Master instruments for HfMT strings

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Four students and one alumnus of our string classes emerged as prize winners from the 27th competition of the German Instrument Fund in Hamburg from February 22-24, 2019.

Prizes were awarded to:

Leonard Fu (class of Prof. Tanja Becker-Bender, Andreas Franke Academy 2009-2015) won a violin by Antonio Stradivari (Cremona 1680).

Till Schuler (Class Prof. Sebastian Klinger, Bachelor since 2018) played a cello by Georges Chanot (Paris around 1840) as a new applicant.

Anny Chen (class of Prof. Tanja Becker-Bender, Bachelor 2015-2017, currently Master there) was able to obtain a loan extension of the violin by Petrus Guarneri (Venice 1730).

Fanny Fheodoroff (class of Prof. Tanja Becker-Bender, Bachelor 2014-2018, currently Master there) was able to play a violin by Marinus Capicchioni (Rimini 1962) as a new applicant.

Anna Olivia Amaya Farias (Class Prof. Bernd Gmelin, Andreas-Franke-Akademie 2012-2016, currently Bachelor there) played a cello by Enrico Marchetti (Turin around 1900) as a new applicant.

Curriculum vitae:

Leonard Fu has performed all over the world, including in Europe, Russia, China and the USA, and has played in renowned halls such as the Laeiszhalle, the Elbphilharmonie, the Mariinsky Theater and Jordan Hall. He has performed as a soloist with the Bremerhaven Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the NDR Radiophilharmonie and has worked with conductors such as Marc Niemann, Andrew Manze and Alexander Shelley. His chamber music partners include Manuel Fischer-Dieskau, Nimrod Guez, Gregor Horsch, Jean-Michel Fonteneau, Laurence Lesser, Kim Kashkashian, as well as Donald and Vivian Weilerstein.
He has won prizes at numerous international competitions, including Andrea Postacchini, Rodolfo Lipizer, Tonali and the Joseph Joachim Competition. He also won the NEC Honors Award 2017-18 and the ENKOR International Chamber Music Competition with his string quartet.
At the age of 7, he began violin lessons with Ina Ketscher and Lara Lev and became a junior student at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media and later at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama in the class of Prof. Tanja Becker-Bender. Since fall 2015, he has been studying with Prof. Donald Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, USA. He has also been influenced by Mauricio Fuks, Boris Garlitsky, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Regis Pasquier, Andreas Röhn, Krzysztof Wegrzyn and Pierre Amoyal.
He is committed to historical performance practice at his university and founded the only baroque ensemble at the NEC in 2018.

Till Schuler was born on 04.05.2000 in Stuttgart. From the age of four, he had cello lessons with Lisa Neßling at the Stuttgart Music School and percussion lessons with Gergely Nagy from 2010 to 2017. From October 2017 to August 2018, he studied cello with Valentin Radutiu at the Hmt Rostock and since then at the HfMT Hamburg with Prof. Sebastian Klinger. Till received further musical impulses from Prof. Wen-Sinn-Yang, Prof. Maria Kliegel, Prof. Gotthard Popp and Prof. Wolfgang Lehner, among others.
Since 2007, Till has won numerous first prizes in various categories at regional and state level at Jugend Musiziert. From 2012 to 2016, Till won a total of six first and one second national prize in the categories cello solo, percussion solo, duo: piano and a string instrument, percussion ensemble and piano chamber music.
In the fall of 2015, he also received the special prize of the German Music Publishers Association for the best interpretation of a work of classical modern music.
Till has also won several special prizes from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and the Sparkassenverband Baden-Württemberg.
At the Carel Kunc Competition in 2012, he won first prize as a duo with Robert Neumann and the special prize for the highest score ever awarded. In 2016, he won second prize and the special prize for the best interpretation of the modern compulsory piece at the international Dotzauer Competition in Dresden.
From 2011 to 2016, Till performed several times in Italy, Japan and Switzerland with various chamber music ensembles. From 2013 to 2016 he was a member of the Stuttgart Young Chamber Orchestra, from 2014 as principal cellist and section leader. Since starting his studies, he has regularly performed as a member or principal cellist in various orchestras such as the Rostock University Orchestra and
the Ensemble 13/14 of the Hamburg University of Music and Performing Arts.
He made his debut as a soloist with the Paulusorchester Stuttgart in early 2014. This was followed by performances with the Stuttgart Young Chamber Orchestra and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra at the Liederhalle Stuttgart, in Venice and Australia.

Anny Chen is a Taiwanese/Canadian violinist who is currently studying with Prof. Tanja Becker-Bender at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama. She has been successful in several competitions, e.g. the 26th Instrument Competition of the German Foundation Msuikleben (2018), 1st prize from the string categories of the Elise Meyer Competition, Hamburg (2016), 3rd prize from the Shu-Te Slyvia Lee National Violin Competition, Taiwan (2016) and won the Soloist String Prize at ISA, Vienna.
As a soloist, Anny has performed in many famous concert halls, e.g. the Kammersaal of the Laeiszhalle (Hamburg), Wigmore Hall, LSO St. Luke's, St Martin in the Field (London) and in Leeds as part of the International Concert Series. More recently, she has had the opportunity to perform as a soloist with the Finchley Chamber Orchestra and University Orchestra of the Hamburg University of Music and Drama.
Anny was a student in the class of Prof. Dr. Felix Andrievsky at the Royal College of Music from 2012 to 2015. She was supported by the ABRSM scholarship during this time and in 2015 she received a Diploma of Higher Education. From 2003 to 2012 she attended the Purcell School for Young Musicians, London, where she was in the class of Evgeny Grach.
Anny is also an alumna of the Perlman Music Program, where she regularly took lessons with the renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman between 2010-2014.

At the age of five, the 1996 born Fanny Fheodoroff received her first violin lessons. She studied with Ulla Schulz on the gifted course at the Vienna University of Music until 2006. When she entered the Vienna Musikgymnasium, she spent two years in Alexandra Rappitsch's gifted class, after which she studied with her father Thomas Fheodoroff and from 2009 with Dora Schwarzberg at the Vienna University of Music. Since 2004, constant musical support from Danja Lukan has been another important part of Fanny's career.
After graduating from school in 2014, Fanny Fheodoroff began her Bachelor's degree with Tanja Becker-Bender at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama and completed an Erasmus semester at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London with David Takeno. Additional studies include master classes with Nora Chastain, Tanja Becker-Bender, Dora Schwarzberg, Rudens Turku and Julia Fischer.
Fanny Fheodoroff performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician. She has given concerts as part of the Cziffra Foundation Vienna, the lunchtime concerts in the Old Town Hall, the "Klassik am Inn" festival and the Sommerholzer Sommerkonzerte with members of the Salzburg Camerata. Other solo and chamber music appearances have taken her to the small hall of the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, Wigmore Hall and the Barbican Hall in London. Fanny is a multiple prizewinner at national and international violin competitions (Concorso Violinistico Internazionale "Andrea Postacchini" in Italy, "Elise-Meyer" competition in Hamburg, "Prima La Musica", "Grandze Virtuoso International Music Competition"). In 2016 she was selected as a scholarship holder of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes. Fanny is a member of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation "Live Music Now" and the organization "Musethica".
Fanny Fheodoroff is currently studying in the Master's program with Tanja Becker-Bender at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama and David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

Anna Olivia Amaya Farias was born in Hamburg on December 14, 1998. Because her father is Colombian, she has both German and Colombian citizenship. She started playing the cello at the age of five, first at the Hamburg Youth Music School with Siegrun Schöller and at the age of nine she switched to Prof. Bernhard Gmelin.
At the age of thirteen she became a junior student at the 'Andreas Franke Academy' of the HfMT Hamburg and, after passing her Abitur at the Sophie Barat School, began full studies at the age of seventeen. In 2013 and 2017, she was awarded first prize in the 'Violoncello solo' category at the 'Jugend musiziert' competition, and in 2013 she also received first prize in the 'Piano chamber music' category. She was awarded special prizes at the international Dotzauer Competition and the international Knopf Competition.
Her participation in masterclasses with David Geringas, Wolfgang Boettcher and Jens-Peter Maintz provided her with important inspiration for her musical development. She has been supported by scholarships from the Förderverein Jugend musiziert and the Jürgen Ponto Foundation and is currently a scholarship holder of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and the Oscar and Vera Ritter Foundation.