Felix Renggli, flute
Emanuel Abbühl, oboe
François Benda, clarinet
Eckhart Hübner, bassoon
Zora Slokar, horn
Elina Gotsouliak, piano
Programme:
W. A. Mozart, F. Poulenc, M. Musorgski
Born in Basel, Switzerland, Felix Renggli studied the flute with Gerhard Hildenbrand, Aur le Nicolet and Peter-Lukas Graf. He has won prizes at numerous international competitions. After graduating from the City of Basel Music Academy he played as principal flute in orchestras such as the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich and the European Chamber Orchestra, among others. He has given frequent concerts as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe and in South America, the United States, Japan, Korea and China. His repertoire covers both the classical chamber and solo repertoire and contemporary works and also includes performances of early music on historical instruments. In 1994 he was appointed professor of flute and chamber music at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel. He has also taught at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg (Germany), while since 2014 he has taught at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano (Switzerland).
Born in Berne (Switzerland), Emanuel Abbühl studied the oboe with André Lardrot and Heinz Holliger. He has competed successfully in many international music competitions, winning prizes at competitions in Geneva and Prague, among others. He has been principal oboe of the Basel Symphony Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and has occupied the same position with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink and Valery Gergiev. He has appeared with worldfamous orchestras such as the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. He has taught at the Rotterdam Conservatory and the Royal Academy of Music in London. Since 2005 he has taught at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Mannheim and at the City of Basel Music Academy.
Born into a musical family in Brazil, François Benda went on to study clarinet, composition and conducting in Graz and Geneva, debuting as a soloist in the latter city in 1988. In 1991 he was awarded the Premio Internazionale per le Arti dello Spettacolo Gino Tani in Rome. Today he performs in the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Musikverein in Vienna and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and appears as a soloist with leading orchestras. He is a highly sought after musician, both as a soloist and in chamber ensembles, and performs regularly at international festivals. His repertoire ranges from classical concertos to contemporary music and increasingly frequently he also takes the role of conductor. Alongside his activities as a soloist and conductor, he is a professor at the University of the Arts in Berlin and also teaches at the City of Basel Music Academy.
Eckart Hübner studied the bassoon in Hanover with Klaus Thunemann and then went on to study conducting at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig with Volker Rohde. Having been principal bassoon of the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra and the Badische Staatskapelle in Karlsruhe, he joined the SWR Symphony Orchestra in 1990. In 1987 he won a prize at the national Deutscher Musikwettbewerb competition and was selected for the “platform for young soloists” as part of the Bundesauswahl project. He performs both as a soloist and in a variety of chamber ensembles. Classical website Klassik Heute has described him as “one of the most distinguished European bassoonists”, while in recent years he is also increasingly sought after as a conductor. From 1995 to 1997 he taught in Basel. Since 1997 has taught at the University of the Arts in Berlin.
