NUME Academy & Festival will host internationally acclaimed artists that will be performing and holding extraordinary masterclasses.
Awarded both the “P. Schidlof Prize” and the “J. Barbirolli Prize” for “the most beautiful sound” at the prestigious Lionel Tertis International Viola competition in England in 2000, Italian-born violist Ettore Causa is praised for his exceptional artistry, passionate intelligence and complete musicianship.
He has made solo and recital appearances in major venues around the world, such as Carnegie Hall, Zurich Tonhalle, Madrid National Auditorium, Salle Cortot, Tokyo Symphony Hall, Teatro Colon, etc., and has performed at numerous international festivals, such as the Menuhin, Salzburg, Tivoli, Prussia Cove, Savonlinna, Launadire and Norfolk Festivals.
Also a devoted chamber musician, Mr. Causa has collaborated extensively with internationally renowned musicians such as the Tokyo, Artis, Brentano, Cremona and Elias String Quartets, Pascal Rogé, Boris Berman, Peter Frankl, Thomas Ades, Natalie Clein, Ana Chumachenco, Ani Kavafian, Alberto and Antonio Lysy, Liviu Prunaru, Thomas Demenga, Ulf Wallin, William Bennett and others.
His highly praised recordings include several Claves CDs, among those his transcription of romantic pieces, which was awarded a prestigious “5 Diapasons” by the French magazine.
Recently he was one of the honor guest at the 43rd International Viola Congress where he performed with enormous success his own arrangement of the Schumann cello concerto
Mr. Causa performs on a viola made for him by Frederic Chaudiere in 2003
She has been awarded in several national and international competitions, both in the soloist and in chamber music categories. Mari played at the Prometeo festival with the homonymous quartet, at the Portogruaro Festival and at the Chamber music Festival in Mantua, "la folle Journeé" festival in Japan, and others. She has collaborated as piano accompanist in masterclasses and musical courses, in Italy, the United States, Spain, Switzerland and Belgium held by renowned teachers such as Ilya Grubert, Pavel Vernikov, Gli Shaham, Natalia Gutman and many others. She works as a pianist collaborator for the two-year experimental advaced training courses at the "Maderna" Conservatory of Cesena, the higher Institute for musical studies "Peri" of Reggio Emilia and "Vecchi-"Tonelli" of Modena, as well as for the violin advanced training courses held by the the Portogruaro Music School, clarinet masterclasses in Milan held by M° F. Meloni, as well as constantly collaborating with the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano.
American violinist Stella Chen garnered worldwide attention with her first-prize win at the 2019 Queen Elizabeth International Violin Competition, followed by the 2020 Avery Fisher Career Grant and 2020 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award.
Since then, Stella has appeared across North America, Europe, and Asia in concerto, recital, and chamber music performances. She recently made debuts with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Baltimore Symphony, Belgian National Orchestra, and many others and appeared at the Vienna Musikverein and Berlin Philharmonie. In recital, recent appearances include Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Phillips Collection, Rockport Music Festival, and Nume Festival in Italy. She appears frequently with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center both in New York and on tour.
For her all-Schubert debut album, released in March of 2023 to critical acclaim on the Apple Music label Platoon, Stella was named the 2023 Young Artist of the Year at the Gramophone Awards.
Among the highlights of her busy 2023/24 season are debuts with orchestras in Japan, China, North America, and Europe; the US premiere of Jörg Widmann’s Second Violin Concerto under the direction of the composer and the world premiere of a new violin concerto written for her by American composer Jon Cziner; her debut at the Heidelberg Festival with Igor Levit; and a recital for the San Francisco Symphony’s Spotlight Series.
Stella has appeared as a chamber musician in festivals including the Kronberg Academy, Moritzburg, Ravinia, Seattle Chamber Music, Perlman Music Program, Music@Menlo, Bridgehampton, Rockport, and Sarasota. Chamber music partners include Itzhak Perlman, James Ehnes, Matthew Lipman, Jan Vogler, and many others.
She is the inaugural recipient of the Robert Levin Award from Harvard University, where she was inspired by Robert Levin himself. Teachers and mentors have included Donald Weilerstein, Itzhak Perlman, Miriam Fried, and Catherine Cho. She received her doctorate from the Juilliard School where she serves as teaching assistant to her longtime mentor Li Lin.
Stella plays the 1700 ex-Petri Stradivarius, on generous loan from Dr. Ryuji Ueno and Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative and the 1708 Huggins Stradivarius courtesy of the Nippon Foundation.
Tabea Zimmermann is one of the most popular and renowned artists of our time. As winner of the international Ernst von Siemens Music Prize 2020, artist in residence of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, of the Berliner Philharmoniker and, in the current season, of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tabea Zimmermann is widely acknowledged for her unfailingly high standards and tireless enthusiasm for sharing her love of music with audiences. Fellow musicians and listeners alike value her charismatic personality and deep musical understanding. Her work with orchestras is also guided by the ideals of her experience as a chamber musician, where artistic integrity is paramount.
As a soloist, she regularly works with the most distinguished orchestras worldwide such as the Orchestre de Paris, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2022, she has been the new Artistic Partner of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
She has inspired numerous composers to write for the viola and has introduced many new works into the standard concert and chamber music repertoire. Her artistry is documented on approximately 50 CDs and her artistic work has been recognized with numerous awards both in Germany and abroad.
Tabea Zimmermann has held teaching posts at the Musikhochschule Saarbrücken and Hochschule für Musik Frankfurt. Since October 2002, she has been a professor at the Hochschule für Musik ‘Hanns Eisler’ in Berlin.
She has been playing an instrument built for her by Patrick Robin since 2019.
Equally at home as a soloist with orchestra and as a chamber music performer, Mihaela’s performances in season 2023-24 include performances with Bucharest Philharmonic, Staatsorchester Hamburg, Berlin Academy for American Music, appearances at the Verbier Festival, Enescu Festival, Budapest Academy Festival, Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival, Kronberg Festival, Santander Festival, Ravinia Festival, Suntory Hall
She has performed with leading orchestras such as the BBC Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. She has worked with conductors such as Manfred Honeck, Andrew Davis, Andrew Litton, Gabor Takacs, Thierry Fischer, Thomas Sanderling, Constantine Orbelian, Nicholaus Harnoncourt, Charles Dutoit, Kurt Masur, Neeme Järvi and Paavo Järvi.
Chamber music has a very important place in Mihaela’s life. In addition to participating in many chamber music festivals, she is a founding member of the Michelangelo String Quartet with whom she has performed in Carnegie Hall, Boulez Hall-Berlin, Wigmore Hall-London, Library of Congress, Concertgebouw, and Theatre de Champs Élysée.
Since 2017 she is artistic director of the Rolandseck/Bad Honnef Chamber Music Festival and frequently collaborates with musicians Daniel Barenboim, Sergei Babayan, Lera Auerbach, Krill Gerstein, Denis Kozhukhin, Sharon Kam, Nobuko Imai and Gabor Takacs.
Mihaela Martin is a professor at University of Music in Cologne, at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin and at the Kronberg Academy. She gives masterclasses throughout the world and is a regular jury member at important international competitions such as the Queen Elisabeth (Belgium), Indianapolis (USA), Concours Musical (Canada), Enescu (Romania) and Tchaikovsky (Russia).
Mihaela Martin plays a violin by J.B. Guadagnini that dates from 1748.
Swedish cellist Frans Helmerson began his musical training with Guido Vecchi in Gothenburg before moving on to study with Giuseppe Selmi in Rome and William Pleeth in London. Sergiu Celibidache and his mentor Mstislav Rostropovich also played a very influential role in his artistic development. In 1971, he won the renowned Cassado Competition in Florence – the first of many distinctions. Tours have taken him to other countries in Europe as well as to Japan, Russia, South America, Australia, New Zealand and the USA.
Frans Helmerson plays with many well-known orchestras and receives outstanding critical acclaim for his concerts and recordings. His recording of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with Neeme Järvi and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra was acknowledged as the “best recording currently available on the market”. His recording of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No 1 is also highly praised.
Frans Helmerson’s love of chamber music is another important driving force in his musical endeavours. He is a regular guest at the major European festivals, including the Verbier Festival, the Pablo Casals Festival in Prades and the Ravinia Festival, and spent many years as the artistic director of the Umea-Korsholm International Chamber Music Festival. In 2002 he co-founded the Michelangelo String Quartet.
In addition to his career as a soloist, chamber musician and conductor, Frans Helmerson taught for several years as a professor at the conservatories in Cologne and in Madrid. From 2011 to 2016 he has been teaching as a guest professor at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin. 2016 saw him gain an additional professorship at the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin. Frans Helmerson has been teaching on the Kronberg Academy Study Programmes as a principal professor since 2006. He plays a cello by Stefan-Peter Greiner.
Boris Kusnezow is one of the most sought after collaborative pianists of his generation. He performs with eminent instrumentalists and singers worldwide. His performances have taken him to renowned concert venues such as the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Wigmore Hall London and the Berlin Philharmonie.His artistic activities are documented in 12 CDs and numerous radio recordings. Several of his CDs have been nominated for prizes, including the Opus Klassik and Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.Boris Kusnezow is in demand as an official pianist for some of the world’s most prestigious instrumental and singing competitions, most recently being invited to the ARD Competition in Munich, the Joseph Joachim Competition in Hannover, the Stuttgart International Violin Competition and the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels.Boris Kusnezow was born in Moscow and began his musical education at the traditional Gnessin Academy. He has lived in Germany from the age of eight and completed his musical studies in Hannover with Professor Bernd Goetzke. Thereafter followed first place at the German Music Competition, international awards such as Fellowship of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust and scholarships from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes. In addition to his active performing activities, he is founder of the piano chamber music academy Chamber Lab in Montecastelli/ Italy, artistic director of the International Music Academy for Soloists (IMAS) as well as the Schaumburger Schlosskonzerte at Schloss Bückeburg and volunteers for the Loewe Foundation, where he focuses on the promotion of classical music.Teaching has become an important element in Kusnezow‘s artistic career. In 2020 he was appointed professor for piano chamber music at the University for Music and Theatre „Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy“ Leipzig.
From an early age he was a prize-winner at numerous national and international competitions, such as Rovere d’Oro, San Bartolomeo al Mare, Italy (1995), Jeunesses Musicales Bucharest, Romania (1998 and 2002), Kissinger Klavier Olymp (”Kissinger Piano Olympics”) Bad Kissingen, Germany (2004), Béla Bartók Szeged, Hungary (2006) and the Artur Schnabel Piano Competition Berlin (2010). In 2015 he was a finalist in the Deutscher Musikwettbewerb (German Music Competition) in Lübeck and was awarded a scholarship, being subsequently selected to take part in the 60th selected young artists´ concert season (”60. Bundesauswahl Konzerte Junger Künstler”). As an active chamber musician, he has given performances with the Jacques Thibaud String Trio in Germany and the USA since 2003. He is also the pianist and a founder member of the Jacques Thibaud Ensemble. He has had numerous concert appearances in Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Belgium, France and the UK, including such venues as the Maison de la Radio France in Paris and the Royal Festival Hall, London. As a duo with violinist Ioana Cristina Goicea, he has appeared in numerous concerts in Germany, Italy and Romania. From 2010 to 2013 he was a faculty member of the Musica Mundi Chamber Music Course and Festival in Belgium, where he also appeared as a soloist with the Festival Orchestra conducted by Maxim Vengerov in 2012, and with the Brussels Chamber Orchestra in the concert for the Festival’s 15th Anniversary in 2013. He has been teaching at the Leipzig ”Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” University of Music and Theatre since 2012 and at the UdK Berlin since 2014. Between 2016 and 2018 he held a teaching post at the University of Music “Franz Liszt” in Weimar and starting in October 2018 he will be on the faculty of the ”Hanns Eisler” School of Music in Berlin.
Andreas is one of the most sought-after performing artists from Scandinavia, winning worldwide critical acclaim for his ability to make the music not only sound, but both speak, dance and sing.
His debut disc of the Tchaikovsky, Schumann and Saint-Saëns cello concertos with the "Danish National Symphony Orchestra" was released by EMI in 2008, and since then his discography has grown long. Most recent he released a much acclaimed CD with both Haydn Cello Concertos in 2021 with the period ensemble Concerto Copenhagen led by Lars Ulrik Mortensen and his latest release “48 Strings” from 2022 features music for 1, 2, 4 and 12 celli and pays homage to the four greatest cellists from the beginning of the 20th century. Also in 2022, he finished a remarkable project with video recordings of Piatti’s 12 Caprices available on Youtube and Apple Music.
Andreas won first prizes in the 2006 Eurovison Young Musicians Competition, the 2007 International Paulo Cello Competition and, in subsequent years, received music awards and fewllowships including the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in 2008, the BBC’s New Generation Artist 2008-2011, The European Concert Hall Organisation “Rising Star” tour in the 2008/09 season. In 2015 he received the Carl Nielsen Prize in Copenhagen and since 2022 Andreas has been teaching as visiting professor at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki
Andreas plays the 1707 ‘Boni-Hegar’ Stradivarius.
Simon Zhu was born in Germany in 2001. He received his first violin lessons at the age of six. His exceptional talent was recognized early on, so he was soon being taught by renowned violin professors. Since 2012, he has been a student at the Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Music High School in Berlin and a young student at the Julius Stern Institute at the Berlin University of the Arts. He was a student of Prof. Koh Gabriel Kameda. From 2015-2021, he was a student of Prof. Tomasz Tomaszewski at the Berlin University of the Arts and takes private lessons with Ning Feng. Since 2021, he has been studying with Prof. Ana Chumachenco in Munich.
Simon attended master classes with professors Wolfgang Marschner, Rainer Kussmaul, Ana Chumachenco, Boris Kuschnir, Petru Munteanu, Krzysztof Wegrzyn, Igor Ozim, Ingolf Turban and Paul Roczek, among others. He is also a scholarship holder of the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein and regularly takes part in the intensive weeks and activities of the Academy.
In 2016, Simon won the 1st prize at the “13th International competition for violin Georg Philipp Telemann” in Poznan (Poland) with the award for the best interpretation of a fantasy for violin solo by Georg Philipp Telemann. In the same year, he also received the “Bruno Frey Music Prize” from the Bruno Frey Foundation (Ochsenhausen). In 2017, the 1stprize followed at the “17th International Violin Competition” in Kloster Schöntal, including a special prize for the best interpretation of a virtuoso piece and the Reinhold Würth Prize. In 2018, he won the 1st prize at the “34th International Violin Competition Valsesia Musica" in Italy, 2019 the 1st prize at the renowned “Zhuhai Mozart Competition” in China and 2021 the 2nd prize at the “International Menuhin Competition” in Richmond as well as the “Mozart Prize” and the “EMCY Performance Prize”.
Simon Zhu made his debut in June 2015 at a lunchtime concert in the Berlin Philharmonic. Since 2017, he has performed there several times as a soloist with orchestra. He was also a guest at the International Young Masters Violin Festival at Lake Constance and is a scholarship holder of the Menuhin Festival & Academy. He gave concerts in Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and China.
Simon has been a scholarship holder of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben since 2016 and an academician of the Hope Music Academy 2020.
He has been playing a fine old Italian violin since 2020, on generous loan from Florian Leonhard Fine Violins London.
Founder and artistic director of NUME Academy & Festival Vlad Stanculeasa is a prize winner in the Enescu, Valsesia and Molinari competitions, Vlad Stanculeasa is an active solo and chamber music performer, as well as a teacher in european conservatories. Since 2022 Vlad held a teaching post at the conservatory in Barcelona ESMUC and is regularly invited to give masterclasses in Spain, Italy and Sweden. As a soloist, he’s performed with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Basel Chamber Orchestra, Kammersymphonie Leipzig. He’s collaborated as soloist with many conductors including Kent Nagano, Lahav Shani, Han Na Chang, Konrad von Abel.
Was selected by Lord Yehudi Menuhin to be the pianist of the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland where she performed concerts and tours. Tecu has recorded together with violinist Alberto Lysy “Romantic pieces for violin and piano. Lorena is a staff pianist at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and the Boston University College of Fine Arts.
