Chamber Music Evening N° 1

Robert Lis

Robert Lis, born in Dabrowa Gornicza, Poland, began playing the violin at the age of 6. He is one of the most talented Polish violinists of his generation and has won numerous national and international violin competitions. In 2011, he graduated with honours from the Ignacy Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan as a student of Prof. Dr Marcin Baranowski. In 2012 he obtained his second master's degree at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam as a student of Ilya Grubert.

From 2010 to 2012 he was assistant conductor of the 2nd violins in the Radio Kamer Filharmonie and from 2012 to 2018 
2nd concertmaster in the Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest. Since 2018 he has held the position of 2nd concertmaster of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden.

Robert Lis plays a Pietro Floriani violin from 1835.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Yuki Manuela Janke

Born into a family of musicians in Munich, her career began at an early age. Her breakthrough came at the latest with numerous prizes at the Sarasate, Paganini and Tchaikovsky competitions, which quickly took her to the world's most important stages as a soloist. As a soloist and chamber musician, Yuki Manuela Janke also inspires as concertmaster of the most traditional orchestras. Her interpretation of Richard Strauss' "Heldenleben" in the Golden Hall in Vienna with the Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann attracted particular attention.

As concertmaster of the Staatskapelle Berlin, she enjoys the trust of conductors such as Daniel Barenboim and Zubin Mehta. She is a regular guest with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and various orchestras abroad. She received her most important musical impulses from Igor Ozim at the Mozarteum Salzburg and through chamber music collaborations with Christoph Eschenbach, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, the Hagen Quartet and the Tokyo String Quartet. Her broad repertoire ranges from baroque and romantic music to contemporary composers such as Jörg Widmann, Wolfgang Rihm, Krzysztof Meyer, Nicolas Bacri and Markus Schmitt. Her repertoire also includes forgotten works such as Franz Clement's Violin Concerto, which Janke recorded with Reinhard Goebel and the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra. 

She plays on a violin by Robert König & Michael Betcher.

Jörg Faßmann

Jörg Faßmann, born in Dessau in 1966, received his first violin lessons at the age of five. He made his debut as a soloist with an orchestra at the age of nine. He studied the violin from 1983 to 1989 at the Leipzig Academy of Music in the masterclass of Gustav Schmahl and Klaus Hertel and in Dresden with Reinhard Ulbricht. He has also won prizes at international violin competitions.

Jörg Faßmann has been a member of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden since 1987, where he became deputy
1st concertmaster in 1989. In addition to his orchestral activities, he has been a member of the Dresdner StreichTrio since 1995, with whom he has performed extensively in Europe and overseas as well as numerous CD productions.

He has also worked with the pianist Gunther Anger for many years and has performed at numerous chamber music festivals and regularly at the Semperoper Dresden. He has been a guest soloist with various German orchestras and has performed with them in Italy and Asia, among other places.

Jörg Faßmann has also taught at the Dresden University of Music since 1991. In 2009, he also took on a masterclass at the Conservartorio Real Superior in Granada. In the same year, he was invited to give concerts and workshops at the University of Wisconsin.

Michael Schmid

Michael Schmid initially received his violin training as a junior student with Prof Conrad von der Goltz. After leaving school, he studied in Salzburg and Vienna with Prof Harald Herzl and Prof Christian Altenburger. He received further musical impulses in the class of Prof Ingolf Turban, in chamber music studies with Prof Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet) and in masterclasses with Leonidas Kavakos, Christian Tetzlaff and Prof Igor Ozim.

He has already gained orchestral experience in the German National Youth Orchestra, later as an academy member of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, as a substitute in the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna State Opera Orchestra and the Camerata Salzburg.

Michael Schmid was a scholarship holder of the Vienna Philharmonic Summer Academy and the Kronberg Academy Festival, is a first prize winner of the national competition ‘Jugend musiziert’ and a prize winner of the International Johannes Brahms Competition.

In 2017, he completed his studies at the Vienna University of Music with honours and became a member of the 2nd violins of the Staatskapelle Dresden.

He has performed as a soloist in Alban Berg's violin concerto Kapelle für alle Fälle ‘Dem Andenken eines Engels’, as a chamber musician at the Musikverein Vienna, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel and on tours in Asia and South America.

In addition to chamber music, Michael Schmid is also passionate about promoting young musicians. From 2019 to 2022, he was a board member of the Giuseppe Sinopoli Academy of the Staatskapelle Dresden and has been a lecturer at the Regensburg University of Music since 2024.

Florian Richter

Florian Richter received his first violin lessons at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Academy of Music and Theatre in Leipzig as a junior student with Prof. Klaus Hertel. In 2000, he switched to the viola before continuing his studies in 2001 at the ‘Schloss Belvedere’ Music High School in Weimar in the class of Prof Erich Krüger.

From 2004 to 2014, the multiple national prizewinner at ‘Jugend musiziert’ studied at the Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar with Prof. Ditte Leser and Prof. Erich Krüger, completing his studies with a concert exam. He also received important musical impulses in masterclasses with Prof Alfred Lipka, Prof Dietmar Hallmann, Prof Hartmut Rohde, Prof Martin Spangenberg and Prof Norbert Brainin, among others.

Florian Richter was a scholarship holder of the Hans and Eugenia Jütting Foundation, the German Foundation for Musical Life and the Carl Flesch Academy. As a soloist, he has performed under the direction of Johannes Klumpp, Helmuth Rilling, Stefan Solyom, Michael Sanderling, Marek Janowski and other renowned conductors.

From 2010 to 2012, Florian Richter was principal viola of the Staatskapelle Weimar and held the same position with the Staatsorchester Stuttgart from 2012 to 2017. At the same time, he was involved in promoting young viola players at the Schloss Belvedere Music High School in Weimar until 2017, before being appointed Professor of Viola at the Nuremberg University of Music in October of the same year.

Florian Richter has been principal viola of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden since 2017.

Anya Dambeck

Canadian Anya Dambeck has been deputy principal viola of the Staatskapelle Dresden since the 2010/2011 season.

She began taking violin lessons at the age of five. She received her first awards at the Kiwanis Music Festival in Ottawa (Canada) and won the National Arts Centre Orchestra Bursary Competition in 2004. After her training in Canada, she continued her studies with Wolfram Christ (viola) and Rainer Kußmaul (violin) at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg im Breisgau. During this time, she performed several times in the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra - both as principal violist and principal 2nd violin.

She was also a trainee violinist with the SWR Symphony Orchestra in Freiburg and Baden-Baden. She has been invited several times to play in the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa in Japan and as principal violist in the Budapest Festival Orchestra under the direction of Iván Fischer. Anya Dambeck graduated with honours from the Freiburg University of Music as a violist and violinist.

In addition to her orchestral activities, Anya Dambeck devotes herself intensively to chamber music. She has already performed with partners such as Kolja Blacher, Yaela Hertz, Christoph Eschenbach and Myung-Whun Chung. She is also a member of the Ensemble International, which was founded by members of the Staatskapelle Dresden.

Uta Wylezol

Uta Wylezol was born in Sondershausen and received her first violin lessons at the age of three. From 1998 to 2007, she attended the Schloss Belvedere special grammar school for music in Weimar, where she switched to the viola in 2003 and was accepted into the class of professors Erich W. Krüger and Ditte P. Leser. In 2007, she won first prize in the ‘Jugend musiziert’ competition. After graduating from high school, she continued her viola studies at the Franz Liszt School of Music in Weimar.

She gained orchestral experience in the Deutsche Streicherphilharmonie, the Stuttgart Festival Ensemble, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, the Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Chamber Orchestra and the Staatskapelle Weimar, where she initially played as a substitute and later on a temporary contract.

Uta Wylezol has been a permanent member of the Staatskapelle Dresden since 2011.

Simon Kalbhenn

Simon Kalbhenn was born in 1969 and received his first cello lessons at the age of seven. His teachers included Alexander Molzahn, Maria Kliegel and Martin Ostertag.

After graduating in 1995, he continued his training with Martin Ostertag with postgraduate artistic studies. He has been principal cellist of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden since 1996. As co-founder of the Robert-Sterl-Trio Dresden, he devotes himself intensively to chamber music in various formations.

Simon Kalbhenn can also be heard time and again as a soloist, performing concertos by Joseph Haydn, Antonín Dvořák, Camille Saint-Saëns, Edward Elgar and the double concerto for violin and cello by Johannes Brahms, among others. He performed Joseph Haydn's Cello Concerto in C major at the Semperoper with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden.

In addition to his orchestral and chamber music activities, Simon Kalbhenn has held a teaching position at the Carl Maria von Weber Academy of Music in Dresden since 2003.