The Smetana Trio, founded in the year 1934 by the legendary Czech pianist Josef Páleníček, is today one of the foremost Czech ensembles. In 2024 the Smetana Trio celebrates 90th jubilee of its foundation. It can be seen frequently on leading concert stages both in the Czech Republic (Prague Spring, Janáček´s May, Moravian Autumn, Concentus moraviae, Malá Strana Chamber Festivities, Lipa Musica) and abroad (France, Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain, Benelux, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Japan, Brazil, USA, Canada, South America, South Korea, Egypt).
For more information here
Anders Carlsson, PhD in musicology, has held various positions at the University of Gothenburg, including research coordinator at the Academy of Music and Drama, director of the Gothenburg Organ Art Center and head of department at the Academy of Crafts and Design, HDK.
He was chief editor of the Swedish journal for music research 1999–2008.
In his PhD thesis "Handel and Bacchus or Handel and Bach?" he describes how the emergence of a professional orchestral life led to the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra becoming the first professional symphony orchestra in the country when it was formed in 1905.
Eva Öhrström (prof em in music history) comes from the shores of Öresund and I have dedicated me to music and to read and write articles and books. I trained first for
music director and piano teacher.
Then debated at the Department of Musicology, University of Gothenburg in 1987 and after that I have taught music history at the Royal Academy of Music, Stockholm.
Books include the doctoral thesis (1987), Elfrida Andrée. A Life Fate (1999). The latest book deals with salons and social life in Europe 1600-1900 and is entitled "Alla on Friday evenings, people gathered" (2022).
Sebastian Durán was born and raised in Kristianstad but currently lives in Wanås in Scania. He has a degree in classical singing from the Academy of Music in Malmö and a degree from the Academy of Opera in Stockholm. He has sung at the Malmö Opera, the Folk Opera, the Royal Opera in Stockholm, the Copenhagen Opera Festival, the Arctic Opera in Tromsø, the Aldeburgh Festival in England, as well as with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra. Among the scholarships Sebastian received can be mentioned the Royal Academy of Music Scholarship in 2021, 2020, 2019, 2017, 2014, 2013, 2012, the Barbro Salén scholarship in 2016, the John Andersson Family in Anderslövs Foundation in 2015, the Joel Berglund scholarship in 2012 and the Kristianstad Cultural Scholarship in 2007.
During the 2023/24 season, he portrayed the role of Dandini in Rossini's comic opera Cinderella at the Folkoperan in Stockholm, Doctor Falke in Läderlappen in the Concert Barn in Vattnäs, and the role of Pierre Paillot in Malmö Opera's tour performance Masquerade.
The Italian pianist Valentina Lombardo began playing the piano when she was four years old, showing immediately innate musical skills that led her, only a few years later, to win the second prize at the XIII “Città di Genova” Piano Competition.
She continued her studies at the G. Verdi Conservatory in Turin (Italy), where she graduated in piano with top marks and afterwards obtained the Second Level Academic Diploma.
She graduated at the Ecole Normal A.Cortot in Paris (France) attending the “Cours
Valentina Lombardo is the winner of numerous international scholarships and in 2009 won the first overall prize at the “Città di Ozegna” Piano Competition.
She regularly performs, both as a soloist and in chamber ensembles, in France, Italy and Belgium. For more information here
Bernt Wilhelmsson grew up in Orust and started playing the piano and accordion at the age of nine. After the piano teacher's degree at Ingesund Academy of Music, piano studies followed at the Academy of Music in Gothenburg
For Stefan Bojsten and Ingemar Bergfelt, and later in London for prof. Irina Zaritskaja and in Vienna for Noel Florez
He debuted as a soloist in Beethoven's "Emperor Concert" together with the Gothenburg Symphony in 1997. He has performed piano concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, Rachmaninov, Schumann, Gershwin, Stenhammar and Stravinsky. Bernt performs frequently with piano evenings, chamber music concerts and as an accompanist.
As an orchestral pianist, he is often employed by the Gothenburg Opera Orchestra.
Bernt has given concerts in the Nordic countries, Scotland, France, the Czech Republic, the USA, Canada, the Baltics, Iceland, Argentina and during his concert visits has recorded for music radio in Estonia, Latvia, Norway and on a number of occasions for Sweden's Radio P2. Bernt can be heard on the record company Intim Musik with piano music by W. Stenhammar and E. Sjögren and on Nilento Records with music by Claude Debussy. Bernt also appears as a pianist in SVT's drama Mohlanders.
Bernt is a Lecturer at the University of Theater and Music in Gothenburg, where he himself once took his soloist diploma.
Sara Trobäck, violinist - concertmaster and chamber musician, started playing the violin at the age of five. As a sixteen-year-old, she was accepted at the Academy of Music in Gothenburg, where she studied with Tibor Fülep, but left for London two years later. In the English capital, Sara began studying at the Royal Academy of Music with Gyorgy Pauk and was appointed in connection with her graduation concert in 2001 to receive the award Dip. RAM Diploma and the Dove Price.
Sara has participated in master classes for, among others, Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Ruggerio Ricci, Joshua Bell and British TV filmed an exciting musical meeting between Sara and the Russian violin virtuoso Maxim Vengerov. The program has been broadcast around the world.
Sara performs as a soloist and chamber musician both in Sweden and abroad. She has been a soloist with a Gothenburg Symphony, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Stockholm Sinfonietta and Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra.
In 2010, Sara premiered a violin concerto by Johannes Jansson dedicated to her and the Gothenburg Symphony.
The London debut took place in the summer of 1999 when she performed Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the London Soloists in St. Martin-in-the-Fields. The concert was a success and the following two seasons she returned to be a soloist with the same orchestra, then in Brahms' Double Concerto in Queen Elisabeth Hall and later Beethoven's Violin Concerto. Sara has also given concerts in Scotland, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal and China.
In 2002 Sara formed Trio Poseidon together with solo cellist Claes Gunnarsson and pianist Per Lundberg. The trio has, among other things, recorded two CDs, one of which together with the Gothenburg Symphony and Neeme Järvi, Beethoven's Triple Concerto.
Since 2002, Sara has been Concertmaster of the Gothenburg Symphony.
In 2008 she was elected as a member of the Royal Academy of Music.
Sara plays on a GB Guadagnini that is lent by Järnåkerfonden.
The Swedish-born concert pianist Helena Ha-Young Sul has her roots in Korea and Japan.
Helena Ha-Young Sul, a dedicated and established concert pianist and teacher/coach, is regularly invited as a jury member and teacher in master classes and piano competitions nationally and internationally. After studying at the Conservatory of Music in Copenhagen, the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Soloist class (Diplôme de Soliste) at the Conservatoire de Musique in Geneva, she has appeared as a concert pianist and as a chamber musician in the USA, France, Montenegro, Croatia, Italy, Germany, England, Switzerland, China and South Korea. She has appeared in music festivals such as Piano en Saintonge in France and Båstad's chamber music festival as well as the Nuoro Music Festival in Italy.
Since 2010, she is the founder and artistic director of the Gothenburg Piano Festival in Sweden.
Her passion for organizing events and activities for young musicians has established various events. As artistic director, she invites musicians from all over the world.
For more information here
Claes Gunnarsson has toured all over the world as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral musician and teacher. He got off to a flying start in his career after he debuted as a soloist in Dvorak's Cello Concerto together with the Gothenburg Symphony at a young age and was subsequently invited as a solo cellist. A position he has held since 1999. Claes has given solo concerts in, among others, Wigmore Hall, Queen Elisabeth Hall, St Petersburg Philharmonie, Shanghai Symphony Hall, Seoul Arts Center and Singapore Symphony Hall as well as guesting at the leading international festivals such as La Folle Journée in Nantes , Music@Menlo in California, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival and the Yuri Temirkanov Winter Festival in St Petersburg with conductors such as Neeme Järvi, Alexander Lazarev, Mihail Jurowski, Christian Zacharias and Christopher Warren-Green. Claes works as a teacher at the College of Stage and Music at the University of Gothenburg. He plays on a cello by David Tecchler 1707, which is a generous loan from the Järnåker Foundation. For more info here