​​​28.05 _ With Daniel Muller-Schott

Daniel Müller-Schott is one of the most sought-after cellists in the world today and can be heard on all international concert stages. For many years he has been enchanting audiences as an ambassador for classical music, playing with the world’s leading Orchestras and Conductors, as well as forming bridges between music, literature, and the visual arts. The New York Times refers to his “intensive expressiveness” and describes him as a “fearless player with technique to burn”.

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29.05 _ With Ophélie Gaillard

A spirit of insatiable curiosity, a taste for risk, an unbridled appetite for the entire cello repertoire — without borders or sectarian divides — a sense of civic engagement, and an unconditional love of nature: these are doubtless what early on distinguished this brilliant Franco-Swiss performer.

Voted “Instrumental Soloist Revelation” at the Victoires de la Musique Classique awards in 2003, she has since appeared in recital across Asia and Europe, and has been invited to perform with some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre national de Metz, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, and the New Japan Philharmonic.

She is also a favored interpreter of contemporary composers and has developed a strong commissioning policy. She records for Aparté, producing several complete collections acclaimed by the international press — Bach, Britten, Schumann, Fauré, Chopin, Brahms, C.P.E. Bach, Strauss — as well as thematic albums that have won over a broad audience: Dreams, Alvorada, Exils, Vivaldi / I colori dell’ombra, A Night in London, Napoli!.

In 2025, her latest album, Cello Tango, has received glowing praise from both the press and the public.

A passionate collaborator, she regularly shares the stage with Lambert Wilson, hip-hop dancer Ibrahim Sissoko, choreographers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet, Étoile dancers Hugo Marchand and Ludmila Pagliero, as well as Toquinho, the legendary bossa nova singer.

In 2005, she founded the Pulcinella Orchestra, which she directs from the cello.

With this ensemble, she explores 17th- and 18th-century repertoires on period instruments.

A highly sought-after teacher, she has been Professor at the Haute École de Musique de Genève since 2014, gives masterclasses across all continents, and is regularly invited to serve on the juries of major international competitions such as the ARD Competition in Munich, Bach in Leipzig, the Geneva Competition, and the Isang Yun Competition in Korea, among others.

Ophélie Gaillard plays a 1737 Francesco Goffriller cello, generously loaned by the CIC, and an anonymous Flemish piccolo cello.

 

30.05 _ With Ansi Karttunen 

Anssi Karttunen performs all the standard cello works, has discovered many forgotten masterpieces and transcribed numerous pieces for cello, or chamber ensembles. He is a passionate advocate of contemporary music and his collaboration with composers has led him to give over 240 world premieres of works by composers as diverse as Magnus Lindberg, Kaija Saariaho, Pascal Dusapin, Betsy Jolas and George Lewis. 

Karttunen has premiered 32 works for cello and orchestra, among them: Magnus Lindberg's 2 Cello Concertos, Esa-Pekka Salonen's Concerto "Mania", Tan Dun's Cello Concerto "Yi1", Luca Francesconi's Cello Concerto "Rest" or Jukka Tiensuu's "Oire". Kaija Saariaho's Concerto "Notes on Light" was a Boston Symphony Orchestra commission for Anssi Karttunen. In October 2018 he gave the premiere of Betsy Jolas's "Side Roads" with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra..

Karttunen plays in the Zebra Trio with the Austrian violinist Ernst Kovacic and Canadian viola player Steven Dann. He appears in recitals with Magnus Lindberg and Nicolas Hodges. With the multi-instrumentalist John Paul Jones Karttunen has two groups: Sons of Chipotle and Tres Coyotes. 

He plays with many of the best orchestras of the world and in recitals and chamber music at major festivals in Europe: Edinburgh, Salzburg, Lockenhaus, Spoleto, Berlin, Venice, Montpellier, Strasbourg, Helsinki etc.. 

Between 1994 and 1998 he was the artistic director of the Avanti!-Chamber Orchestra. He was the artistic director of the 1995 Helsinki Biennale and the Suvisoitto-festival in Porvoo, Finland from 1994 to 1997. From 1999 to 2005 Anssi Karttunen was the principal cellist of the London Sinfonietta. He was the artistic director of the Musica nova Helsinki festival in 2015.

Anssi Karttunen also performs as a conductor. He has conducted Lindberg's Kraft with the Flanders Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic cello ensemble, the Gaida Ensemble in Vilnius, NJO String Orchestra etc.

He is a founding member of Petals, a non-profit organisation for the production and sale of CDs and scores on the Internet. His transcriptions include Brahms's Piano Quintet for String Quintet and Händel-Variations op. 24 for String Trio, Schumann's Cello Concerto for Cello and String Orchestra and Album for the Young for String Trio many of them available through www.petals.org.

His teachers included Erkki Rautio, William Pleeth, Jacqueline du Pré and Tibor de Machula. He teaches at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris.

Karttunen plays a cello by Francesco Ruggeri, Cremona circa 1670.​​​​​

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