Chamber Music Evening N° 3

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.

Holger Grohs

Holger Grohs was born in Erlangen in 1972 and received his first violin lessons at the age of six.

He studied music at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main with Walter Forchert and later at the Würzburg University of Music with Herwig Zack, where he received his masterclass diploma. Franco Gulli, with whom Holger Grohs studied for two years at Indiana University in Bloomington in the USA, had a significant influence on his artistic development.

Holger Grohs gained further inspiration at numerous masterclasses and festivals, for example as a scholarship holder of the ‘Carl Flesch Akademie’ in Baden-Baden with Saschko Gawriloff, at the ‘Accademia Musicale Chigiana’ in Sienna or the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo.

Holger Grohs has played in the violin section of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden since 2001, becoming deputy concertmaster of the 2nd violins in 2013 and was appointed concertmaster of the 2nd violins in December 2015.

Tibor Gyenge

Born in Sibiu, Romania, in 1989 into a Hungarian-Romanian family of musicians, Tibor Gyenge received his first violin lessons from his father. 

Subsequently he attended the Béla Bartók Music School and the Music High School in Szombathely before moving to Graz to study at the city’s University of the Arts under Prof. Silvia Marcovici. In 2012 he completed his bachelor’s degree with distinction. From 2014 to 2016 Tibor Gyenge studied for a master’s degree under Prof. Daniel Gaede at the Nuremberg University of Music. During these years he also held a teaching position at the university.

His musical education was further enriched by numerous master classes given by star violinists such as Zakhar Bron, Leonidas Kavakos, Daniel Stabrawa, György Pauk, Itzhak Rashkovsky, Krzysztof Wegrzyn, Ulf Hoelscher and Kristóf Baráti.

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.