The Stars

I’m Helena Urbanc and I was born in 2007 in Slovenia. At the age of eight I started taking violin lessons with professor Valentin Štante. In my third year of playing violin, I was also taking violin lessons with additional professor Danica Koren. In 2021 I started studying with professor Zala Rek. I have participated in a lot of competitions, where I received silver and gold awards. My biggest achievements are gold award and second place with 97/100 points at 6^th international competition Golden Diapason in 2021, gold award with special prize for the best performance of Händel’s work at Best Classical Musician Awards 2022 and being a soloist for Bach’s Concerto in a-minor, accompanied by Danica Koren’s Summer School orchestra. From the year 2021 on I will also take masterclasses with Sumina Studer. 

I usually listen to classical, jazz or rock music, although I like most of the music genres. My favourite artists to listen to are Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses, Eloise and Bruno Major, my favourite composers are Debussy, Saint Saens and Sibelius.

I practice around four or six hours a day. It depends on my mood and how much time do I have. Sometimes I start with technique, sometimes with pieces, because I think that you must be able to play well, even though you didn’t practice technique earlier that day. I like to practice slowly with a drone tone tool and a metronome. My ”must do” in my practice schedule are finger exercises by Henry Schradieck. 

Before the competitions I don’t go to the school because that’s the only way I can practice concentrated and without worries about school. So, before the competitions I practice a lot more than usual, practically all day. I have a lot of individual hours with my teacher and accompanist.

My dream is to be a successful violinist as a soloist or as a part of an orchestra or any kind of chamber group. I want to make people happy while I play because I believe music can heal. 

I was born in Toulouse, France, in 2006. I have been studying for 10 years at the Conservatory of Toulouse with Véronique Grange and Francois Henry and I have obtained my Piano Diploma with the Congratulations of the jury.

This year I have passed  the entrance exam for the National Conservatory of Paris where I will now study. At the same time I continue my studies in high school. 

I work the piano 5 hours a day. I did my first competition at the age of 8 and have won 14 first prizes, 2 second prizes and 1 third prize in national and international competitions.

I am also lucky enough to be invited to play in festivals, both solo, and with orchestra like the Occitania Chamber Orchestra. 

The orchestra was created by Bernard Soustrot an internationally renowned trumpetist. It’s a formation of 12 young instrumentalists  without a conductor since the solo violonist Anne Gallo-Selva provides direction, each musician carefully watching the work of the other and this creates a wonderfull artistic cohesion coupled with a real friendly understanding.

The Occitania Chamber Orchestra collaborates with great international soloists like Richard Galliano or Anaïs Constans, as well as the younger generation as we did in this video.

We are all very happy to have won the Crown of Stars because we hope that video and the internet are ways to bring classical music to an audience that otherwise wouldn’t have access to it!

Li Cheuk Chi, Vienna is now 10 years old and studying Primary 4 at Pui Ching Primary School in Hong Kong. She joined the Yip’s Children Choral and Performing Arts Centre in Hong Kong at the age of 3. With the tutelage of Mr. Kalvin Chau, she attained Merit in her ABRSM Grade 6 Violin examination. She is a violinist in the school orchestra.

Vienna has actively participated in numerous public performances and competitions, and she won multiple prizes and awards at local and
international music festivals including the Champion of Asia Musicians Competition 2018, the First runner-up for St. Cecilia International Music Competition 2018, Second Runner-up for 70th Hong Kong School Festival.

This year, she was awarded the First Prize for Vivaldi International Music Competition from UK, the First Runner-up for 74th Hong Kong School Festival, 2nd Place for International Youth Music Competition.

I am Zeynep Duru Güleç, I’m 9th grade student at the Dokuz Eylül State Conservatory, Harp Department. I started making music with the cello in 3rd grade. I took great pleasure in making music, so I decided to become a musician and started preparing for the conservatory exams in the same year.

I chose the harp in the exam because the harp always fascinated me. I studied with Şirin Pancaroğlu in my first year. It wasn’t easy to get used to the harp, but my love and desire always kept me strong, after a year I was sure that I was made for the harp.

In my second year, Cansu Çine became my teacher, I studied two years with her. At the moment I’am student of Ece Yavaş and I continue my studies with her. I do online masterclasses with Pınar Sivritepe, Deniz Esen and Dalibor Bernatovic, and live masterclasses with Yegan Naza Xanum, Merve Kocabeyler and Meriç Dönük. 

I practice the harp for about 4 hours a day, and playing the harp motivates me. I listen to all kinds of music.
During the day, apart from studying solo repertoire, I also practice technical studies such as etudes. I think music has no limits . We must constantly learn something and improve. I always tell myself I can do better.

I would love to be an orchestra artist in the future and also to continue my solo concerts.

Hi! I am Lucy and I was born in Yerevan, Armenia in 2006. I began playing the piano at the age of 4 at Music School After P. I. Tchaikovsky. I study in the class of prof. Rosa Tandilyan, who helps me to discover the world of music. Thanks to our work together, I became a laureate in many international music competitions.

My favorite kinds of music are classical and romantic. My favorite composer is S. Rachmaninoff, but I also like F. Liszt, L. van Beethoven, S. Prokofiev, F. Chopin, R. Schumann, P.I. Tchaikovsky, C. Debussy, etc.

Usually I practise 3-4 hours a day, but my practice hours depend on what I am preparing for. If I am going to participate in a competition, I will practise more.

My dream is to become a professional pianist and good musician.

If I had to choose a humanitarian project to sustain, I would help talented students to study in the best conservatories in the world.

It was really a great pleasure to take part in the “Music and Stars Awards” contest. 

Thank you so much.    

 Carlotta Malquori, Matthias Balzat and Andrea D’Amato met as students and graduates of the Robert Schumann Musikhochschule Düsseldorf and founded “Ares Trio” in 2019. There they had the privilege of studying with artists such as Noè Inui, Lisa Smirnova and Pieter Wispelwey, and in addition to their artistic activities in Germany, the young trio has a busy concert schedule both as an ensemble and individually, especially in Italy, Greece and New Zealand. The trio are also students of the Avos Project Academy in Rome, where they work regularly with the Avos Quartet, David Romano, and various guest soloists. The Ares Trio received grants from the Avos Project and the “Takaya Urakawa” and “Neustart Kultur” foundations, which enabled the production of their debut CD in collaboration with the German label “Coviello Classics”, for which they recorded works by Arno Babadjanian and Dmitri Shostakovich.

Outside of our individual careers, we usually find time on the weekends to work together, setting aside as many hours as necessary to prepare for our upcoming engagements. At times, we would also meet in pairs during the week to work more intensively on isolated sections of music.

We have had the opportunity to work with professors and renowned international performers from all over the world, the names of which are listed above.

Our dream is to establish ourselves as an internationally recognised and regular performing ensemble, as an equally important component of each of our careers. 

 At the age of six, I realized that I was passionate about singing. My interest for singing led my parents to send me to a music school. Being born and raised in Bangkok Thailand, I have been singing both Thai and English music.This article will walk you through my experience in the musical field and my dreams in the non-musical field.

From past two years, I have been training under Kru Praew. In March 2022, I won a trophy and a money prizefor my sining. My interest specifically lies in pop music because I enjoy listening to it. I mostly practice singingin the car when I am traveling. Before singing, I do vocal warm-ups using YouTube and then, I practice around2-4 songs. Before the competitions, I do extra practice at home for around 2 hours a day. Kru Praew has taught me to use my voice correctly.

When I grow up, I want to be a psychologist to solve people’s problem. Besides that, I want to teach poor children singing for free as a side hustle.

If music is what you love, you must put in your heart and soul to go after it. Hopefully I can fulfill my dreams to bring a positive change in people’s lives.

New Zealand cellist Matthias Balzat has been on the stage since he could walk. Growing up in a large musical family, his passion for the instrument only grew. Already at an early age he showed promise, winning his first national competition at the age of 9, and subsequently every national competition available to him in the country, including the National Concerto Competition (twice), the Wallace International Cello Competition, and the Young Performer of the Year award. By the age of 17 he had completed his first degree, a Bachelor of Music at the University of Waikato under James Tennant, after which he moved to Düsseldorf to complete his Masters at the Robert Schumann Musikhochschule under Pieter Wispelwey. There he has settled as a free-lance soloist and chamber musician, and has won numerous awards being over seas, such as the ROSL Strings Competition, and the University Concerto Competition.

My current favourite piece to listen to and play is the Britten Cello Symphony, although I enjoy a vast array of different music genres.

Given a free undisturbed day, I would practice up to 10 hours in a day, although such a luxury does not come by very often. I practice to learn, I continue where I left off from the previous session, and avoid all and any warm up exercises for that reason. If my ears aren’t open, my practice won’t bring any progress. 

I try to select a programme that portrays my strengths, while showcasing a powerful musical variety to impress. There is no secret to success, other than to use your preparation time to craft the best performance you can, and hoping it amounts to unanimous respect.

At 3 years old, I began lessons with Sally-Anne Brown, who instilled the the instrument into my being. I then moved to James Tennant, who taught me to bring passion and reason to performance without fail. Currently I study with Pieter Wispelwey, who continues to inspire me to treat every note with respect, and to interpret music in the most honest way.

My dream is to expand and maintain that which I already do, to travel the world and perform everything everywhere with everyone. 

Altair String Quartet was founded in 2021. This chamber music group is based on the string players of the Kunming International Philharmonic Orchestra (China, Province Yunnan).

There are three musicians from Belarus and one Colombian in the string quartet. Viola and cello players have been working now as sub-principals and violins are tutti-players.

During their musical career, the musicians repeatedly became laureates of international and national competitions and festivals.

They are the owners of awards and scholarships, laureates of a special fund to support talented youth.

The string quartet’s repertoire includes mainly works by Western European classical and romantic composers, but also includes Russian composers and some Chinese popular works. The repertoire is constantly updated.

Musicians regularly rehearse at the base of the orchestra, the College of Music in Kunming, Yunnan Province (China).

Favorite composers are: Bach, Mozart, Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Borodin. The main goals of the quartet are to continue to participate in competitions (also online), to develop, to perform new works, to play often in concerts and to achieve fame.

My name is Hao Ruolan. I was born in Shanghai. I am 10 years old now. I have played piano for 4 years and learned composition for 2 years. I am a piano player and composer in a lovely youth orchestra in Shanghai.

I often compose for my friends and they are very happy.

This year, I will start my piano and composition major at Tianjin Juilliard School. It will help me to become a musician in the future.

I love performing and cooperating with
musicians.

I wish to be a bridge between East and West through music and love.