Ode to Love

Named a Classic FM Rising Star 2026, Sarah Strohm is one of the most promising violists of her generation. Captivating audiences with her dynamic and expressive playing, she “radiates on stage” with her “rich, powerful sound” (Crescendo Magazine).

Her participation in numerous international competitions from a young age has repeatedly brought her to the attention of juries and audiences alike. In 2025, she won First Prize ex aequo at the Geneva International Music Competition, along with the Audience Prize, the Orchestra Musicians’ Prize of the OSR, the Société des Arts Prize and several other special awards. Her accolades also include Second Prize at the Johannes Brahms Competition (2021), as well as the prize for the best interpretation of Oskar Nedbal’s work, and an honourable mention at the Oskar Nedbal International Viola Competition (2023). In Switzerland, she won First Prize at the Valiant Forum Competition as part of the Murten Classics Festival (2023), and is also a multiple prizewinner at the Swiss Youth Music Competition (2016, 2018, 2022 and 2024).

Born in Geneva in 2005, Sarah began her musical training with Noémie Bialobroda and is currently continuing her studies in Jean Sulem’s class at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris.

Her flourishing career regularly takes her across Europe and beyond as a soloist and chamber musician. The 2026–27 winter season promises to be particularly exciting: she will make her debut in China with the NCPA Orchestra, in Japan with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and in the United States, where she has been appointed an artist-in-residence at DYNAMIKfest in Chicago.

She has recently performed in recital with pianist Lidija Bizjak at festivals including Radio France Montpellier, Lavaux Classic, the Estivales de Musique en Médoc and the Festival Classique des Haudères.

In recent years, she has also had the opportunity to perform alongside renowned musicians such as Corina Belcea, Peter Bruns, Veronika Eberle, Garth Knox, Svetlana Makarova, Sergey Ostrovsky, Maxim Rysanov, Antje Weithaas and Robin Wilson, in prestigious venues including Zurich’s Tonhalle, Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Bar-Uryan Concert Hall in Israel and the Franz Liszt Hall in Geneva.

Alongside her concert career, Sarah regularly participates in leading international academies, including the Verbier Festival’s Soloists Academy, the Seiji Ozawa International Academy, the Gstaad String Academy, the IMS Prussia Cove masterclasses, the Keshet Eilon String Mastercourse, the Geneva International String Academy and the Kronberg Academy Workshops. She has had the opportunity to further her musical development with distinguished artists including Ettore Causa, Nobuko Imai, Tatjana Masurenko, Lawrence Power, Thomas Riebl, Antoine Tamestit and Tabea Zimmermann.

Sarah has the privilege of playing a magnificent viola by Lorenzo Storioni, generously loaned to her by a private patron through Atelier Pierre Barthel in Paris.

Founded by musicians who graduated from the Haute École de Musique in Lausanne and Geneva, the La Fontana Cantabile Ensemble specialises in sacred music, with a particular focus on the works of J. S. Bach and German Romantic composers. Its approach is rooted in musical excellence, the transmission of knowledge and experience between generations of musicians, and respect for the historical context of each work, with period instruments used whenever possible.

The Ensemble is now also exploring new horizons through the music of the 18th century, notably the works of W. A. Mozart and Beethoven. In 2027, it will mark the bicentenary of Beethoven’s death with a performance of his monumental Missa solemnis.

The Ensemble is also embracing contemporary creation, with works such as the Te Deum by Jean-Claude Schlaepfer. It will also perform Paul Hindemith’s Messe für Blechbläser und Chor in collaboration with the brass ensemble Geneva Brass. Finally, it will return to Bach in a collaboration with the Cameristi della Scala, conducted by Wilson Hermanto, bringing their talents together for a performance of the St John Passion.

In June 2018, Jean Gautier-Pignonblanc obtained a Master’s degree in Choral Conducting in the class of Brazilian conductor Celso Antunes at the Haute École de Musique de Genève, as well as the special Janine-Françoise Muller-Dumas Prize awarded by the City of Geneva.

After working for a year as assistant to Nicolas Farine, he became conductor of the large oratorio choir made up of students from the Haute École de Musique de Genève. In 2019, he was appointed professor in the Music Culture Department of the Geneva Conservatory of Music.

Jean Gautier-Pignonblanc co-founded the La Fontana Cantabile Ensemble, with which he has conducted J. S. Bach’s St John Passion in Montreux (2016), the Easter Oratorio (2017) and the Magnificat (2019). He is also the founder of the Ensemble Vocal Jeun’Voix, made up of young professional singers, with which he has conducted major works from the repertoire, including Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 (2015) and Scarlatti’s Stabat Mater (2017).

He conducts the Renaissance Choir in Annemasse and the Vandœuvres-Cologny-Choulex Choir on a weekly basis. With these ensembles, he has staged major works from the repertoire with orchestra, including Mozart’s Coronation Mass, Fauré’s Requiem and Haydn’s Paukenmesse.

After studying at the Annecy Conservatoire, he obtained the Swiss Certificate in the piano class of Philippe Chanon. During his conducting studies, he spent time at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart, where he studied with Professor Denis Rouger.

His interest in opera has led to invitations to the Vienna State Opera in Austria in 2015 and 2017, at the invitation of its chorus master Thomas Lang. In 2016, he worked at the Opéra-Théâtre de Saint-Étienne as a répétiteur. In 2017, he conducted Mozart’s The Magic Flute and The Marriage of Figaro as part of the Vendôme Lyric Academy.

He also prepares choruses for the Estivales de Brou (Ain), where he has worked on major operas including Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Verdi’s Nabucco.

Coralie Quellier is a French contralto who studied at the Haute École de Musique de Genève, where she obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Gilles Cachemaille’s class, and subsequently at the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne, where she completed a Master’s degree in Brigitte Balleys’ class.

Curious and eclectic, she has performed a wide range of repertoire, from Bizet’s Carmen (Bethlehem), Jenny in Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, and Ulrica in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, to café-concert repertoire, Baroque music and Middle Eastern music. Together with Johann Vacher, she co-founded the company Les C barrés, which creates educational and outreach performances combining singing and theatre.

Passionate about choral repertoire, she is a member of several ensembles, including the Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne, the chorus of the Grand Théâtre de Genève and Gli Angeli. She has performed under conductors such as Leonardo García Alarcón, Raphaël Pichon and Marc Minkowski, and regularly appears as an oratorio soloist, a repertoire to which she is particularly devoted.

Coralie also teaches singing and musical theatre at Quai des Arts in Bons-en-Chablais.

An insatiably curious spirit, a taste for risk, an unbounded appetite for the cello repertoire across all styles, civic engagement, and an unconditional love of nature — these are the hallmarks of the brilliant Franco-Swiss cellist Ophélie Gaillard.

Named “Instrumental Soloist Revelation” at the Victoires de la Musique Classique in 2003, she has since performed in recital across Asia and Europe and appeared with leading orchestras including the Monte Carlo Philharmonic, Orchestre national de Metz, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech National Symphony Orchestra, and New Japan Philharmonic.

She records for Aparté, with several acclaimed complete cycles (Bach, Britten, Schumann, Fauré, Chopin, Brahms, CPE Bach, Strauss), as well as thematic albums that have reached wide audiences, such as Dreams, Alvorada, and Exils.

A passionate collaborator, she has shared the stage with Lambert Wilson, hip-hop dancer Ibrahim Sissoko, choreographers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet, Étoile dancers Hugo Marchand and Ludmila Pagliero, and bossa nova star Toquinho (Canto de sereia, live album, Aparté, 2017).

In 2005, she founded the Pulcinella Orchestra, which she leads from the cello, exploring 17th- and 18th-century repertoire on period instruments. Following her acclaimed double album of Boccherini with Sandrine Piau (2019), she and Pulcinella enjoyed major success with Vivaldi: I colori dell’ombra during the pandemic with mezzo-sopranos Lucile Richardot and Delphine Galou.

In 2021, she released Cellopera, a journey through a century of opera arias transcribed for cello and orchestra, recorded with the Vienna Morphing Orchestra under Frédéric Chaslin. In 2022, A Night in London explored composers who ventured to London in the 1730s, such as Porpora, Geminiani, and Bononcini. In 2023, she turned to Naples with Sandrine Piau, Marina Viotti, and Luan Goes for a colorful double album featuring works by Porpora, Leo, Durante, Matteis, and traditional tarantellas.

Percussionist Gabriel Michaud is a versatile musician with eclectic influences. He has performed at numerous festivals (La Folle Journée, Festival Archipel, IPEA Shanghai, Salon-de-Provence, among others), both in recital and chamber music, as well as with orchestras such as the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire.

In 2021, he won several prizes in solo competitions (Germany, Switzerland, Spain), followed in 2022 by chamber music awards (Luxembourg, with Trio Fragments). That same year, he took first prize, the audience award, and the press award at the prestigious TROMP International Percussion Competition Eindhoven.

Gabriel is also a composer, writing for chamber ensembles and electronic music, including work with the rap collective Codex Dissident.

Born in France in 2003, Gabriel began percussion at age 7 at a local music school, then joined the Nantes Conservatory at 11. Deeply involved in jazz, he played in several groups, notably the Tryptyk trio and the ODC 5tet. In 2020, he entered the Haute École de Musique de Genève, studying contemporary and orchestral repertoire as well as drum set, tablas, and composition. Since September 2023, he has been pursuing a Master’s degree in percussion at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris.

Nikolay Ivanov was born in 1995 in Pleven, Bulgaria. He began his musical studies at the age of 10 at the Panayot Pipkov National School of Arts in Pleven in Simeon Serafimov’s percussion class.

From an early age, he gave numerous concerts as a soloist and with the Accent percussion ensemble.

In November 2018, he won second prize and the Friends of TROMP audience prize at the TROMP International Percussion Competition in Eindhoven, Netherlands. In June 2019, he took part in a creative project at the Centre Pompidou for Contemporary Art in Paris with a concert at Ircam. In August 2020, he was invited to perform at the PAS Festival in Beijing, China, and later in October at the IPEA International Percussion CloudArt Festival in Shanghai. In 2020, he obtained his bachelor’s degree and entered the master’s program for soloists at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève. In 2021, he was invited to join the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris as an additional percussionist. In October 2021, he won first prize at the IPEA Percussion Competition in Shanghai. Holder of a Master’s degree in Pedagogy from the Haute École de Musique de Genève, he has been teaching at the École Municipale de Musique et de Danse de St-Julien for several years.

Latvian pianist Georgijs Osokins has gained international attention through his participation at age of 19 in the XVII^th International Chopin Piano Competition where he quickly became an absolute Audience Favorite. Shortly after the Chopin Competition, Osokins made important debuts at the Konzerthaus Berlin, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Laeiszhalle and Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, International Piano Series in Bern, Lockenhaus Festival, Gstaad Music Festival, Narodowe Forum Muzyki in Katowice, the Vancouver Playhouse, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre Hall, Tongyeong Hall in South Korea. In 2021 Georgijs Osokins performed at the 101^st Salzburger Festspiele.

Georgijs is actively collaborating with Gidon Kremer, touring in the UK, Ireland, Russia, Poland, Germany, Asia and US. Alongside Lucas Debargue, Georgijs Osokins was announced the first permanent Guest Artist of Kremerata Baltica in its 25-year history. In 2024 Georgijs makes his solo debut at Pierre-Boulez Saal in Berlin and returns to Milan’s Serate Musicali Festival and London’s Wigmore Hall.

UK’s label “Piano Classics” released Osokins’ two CD albums focused on Chopin’s Late Works and works of Rachmaninoff. These recordings received brilliant reviews from important British, Canadian, German, Danish and French music magazines. German label Accentus has released the first chamber music album of Georgijs Osokins alongside Gidon Kremer containing trios of Chopin and Beethoven – this CD was nominated for both International Classical Music Awards 2020 and Opus Klassik 2021. He received the Cross of Merit awarded by the President of the Republic of Poland and the Latvian Grand Music Award – highest honour in music in Latvia – and remains youngest recipient in the Awards’ history.