bucharest and venues like Wigmore Hall and Kings Place London, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Konzerthaus Berlin and Laeiszhalle Hamburg. He is also broadcast repeatedly on the radio, notably with BR, WDR, SWR, Deutschlandfunk and Radio Clasica. In 2008 he founded the Monte Piano Trio, which has won numerous international prizes (Maria Canals Barcelona, Brahms Austria, Schumann Frankfurt and Folkwang Prize), and regularly gives concerts. He collaborates with groups such as Ensemble Midwest Denmark, Amici Ensemble Frankfurt and Ensemble Ruhr. Claude is founder and artistic director of Kammermusikfest Sylt, which takes place every year on the German island of Sylt, and the music-project MUSICA+ in Frankfurt.

New Zealand-born Edward King began to play the cello at age three, taking his lessons on a 1/16th-sized instrument, and sitting on a tiny stool built by his grandfather. In the following years (after graduating through a series of progressively bigger cellos), he enjoyed studies with James Tennant, Julius Berger, and Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, a trio of encouraging and open-minded mentors. This led to prizes at the Witold Lutosławski International Cello Competition, the International Cello Competition in Markneukirchen and the Australian Cello Awards.
Edward enjoys a multi-faceted career, collaborating with a diverse array of ensembles around Europe and further afield. He is especially interested in projects that unearth new perspectives on long-standing musical traditions, and enjoys dabbling in a wide range of music: early, contemporary, world, chamber, electronic, improvised, rearranged, and recomposed.
Since 2019 Edward has worked as a lecturer of cello at the Leopold Mozart Center of the University of Augsburg, where he enjoys the challenges and inspiration provided by his students. Edward plays on a modern German instrument, made by Robert König in 2017.

Jordi Carrasco Hjelm is a Swedish double bass player focusing on chamber music and free improvisation. Born in Stockholm, he has been part of the O/Modernt concept from the outset. He lives in Amsterdam, where he was an undergraduate in the class of Olivier Thiery and Rick Stotijn at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and where he also completed his master’s degree in cross-over music-making with the jazz violinist Tim Kliphuis in 2019. Jordi has performed as a chamber musician and improviser in festivals all over Europe and as a guest player with a diverse set of ensembles such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orkest, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the Matthew Barley Ensemble (UK), the location-based improvisation concept Buro Nieuw Perspectief (NL) and the string orchestra Arte Frizzante (CH). In 2021 he looks forward to premiering his new composition for solo double bass at the Wonderfeel Festival in Helsinki, improvising with Gareth Lubbe at the Sylt Chamber Music Festival and to spending some summer weeks in the Swiss Alps at the festival Musikdorf Ernen.

Zane Kalniņa was born in Latvia. She did her Bachelor and Master degrees at The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, Denmark. She has also studied for a year at University Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.

Zane is a member of Kremerata Baltica Chamber Orchestra since 2017. She has been a guest player in Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra Sinfonietta Rīga, O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra, European Philharmonic of Switzerland, also participated in various chamber music projects in Latvia, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Italy and Canada. Zane is a member of ensemble Kremerata Lettonica.

Victoria was a scholar at Royal College of Music, London and graduated a year early with First Class Honors. She is currently associate leader of London Mozart Players and has recently joined Hovkapellet as principle second violin. Victoria has held contracts as guest concertmaster of BBC Scottish Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Santiago Opera (Chile), Swedish Radio Orchestra, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra amongst others. Victoria has been regular guest section leader at Australian Chamber Orchestra (Sydney), Royal Opera House (Covent Garden), London Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra amongst others. Victoria is a qualified teacher and was Director of Music at Bruton School of music for three years where she reintroduced classical music to the national curriculum in the South West of England. Victoria has been invited to write articles for BBC Music Magazine, The Strad Magazine, The Arts Desk, Tatler Magazine amongst others. Victoria enjoys chamber music and has performed with Gary Hoffman, Radovan Vlatkovic, Gerard Causse, Steven Isserlis, Lars Anders Tomte, Lawrence Power, Sasha Zemtsov, Jean Yves-Thibaudet, Ida Haendal and many others. Victoria plays a violin on loan from the Royal Swedish Opera and a Fetique bow on loan from a private sponsor in Sydney.

Sascha has quickly established himself as one of the most sought-after viola players in London. Since relocating to the UK in 2017 he has been in high demand as soloist, chamber musician and guest principal with symphony and chamber orchestras alike. He joined the Navarra String Quartet in 2018 and Britten Sinfonia in 2021 as associate leader of the viola section. Last season featured Sascha as soloist in the Musikverein Vienna, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Printzregententheater in Munich and Konzerthaus Berlin along with partner Antoine Tamestit and the AKAMUS Berlin. He is a member of the Oculi Sextet and Sakuntala String Trio, both based in London. Sascha appears frequently as guest principal player of Aurora Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Academy of Ancient Music, English Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and the Romanian Chamber Orchestra, a newly founded project very close to his heart in Romania. He enjoys both gut stringing his viola at different pitches as well as playing jazz in various ensembles. Newly Sascha has joined the professorial staff at Trinity University in London. Sascha joins the O’Modernt with great joy and commitment in both UK and international concerts.

Artist Website

UK-born Alexander Jones is Assistant Principal of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. He began learning the double bass with Gethin Griffith at the age of seven, and has since studied with Ronan Dunne, Tom Goodman, Graham Mitchell, Chi-chi Nwanoku CBE and Dominic Seldis. He was an undergraduate at Cambridge University before moving on to the Royal Academy of Music. Alexander has appeared as Guest Principal of the Philharmonia, BBC Scottish Symphony and Royal Scottish National orchestras, and has also appeared as Guest Principal with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Dunedin Consort and The English Concert. As a soloist, he has performed at the Grafenegg Festival, recorded for Divine Art and premiered works by several composers. As a chamber musician, he has worked with a number of ensembles and has performed at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and the BBC Proms.

Double bassist Iurii Gavryliuk began his music studies in Ukraine at the age of 14. In 2011 he received a full scholarship to continue his education at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London with Rinat Ibragimov. Iurii has worked with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and O/Modernt, among others. In 2016, he participated in the Chamber Music Connects the World festival in Kronberg, Germany.

Artist Website

Frauke Steichert studied the viola at the University of the Arts Berlin, Germany, with Prof. Hans-Joachim Greiner. Since her studies she has worked in numerous German orchestras in solo and tutti positions including Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin, the Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin, Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle Schwerin, Oldenburgisches Staatsorchester. From 2016 she is associate principal viola with the Philharmonisches Orchester Bremerhaven. Frauke has often produced and performed multidisciplinary programmes which include choreographed dance together with instrumental performance. Passionate about chamber music she has performed at festivals such as Davos Festival, Kammermusikfest Sylt and O/Modernt. When not playing the viola, she will be on her bike, in a lake or in the forest, training for triathlons!