Carnegie Hall

Classical music is a cultural asset with incomparable power and impact. The Kronberg Academy Foundation is committed to ensuring that it lives on and remains authentic for future generations.

Today, Kronberg Academy is considered one of the most important meeting places and training facilities, and a wellspring of inspiration for young violinists, violists, cellists, and selected pianists. Located in the heart of Europe, it is where the world’s exceptionally gifted young musicians come together with the great artists of our time, fostering a unique kind of mutual inspiration. Kronberg Academy enables young talent to mature into artists who are aware of their responsibilities to both music and society.

In the Casals Forum, which opened in 2022, the Kronberg Academy Foundation has given all of its tasks a home and a future. Teaching, studying, and performance are united under the roof of this exceptional chamber music hall—the first carbon-neutral concert hall—and its adjoining study center.

Here, students in the Kronberg Academy Study Programmes work intensively with leading musicians year round. At least twice a year—at the Chamber Music Connects the World project in spring and the Kronberg Festival in autumn—a host of concerts, public master classes, and open rehearsals offer these upcoming young artists and their famous role models a chance to share the stage. Kronberg Academy also regularly goes on tour. At the invitation of the world’s major concert halls, its young soloists perform together and act as ambassadors of the academy.

In music circles, Kronberg Academy is considered far more than a “talent factory.” It is a stimulating meeting place, an oasis in the music world and a music laboratory, where different generations of artists come together to engage in musical dialogue and conduct daring experiments. The philosophy of Pablo Casals—the great cellist and passionate champion of peace who believed that art, humanity, and respect for nature are inextricably linked—is the guiding principle for all training and musical activities at Kronberg Academy and the Casals Forum.

A musician of captivating versatility, violist Tabea Zimmermann performs worldwide, teaches, nurtures talent, and fosters collaboration as a soloist and chamber musician. While her instrument, the viola, remains central to her activities, her responsibilities have grown more diverse over the years, allowing her to contribute through her extensive concert experience, her interest in promoting young talent, and her commitment to social responsibility.

Ms. Zimmermann owes her fame to the viola. At age 11, she made her debut on the stage of the Philharmonie Berlin, and then competition successes in Geneva, Paris, and Budapest catapulted her to prominence. At age 21, she accepted a position at the Hochschule für Musik Saar, where she became the youngest professor in Germany. Her commitment to teaching remains strong; she shares her passion for music at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt and the Kronberg Academy Study Programmes, where she has been principal professor since 2017.

Ms. Zimmermann’s interest in contemporary music was perhaps spurred by the limited traditional solo repertoire for the viola. In 1994, she premiered a solo sonata dedicated to her by György Ligeti. Composers such as Heinz Holliger, Wolfgang Rihm, and Georges Lentz wrote pieces for her. She recently presented concertos by Enno Poppe and Michael Jarrell in acclaimed recordings.

Adhering to the principle “quality over quantity,” Ms. Zimmermann limits her annual performances to approximately 50. Alongside her solo presentations, she places high importance on chamber music, collaborating with artists like Jörg Widmann, Javier Perianes, the Belcea Quartet, and longtime colleagues from the Arcanto Quartett, which existed until 2016.

Ms. Zimmermann remains a sought-after partner for many orchestras and festivals. She has held residencies with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra named her artistic partner in 2022, and she will curate several concerts for the Schwetzingen SWR Festival in 2024. Her expertise is also recognized in other fields: She was president of the Beethoven-Haus Bonn for seven years and is currently president of the Swiss Hindemith Foundation. She has always revered Hindemith, and in 2013, she recorded his complete works for viola. In 2023, she was awarded honorary membership, the highest honor of the German Music Council, in recognition of her passionate and dedicated commitment to musical life.

American Russian violinist Maria Ioudenitch received first prizes in three violin competitions in 2021: the Ysaÿe International Music Competition, Tibor Varga Competition, and Joseph Joachim Violin Competition. She also won numerous special prizes at those competitions, including the Joachim Competition’s Chamber Music Award, the prize for Best Interpretation of the Commissioned Work, and the Henle Urtext Prize. In 2023, she won the Opus Klassik Award for Chamber Music Recording of the Year for her debut album, Songbird, on Warner Classics.

Highlights of Ms. Ioudenitch’s 2023–2024 season include concerts with Camerata Bern; Chamber Orchestra of Europe; Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia; Stuttgart Philharmonic; Frankfurt Radio Symphony; and Dresden Philharmonic, the latter to include a six-city tour to the UK. She will also perform on the Marlboro Music Festival’s US tour. In September, she participated in the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival directed by Elena Bashkirova, and this season, she performs recitals with her father, Stanislav Ioudenitch.

Ms. Ioudenitch grew up in Kansas City and began playing violin with Gregory Sandomirsky at age three. She continued her studies with Ben Sayevich at the International Center for Music in Kansas City and Pamela Frank and Shmuel Ashkenasi at the Curtis Institute of Music. She completed her master’s degree and artist diploma at the New England Conservatory, where she studied with Miriam Fried. Last year, she was mentored by Sonia Simmenauer as part of the new initiative zukunfts.music. Currently, she is in the professional studies program at the Kronberg Academy, working with Christian Tetzlaff and funded by the Strauss Family patronage. She is also a member of ensemble 132, the emerging US-based chamber-music collective.

New Zealand–born violinist Geneva Lewis has forged a reputation as a musician of consummate artistry who has been lauded for the “remarkable mastery of her instrument” (CVNC) and hailed as “clearly one to watch” (Musical America).

Named a BBC New Generation Artist (2022–2024), Ms. Lewis is the recipient of a 2022 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant. She was also Grand Prize winner of the 2020 Concert Artists Guild Competition, winner of the Kronberg Academy’s Prince of Hesse Prize (2021), Musical America’s New Artist of the Month (June 2021), a Performance Today Young Artist in Residence, and a YCAT Concordia Artist.

In August 2023, Ms. Lewis made her BBC Proms debut with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Jaime Martín, and this season includes further performances with the orchestra. She also debuts with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Knoxville Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco, and Kremerata Baltica, with which she performs Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso No. 1 alongside Gidon Kremer.

Deeply passionate about chamber music, Ms. Lewis has collaborated with Jonathan Biss, Glenn Dicterow, Miriam Fried, Kim Kashkashian, Gidon Kremer, Marcy Rosen, Sir András Schiff, and Mitsuko Uchida. She has performed in venues and at festivals such as London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Marlboro Music Festival, Kronberg Academy Festival, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Ravinia Festival, and ChamberFest Cleveland.

Ms. Lewis received her artist diploma from the New England Conservatory, studying with Miriam Fried. Prior to that, she studied with Aimée Kreston at the Colburn School. She is currently studying at Kronberg Academy with Mihaela Martin, funded by the Strauss Family patronage. She performs on a composite violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, ca. 1776, generously on loan from a charitable trust.

Praised for his “burnished tone, spellbinding technique, and probing musical mind” (Boston Classical Review), cellist Brannon Cho has emerged as an outstanding artist of his generation. He is the First Prize winner of the prestigious VI International Paulo Cello Competition, and is also a top prize winner of the Queen Elisabeth, Naumburg, and Cassadó International Cello competitions. He is the recipient of the 2020 Janos Starker Foundation Award, Landgraf von Hessen Prize from Kronberg Academy, 2019 Ivan Galamian Award previously held by James Ehnes, and a scholarship from the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation.

Mr. Cho has appeared as a soloist with many top orchestras around the world, including the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Belgian National Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and Brussels Philharmonic under world-renowned conductors such as Susanna Mälkki, Stéphane Denève, Christian Arming, and Hugh Wolff. His recent and upcoming solo performances include the Cello Biënnale Amsterdam, Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, Kumho Art Hall Yonsei in Seoul, Rheingau Musik Festival with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Vancouver Chamber Music Society, and Seoul Arts Center.

Born in New Jersey, Mr. Cho received his bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University studying with Hans Jørgen Jensen. He was awarded an artist diploma from the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Laurence Lesser. Between 2019 and 2023, he participated in the professional studies program at Kronberg Academy under the tutelage of Frans Helmerson. He is sponsored by Thomastik-Infeld and performs on a rare cello made by Antonio Casini in 1668 in Modena, Italy.

Pianist Julia Hamos combines her American and Hungarian roots with an adventurous spirit to explore repertoire that ranges from J. S. Bach to composers living today. Ms. Hamos graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she studied with Christopher Elton, and the Mannes School of Music in New York, where she studied with Richard Goode. She went on to study with Sir András Schiff at the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin and continued her education in the Sir András Schiff Performance Programme for Young Pianists at Kronberg Academy between 2021 and 2023.

Ms. Hamos is the winner of the Sterndale Bennett Prize for Romantic Music at the Royal Academy of Music and the Fidelman Prize for Contemporary Music at the Mannes School of Music, and she won the Grand Prix at the International Virtuoso Competition in New York City. She is in international demand as a soloist and chamber musician. She performs at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin; Wigmore Hall in London; Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York; Kennedy Center in Washington, DC; Liszt Academy in Budapest; and other concert halls in Europe and overseas.

Ms. Hamos has given recitals and chamber music performances at the Krzyżowa Festival in Kreisau, Poland; Trasimeno Music Festival in Italy; International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove in Cornwall, UK; Verbier Festival Academy; Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival in North Carolina; Kneisel Hall Festival in Maine; Ravinia Steans Music Institute in Illinois; and Kronberg’s Chamber Music Connects the World with Tabea Zimmermann and Christian Tetzlaff.