EUBO violins

Barbara Altobello, Italy

Born in 1981, Barbara started studying music in her home city, Brescia, where she graduated with the highest degree in modern violin in 2003. She also studied with Pavel Vernikov and Igor Volochine at the Accademia Musicale Santa Cecilia in Venice, from 2000 to 2004. She started playing baroque violin with Enrico Onofri and studied with Elizabeth Wallfisch at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. In 2008 she graduated under the guidance of Stefano Montanari at the Evaristo Fellice Dall'Abaco Conservatory in Verona. She has performed with a variety of period instrument ensembles, including Brixia Musicalis, Zefiro, Accademia Montis Regalis, La Risonanza, Il Complesso Barocco, New Dutch Academy, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Divino Sospiro, Pietà dei Turchini, Europa Galante and FestspielOrchester Göttingen.

Beatriz Amezua Foucart, Spain

Born in 1983, Beatriz began to study the violin in Madrid. Having obtained her diploma from the Royal Conservatory for Music in Madrid, she was granted an Erasmus scholarship to further her studies for one year with Yuzuko Horigome at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels. On her return to Madrid, she began to study the baroque violin with Hiro Kurosaki. She was a member of the Joven Orquesta Nacional de España, the Orquesta de Radio Televisión Española, and of the Orquesta Harmonia Sphaerarum. She has collaborated with various early music ensembles such as Hippocampus, Capilla Jerónimo de Carrión, Opera Omnia, and Academia Montis Regalis, where she has worked with directors including Enrico Onofri, Olivia Centurioni, Luigi Mangiocavallo and Alessandro de Marchi. She is also a member of Artis Lucem.

Cecilia Clares Clares, Spain

Cecilia was born in Murcia, Spain. She started studying violin at the conservatory there and finished her higher studies at the Conservatory of Zaragoza with Rolando Prusak and Cuarteto Casals. She then studied with Anton Steck and Rüdiger Lotter at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Trossingen, Germany. In July 2008 she was awarded a scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation in Berlin. Cecilia works with various ensembles including Orquesta Barroca Catalana, Orquesta Barroca de Salamanca, L’incontro Fortunato, Concerto Donostiarra, Barockorchester Trossingen and Dual Barock.

Margalida Gual Frau, Spain

Margalida completed her bachelor’s degree in modern violin in Palma de Mallorca with Agustín León Ara and José Manuel Álvarez Losada in June 2007 before going on to study in Barcelona with Tatiana Aleshinsky. She has participated in masterclasses with Vartan Manoogian, Michael Thomas, Endellion String Quartet and Dora Schwarzberg, among others. During her studies Barry Sargent introduced her to baroque music and she decided to do a master’s degree in early music with Anton Steck at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Trossingen, Germany. Margalida has played with many youth orchestras, and now plays in professional symphony and chamber orchestras such as the Orquestra Simfonica de les Illes Balears, Orquestra de Cambra del Maresme, Orquestra Simfonica del Vallès, Orquestra Simfonica Ciutat d’Eivissa and Orquestra Simfonica de Sant Cugat under well known conductors including Paul Badura-Skoda, Farran James, Kai Gleusteen, Friedemann Breuninger, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Andrew Watkinson, Liana Issakadze, Simon Bernardini, Vasko Vassilev, Philippe Bender, Barry Sargent, Salvador Mas, Emilio Moreno, Matthew Trusler and Michael Thomas. She is now concertmaster of the Jove Orquestra Barroca and since 2005 permanent member of the Orquestra de Cambra Illa de Menorca.

Giorgio Leonida Tosi, Italy

Giorgio Leonida Tosi was born in Milan in 1983. He studied the violin with Valentina Morini and chamber music with Elisabetta Cannata, concentrating on romantic and late-romantic repertoire. At present he studies baroque violin with Stefano Montanari, and baroque chamber music with Antonio Frigè, Lorenzo Ghielmi, Paolo Rizzi and Roberto Balconi at the International Academy of Music in Milan. He is the founder of the baroque ensemble Trattenimenti da Camera which performs secular chamber music on original instruments. He is also one of the members of the ensemble Stilmoderno that concentrates on sacred repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Eveleen Olsen, UK

Eveleen plays with the Welsh Baroque Orchestra, Zürcher Barockorchester, Collegium Musicum Luzern and Orchester le Phénix and works as a researcher in the department for research and development at the Musikhochschule Luzern. Eveleen graduated with a master of music in 2009 from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where she studied historical performance with Rachel Podger. Previously she completed a master’s of pedagogy at the Musikhochschule Luzern. Her teachers included Ina Dimitrova, Brian Dean and Monika Baer. Eveleen attended numerous courses among others with Kato Havas, members of the Freiburger Barockorchester and Eroica Quartett, Gary Cooper, Igor Ozim and Ana Chumachenco. Eveleen gained orchestral experience playing with the Swiss Youth Symphony Orchestra, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester and La Scintilla (baroque group of the Opera Orchestra Zürich), and has also focused on playing chamber music (baroque to contemporary repertoire). Eveleen played with EUBO for the first time at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2009 and is very much looking forward to this year’s tours.

Dominika Pawlicka, Poland

Dominika was born in 1984 in Katowice, Poland and started to play the violin at the age of seven. After graduating from the secondary music school in Katowice in 2003, she started her studies at the Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. While studying theory she became more and more interested in early music and started to specialize in this discipline. In 2007 she went on to study the baroque violin with Zbigniew Pilch at the Lipinski Academy of Music in Wroclaw and meanwhile completed her master’s degree in Katowice. In 2009 she went back to Katowice to study with her current teacher Martyna Pastuszka. Dominika is a member of Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra and is regularly invited to play with different early music ensembles across Poland. She has taken part in early music masterclasses with Enrico Gatti, David Plantier, Mira Glodeanu, Stéphanie Pfister, Peter Zajicek and Martin Gester, and in projects with Generation Baroque, Académie Baroque Européenne d’Ambronay, Britten-Pears Baroque Orchestra to improve her musical abilities.

Beatrice Scaldini, Italy/UK

Born in Italy, Beatrice has benefited from an eclectic range of musical experiences both in Italy and the UK. Since graduating with honours from the Music School in Florence in 2006 she has trained at Trinity College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music (RAM). At the RAM she was awarded the Newby Trust Entrance Scholarship and more recently the Nancy Nuttal Early Music Prize. She currently studies with Walter Reiter on baroque violin and Mateja Marinkovic on modern violin, and has worked with artists such as Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Rachel Podger, Laurence Cummings, Richard Egarr, Masaaki Suzuki, Anner Bylsma, Trevor Pinnock, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Colin Davis and Yan Pascal Tortelier. She has also performed with ensembles including The Hanover Band, St James' Baroque, Britten-Pears Baroque Orchestra, Britten-Pears Orchestra and Camerata Kilkenny. She is a founding member of the young ensemble International Baroque Players, which was awarded the 2009 Deutsche Bank Award for creative enterprise. She has also recently performed Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto with Gloucestershire Symphony Orchestra.

Rachel Stroud, UK

Rachel began learning the violin at the age of six, and currently studies with Krysia Osostowicz. In 2005 she joined the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and played under the baton of conductors such as Sir Mark Elder, Richard Hickox and Sir Colin Davis. In 2007, Rachel went on to read music at Selwyn College, Cambridge, where she won the Williamson Prize for musical performance and held an Instrumental Award. Rachel leads the Eliot Quartet, with whom she has participated in masterclasses given by members of the Dante, Endellion, and London Haydn quartets. Last year the quartet was invited to play at the Honorary Degree Ceremony in the 800th anniversary year of Cambridge University; recipients of degrees included Sir Peter Maxwell Davis and Bill Gates. Rachel began learning the baroque violin in 2008, and is a member of the Cambridge University Collegium Musicum, directed by Margaret Faultless. She also plays with Norwich Baroque and the Cambridge Handel Opera Group.

Kinga Ujszaszi, Hungary

Hungarian violinist Kinga Ujszaszi began her musical training at the age of four. After graduating from the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest she moved to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Igor Petrushevski. Here she became interested in historical performance and her baroque violin teachers were Simon Standage and Matthew Truscott. Kinga has played in masterclasses with Rachel Podger, Adrian Butterfield, Marco Rizzi, Thomas Brandis, Zakhar Bron and Aleksandar Pavlovic. Kinga has toured throughout Europe and Asia with various orchestras and chamber groups, including the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and the Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra. She has played with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and is a member of the Marcato Ensemble. She has worked with Sir Colin Davis, Sir Charles Mackerras, Trevor Pinnock, Laurence Cummings, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Leonidas Kavakos. Kinga has won the Eötvös scholarship on three consecutive occasions and she is also participant of the Monteverdi Apprenticeship Scheme under Sir John Eliot Gardiner.