Anthony Marwood (leader), violin

Photo: Pia Johnson

Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition is delighted to present Anthony Marwood as head of the jury. London-born Anthony Marwood is an internationally renowned soloist, director and chamber musician. He has a wide circle of regular collaborators as a chamber musician and was violinist of the Florestan Trio for 16 years. Many leading composers have written concertos for him, including Thomas Adès, Steven Mackey, Sally Beamish and Samuel Carl Adams. He is a prolific recording artist with 50 releases on the Hyperion label. Anthony, who resides in Sussex and Amsterdam, is co-Artistic Director of the Peasmarsh Chamber Music Festival in East Sussex. Anthony Marwood was head of the TICC jury in 2015 and a jury member in 2011.
Read more on Anthony Marwood´s personal website.

 

Anja Lechner, cello 

 
Photo: Martin Hangen

Anja Lechner performs as soloist with leading orchestras, as a chamber musician, and as creative participant in diverse projects between the genres. The range of her musical interests is reflected in more than twenty albums for ECM Records with a great variety of collaborators. Composers who have written music for her range from Valentin Silvestrov, Tigran Mansurian, Tõnu Kõrvits, Hooshyar Khayam, Zad Moultaka to Dino Saluzzi. Lechner was a founding member of the Rosamunde Quartet, with whom she worked for 18 years until the group’s dissolution in 2009, and she has enjoyed a long-standing collaboration with Argentine bandoneon master Dino Saluzzi.
Read more on Anja Lechner´s personal website.

 

Arisa Fujita, violin

 
Photo: Pau Codina

Arisa has performed extensively worldwide both as a soloist and as a member of the distinguished Fujita Piano Trio formed with her two sisters. She is currently Professor of Violin at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and has previously held the same position at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London for nearly two decades. She has collaborated with various artists including Joshua Bell, Martin Lovett, Murray Perahia, Alexander Rudin and Steven Isserlis, with whom she has performed on numerous occasions. Arisa is also first violinist of the prize-winning Gémeaux Quartett.
Read more on Fujita Piano Trio´s website.

Berit Cardas, viola

Photo: Anna Julia Granberg

Berit plays both the viola and the violin and is frequently appearing as a soloist on both instruments. She is an active chamber music teacher and the workshops she does combining her background in theater improvisation and chamber music have become very popular. Berit is also a sought-after leader of chamber orchestras with her original and uncompromising view on music making.
In 1984 she founded the Vertavo String Quartet, where she has changed back and forth between 1st, 2nd violin and viola. The quartet is still going strong, with an interesting and steady career, including regular visits to exciting festivals and great venues like Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall and the Amsterdam Concertgebow. Berit and the Vertavo String Quartet have visited TICC the Trondheim Chamber Music Festival several times, most recently as academy instructors and festival artists in 2020.
Read more on the Vertavo String Quartet´s website.

Christian Ihle Hadland, piano

Photo: Nikolaj Lund

Christian has established himself as a true craftsman of the piano, a musician whose delicate, refined playing and individual touch have led him to the most prestigious stages in the world. He is highly sought after as a chamber musician and has embarked upon a notable partnership with the award-winning Swedish violinist Johan Dalene. Christian has been Artistic Director of the International Chamber Music Festival in Stavanger, his hometown, since 2010. He appears regularly at The Wigmore Hall, where he gave his debut solo recital in 2013, and is a regular guest at the Risør Chamber Music Festival and at the Bergen International Festival in Norway.
Read more on Christian Ihle Hadland´s personal website.

 

Louise Hopkins, cello

Louise Hopkins enjoys a varied career as a chamber musician, soloist and cello professor. She has performed in venues internationally collaborating with artists including Thomas Adès, Aleksandar Madzar, András Keller, Dénes Várjon, Tamara Stefanovich, François Leleux, Emmanuel Pahud , Phillipe Graffin, Alexander Janiczek, and the Takács Quartet. The Times commented on her performance of Lutosławski’s Cello Concerto with the composer conducting at the Barbican Hall that ‘players with such personality, agility and power are rare’. 

Louise has participated at major chamber music festivals. She has also been a regular participant at the Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music for over 20 years and has been broadcast on the BBC, RTE, WFMT, Swiss Romande, ABC, New Zealand Radio and Radio France. Louise is frequently invited to give masterclasses internationally and has held teaching positions at the Yehudi Menuhin School and Bern Hochschule. She is currently the Head of Strings and a cello professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama having begun her teaching career there at the age of 26. The youngest professor to have been appointed at the Guildhall School at that time.

Louise is an experienced jury member and has participated on the juries of Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, Banff and Amsterdam Biennale cello competition to name a few. She was a TICC jury member and festival artist at the Trondheim Chamber Music Festival in 2013.

 

Stefan Mendl, piano

Photo: Nancy Horowitz

Stefan Mendl started his piano education with Manfred Wagner-Artzt and later studied with Alexander Jenner at the University of Music in Vienna. In his early career he appeared regularly as a soloist in Austria and abroad. He was a founding member of the Vienna Piano Trio in 1988, which soon became one of Europe’s leading chamber ensembles. The trio studied with artists like the Haydn Trio Wien, Isaac Stern and members of the LaSalle and Guarneri Quartets. Numerous CD´s have gained international acclaim, such as Gramophone Editor´s Choice and Echo-Klassik in 2010 and 2012. Stefan appears frequently in duo-recitals with cellist Clemens Hagen and works regularly with artists like Jörg Widmann, Ruth Ziesak and Mark Padmore. He has given masterclasses at several acknowledged music institutions and frequently appears as a jury-member in various chamber music competitions. Stefan teaches Chamber Music at the University of Music and Performing Arts -mdw in Vienna. He was a TICC Academy instructor and festival artist in 2022.