Support for Young Talents

What is special about this joint venture is the intensive debate, the extensive discussions and the joint projects that arise from the sponsorship and lead to a long-lasting artistic friendship and cooperation.

It speaks for the quality of our stARTacademy that many of the artists remain loyal to us even after their active promotion, which usually lasts three years.

At this point we would like to thank all the artists who have placed their trust in us over the past years.

To list all the international awards that violinist Guido Sant'Anna, born in São Paulo, Brazil in 2005, has already won would almost fill an entire evening. In 2018, he won both the Audience Prize and the Chamber Music Prize at the International Yehudi Menuhin Competition in Geneva, to which he was the first Brazilian violinist to be invited. In 2022, he gained international recognition when he became the first South American violinist to win the prestigious Fritz Kreisler International Competition in Vienna. In 2024, he was awarded the LOTTO Sponsorship Prize by the Rheingau Music Festival. He has already worked with renowned orchestras such as the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under Jérémie Rhorer, the Danish Philharmonic Orchestra under Hans Graf and the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra and its music director Thierry Fischer - his debut CD with the latter is to be released on the prestigious NAXOS classical label. For his interpretation of Édouard Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole at the Rheingau Music Festival 2023 alongside the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and Alain Altinoglu, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung attested to his “charisma, stage presence and astonishing maturity and depth”. For the just 19-year-old, music is an “essential language” with which he can show his personality in a “spectacularly creative way”. Guido Sant'Anna is currently studying at the Kronberg Academy in Germany under the direction of Mihaela Martin.

artist information - KD Schmid

stARTacademy funding period
from 2025

With the tuba, the stARTacdemy puts the spotlight on an instrument that is rarely perceived as a solo instrument. Joshua Williams is versatile, he tries things out, doesn't stick to conventions. And he's committed to outreach. He wants to make it easier for children from groups less strongly represented in classical music to gain access to music. The musician was born in New Orleans and grew up in Atlanta. Classical music, gospel, jazz and soul were equally part of his musical socialization. After his first attempts on the saxophone, he switched to the tuba. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra recognized his talent, accepted him into its development program and encouraged him to pursue a professional musical career. His special skills on the tuba earned him a scholarship to the Juilliard School in New York, from which he graduated with a bachelor's degree. Since then, he has pursued his career from New York. He has performed on stage with classical orchestras as well as with Wynton Marsalis' Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. In 2022, he became the first tuba player to win the Duo Competition at the prestigious Music Academy in Santa Barbara.

www.aso.org/artists/detail/joshua-williams

stARTacademy funding period
from 2024

Born in 2000 in Tbilisi, Georgia, Giorgi Gigashvili learned to play the piano without ever thinking about a professional career as a pianist. Rather, his passion was singing and arranging Georgian folk songs and pop songs, with which he performed successfully at various local singing competitions at the age of twelve. Despite this, he continued his formal musical education at the Paliashvili Central Music School for Gifted Children and finally at the Tbilisi State Conservatory under Revaz Tavadze. The turning point and the decision to pursue a career as a pianist came when he heard and met Marta Argerich at the age of 14. From then on it was clear: that's where he wanted to go. Finally, Martha Argerich also chaired the jury when he won 1st prize at the Vigo International Piano Competition in 2019. A few months later he also won third prize and the audience prize at the 62nd Busoni Piano Competition in Bozen. Despite the pandemic, he became more and more visible, for example at the Geza Anda competition, where he received the youth prize. Marta Argerich enabled him to study at the Geneva Conservatory with Nelson Goerner. Lisa Batiashvili invited him as a scholarship holder from her foundation and recorded the Franck Sonata with him for Deutsche Grammophon, which was released in the summer of 2022. The 2022/23 season already includes many debuts in important centers, such as with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester in Berlin, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Heidelberg Spring, the Thuringian Bach Weeks and a tour with Johann Dalene in the USA, including in Carnegie Hall. His first album of a three album deal with the Alpha label will be released in April 2023.

www.giorgigigashvili.com

stARTacademy funding period
from 2023

The Egyptian soprano Fatma Said (born 1991) grew up in Cairo and attended the German School there. She trained in Berlin and at La Scala in Milan. Fatma represented Egypt as an opera singer on Human Rights Day 2014 and 2018 at the United Nations in Geneva and at the Silk Road Concert in 2017 in Luxor. In 2016, the Egyptian National Council for Women awarded her an honorary prize for her outstanding international artistic achievements. As a result, she became the first Egyptian opera singer ever to be awarded the state’s Creativity Award, one of Egypt’s highest accolades.

www.fatmasaid.com

stARTacademy funding period
from 2022

The Israeli conductor Bar Avni completed her studies in the class of Ulrich Windfuhr at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg, after first studying percussion and bassoon at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv. Bar Avni made her debut at the Tyrolean Festival in Erl in 2016 and was a scholarship holder of the Orchestra Academy of the Bergische Symphoniker in the 2017/18 season. At the Hamburg Chamber Opera she subsequently conducted Simplicius Simplicissimus by Karl Amadeus Hartmann, made her debut with the Staatskapelle Halle, conducted the Hamburg Camerata in the Elbphilharmonie and made her debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Bar Avni was a member of Manfred Honeck's conducting academy and worked with Jaap van Zweden. She is a scholarship holder of the International Kurt Masur Institute and chief conductor of the Bayer Philharmonic Orchestra since 2021. In 2024, she received the first prize at the international competition "La Maestra" in Paris and four additional prizes, including the Prix ECHO and the Prix ARTE.

www.baravni.com

Support period stARTacademy
from 2021

Jakob Manz comes from a musical family and came into contact with the drums, the recorder and the saxophone in his earliest childhood. Numerous awards at the German "Jugend Musiziert" competition document his versatility. From 2016 to 2019 he was a young student at the Stuttgart Music Academy before moving to Cologne in 2019. Jakob Manz has been sponsored by Bayer Arts & Culture as a member of the stARTacademy since 2021. As part of his “Jakob Manz Project” he is performing at the stARTfestival and the Leverkusen Jazz Days. His first album Natural Energy was released in April 2020 on the ACT label.

www.jakobmanz.de

Support period stARTacademy
from 2021

The trumpeter Rike Huy is at home in many artistic fields and playfully combines genres and disciplines in her versatility. As a member of the stARTacademy, she has been supported by Bayer Arts & Culture since 2020. She studied trumpet in Berlin, Paris and Hanover and has won several international music competitions. In 2011-12 Rike Huy was a scholarship holder of the International Ensemble Modern Academy and since then has been working primarily in the contemporary music scene both as a soloist and in ensemble formation (Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Collegium Novum Zurich). Since 2017 she has been principal trumpet in the Basel Sinfonietta. In 2019 the musician was on an international concert tour with the Canadian singer Peaches. Together with former stARTacademy artist Lisa Charlotte Friederich, Rike Huy produced the feature film LIVE'. With Joosten Ellée she composed the film music and recorded all trumpet parts.

www.rikehuy.de

Support period stARTacademy
from 2020

Lisa Charlotte Friederich works as an actress and director. She studied acting at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart and graduated in Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen. In 2016 she received the Hessian Film Award in the category female lead role for the film "Fritz Lang". 2010 - 2012 she was a permanent member of the ensemble at the Lübeck Theatre and acted in various theatre and television productions. In 2013 and 2014 she worked as assistant director to Heiner Goebbels at the Ruhrtriennale International Festival of the Arts. As part of the Heidelberger Frühling International Music Festival, she wrote and directed the multimedia music theatre play "Castor&&Pollux" in spring 2019. Together with the stARTacademy artist Rike Huy she produced the feature film "Live".

www.agenturneuffer.de/profil/lisa-charlotte-friederich

Support period stARTacademy
2018 - 2020

Philippe Kratz from Leverkusen came into contact with dance as a child. After his first steps with Helena Krassa and intensive schooling at Freiherr von Stein Gymnasium and during an exchange year in Canada, he completed a ballet education at the Berlin State Ballet School with Gregor Seyffert. From 2006 to 2008 he was a soloist at the Theater der Stadt Dortmund under the direction of Xin Pen Wang before joining the Italian company Aterballetto. Cristina Bozzolini, the artistic director of Aterballetto, is an important mentor for Philippe Kratz, who is now also an internationally renowned choreographer.

www.aterballetto.it/en/aterballetto/dancers/philippe-kratz

Support period stARTacademy
2018 - 2020

Alexei Gerassimez is the leading German percussionist and is at home as a musician and composer on all major stages in Germany and abroad. His repertoire ranges from classical and new music to jazz and minimal music and is constantly expanding through his own compositions and arrangements. As a soloist, Alexei Gerassimez is a guest of internationally renowned orchestras (including the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Munich Philharmonic, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, SWR Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra) under the baton of conductors such as Tan Dun, Kristjan Järvi, Eivind Gullberg Jensen, Jonathan Stockhammer, John Axelrod and Michel Tabachnik. In his acclaimed concerts, Alexei Gerassimez, who teaches as a professor at the Munich Musikhochschule, integrates not only the usual percussion and melodic instruments, but also objects from actually non-musical contexts such as bottles, brake disks, barrels or ship's propellers, thus enthusing audiences and the trade press alike.

www.alexejgerassimez.de

Support period stARTacademy
2018 - 2020

Sandro Roy combines the world of classical music with the elements of jazz like no other violinist. In 2015 he released his debut CD "Where I Come From". Since then the young exceptional violinist has enjoyed a remarkable career, has been highly praised by the press and has played at various major festivals in Europe and also in the USA. Highlights of his still young career were a live show on BBC radio and a sold-out concert at the legendary Ronnie Scotts Jazzclub London. Subsequently, in 2019, he performed with the Munich Radio Orchestra under the motto "Gypsy goes Classic" at the sold-out Prinzregententheater Munich and made his debut with the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra Amsterdam.

www.sandro-roy.com

Support period stARTacademy
2018 - 2020

The Bundesjugendballett, founded in Hamburg on the initiative of John Neumeier, is the German cadre for young ballet talent from the renowned companies. The young dancers* receive comprehensive training in the form of a scholarship, are introduced to new dance forms and prepared for professional life with the professional guidance of renowned teachers. Innovative formats, also in the area of child and youth work, are just as important for the young dancers as their own choreographic work.

www.bundesjugendballett.de

Support period stARTacademy
2016 - 2018

The pianist Tamar Beraia, born in 1987 in Tbilisi, Georgia, was sponsored by Bayer Arts & Culture as a member of the stARTacademy from 2015 to 2018. She appears both as a soloist and as a duo with her sister and was initially taught by her mother in early childhood. She took her concert exams with Ivan Klánský at the Lucerne School of Music and was subsequently supported by Elisabeth Leonskaja. Tamar Beraia has been awarded numerous prizes and regularly gives concerts in the music centres of Europe and in her native Georgia.

www.tamarberaia.com

Support period stARTacademy
2015 - 2018

The violinist Tobias Feldmann has been one of the most distinguished musicians of his generation for many years. The foundation stone of his impressive career was laid in childhood; he was in the early development class at the Würzburg Music Academy before he completed his main studies at the "Hanns Eisler" Academy of Music in Berlin with Antje Weithaas. In 2018 Tobias Feldmann was appointed professor at the Würzburg conservatory. His musical partners include Julian Steckel, Maximilian Hornung, Boris Kuznezow, Tabea Zimmermann, Istvan Vardai, Kian Soltani, Deniz Kozhukin and Nicolas Altstaedt.

www.tobias-feldmann.com

Support period stARTacademy
2015 - 2018

Jazz pianist, singer, composer - Olivia Trummer is all in one. The classically trained musician draws from a broad musical spectrum. With keys and voice, she forms new connections between genres, for which she has already received many awards, most recently the Jazzpreis Baden-Württemberg 2019.
Born in Stuttgart in 1985 into a family of musicians, she began classical piano training at the age of 4. At the same time, she discovered her curiosity to express herself through improvisation and composition. She studied jazz piano and classical piano at the MHS in Stuttgart, graduated with honors in both, and continued her jazz studies with the help of a DAAD scholarship at the "Manhattan School of Music" in New York. The formative years spent in the jazz metropolis as well as her close relationship to classical music have always served as sources of inspiration for her. Concerts have taken Olivia Trummer to Italy, Ireland, England, China, Japan and the USA.

www.oliviatrummer.de

Support period stARTacademy
2013 - 2016

The German pianist Alexander Krichel has been a member of the stART-Academy family of artists since 2012 and has taken the audience at the Erholungshaus by storm. In numerous concerts, whether as a soloist or as a chamber music partner, he has demonstrated his versatility in Leverkusen. Born in Hamburg in 1989, he first studied with Vladimir Krainev in Hannover before completing his studies at the Royal College of Music with Dmitri Alexeev. In 2013 Alexander Krichel was named "Young Artist of the Year" at the ECHO Klassik with his debut CD. Alexander Krichel is co-founder and artistic director of the award-winning festival "Kultur Rockt" as well as artistic director of the exclusive concert series "Chamber Music on the Upper Rhine" and since 2018 a permanent jury member of the "Fanny Mendelssohn Förderpreis".

www.alexanderkrichel.de

Support period stARTacademy
2012 - 2015

Valentin Radutiu, born in Munich in 1986, learned to play the cello from his father, the cellist Emil Radutiu, and subsequently studied in Salzburg, Vienna and Berlin with Clemens Hagen, Heinrich Schiff and David Geringas. He has won prizes in national and international competitions and was supported by Bayer Arts & Culture as part of the stARTacademy from 2012 to 2015. As a soloist Valentin Radutiu performs with renowned orchestras in Austria and abroad and works with conductors such as Cristian Macelaru, Wolfram Christ, Ruben Gazarian and Gustavo Gimeno. His musical partners include the Hagen Quartet and renowned personalities such as Evgeni Bozhanov, Antje Weithaas or Julian Steckel. Radutiu plays a violoncello by Francesco Ruggieri (Cremona, 1686).

www.radutiu.com

Support period stARTacademy
2012 - 2015

The Benjamin Schaefer Trio was supported by Bayer Arts & Culture from 2010 to 2013, opening the doors of the stARTacademy to jazz. In 2007 Benjamin Schaefer and his trio won the audience prize and the prize for best composition at the Concours du Jazz Européen in Avignon. In the same year, the trio also received the Lower Saxony Jazz Prize and, in 2011, a sponsorship award from the city of Cologne. Schaefer himself studied jazz piano and composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln with Frank Wunsch, Hans Lüdemann, John Taylor and Joachim Ullrich. He has been a lecturer for jazz piano at his alma mater since 2009.

www.benjaminschaefer.com

Support period stARTacademy
2010 - 2013

Hardy Rittner studied piano and fortepiano with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and Siegbert Rampe at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, passed his concert exam with Klaus Hellwig at the Berlin University of the Arts and completed his education by studying music theory with Hartmut Fladt, music education and musicology. His international concert activity on historical keyboard instruments of the 19th century as well as on modern concert pianos has taken him to almost all European countries as well as to South Korea, Taiwan, Canada and the USA. Hardy Rittner set standards with his recording of the complete solo piano works of Johannes Brahms, for the first time on original instruments of the time. Since October 2017 Professor for piano at the Freiburg University of Music.

www.hardyrittner.com

Support period stARTacademy
2009 - 2012

The members of the renowned Signum Quartet are part of the first generation stARTacademy. On their way to the top of the leading chamber music ensembles, the Signum Quartet has for many years inspired visitors* to the Erholungshaus above all by the stylistic range of the literature they perform. The Signum Quartet is a welcome guest on the concert stages of international and European music metropolises and works together with musicians such as Elisabeth Leonskaja, Jörg Widmann, Igor Levit, Nils Mönkemeyer, Adrian Brendel and Dominique Horwitz. In 2015, the quartet launched the innovative social media project #quartweet, which invites composers worldwide - regardless of age and education - to send a short quartet of 140 characters or less via Twitter. The project received a lot of media attention and was presented by Deutschlandfunk, BBC In Tune and on the U-21 programme of Bayerischer Rundfunk.

www.signumquartet.com

Support period stARTacademy
2009 - 2012