Aslan Chikovani was born in 1996, Tbilisi, Georgia

Laureate of third and the winner of the fourth Tbilisi International Young Pianists Competition Winner of the International Young Pianists Competition in Frankfurt (Germany) “Golden Note” Laureate of the XVIII International Competition of Young Pianists named after Frederic Chopin in Szafarnia (Poland).
Winner of the Grand Prix of the First International Republican Contest-Festival “Future Stars”.
Winner of T. Amiredjibi 4th International Piano Competition (2019)

Carter Muller is a Dutch-American classical pianist and aspiring conductor. He was born in Amsterdam in May 2001.

Carter has performed on various podia throughout Europe and Northern America, including major halls such as the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He has performed as a soloist with the Sinfonia Rotterdam and Residentie Orchestra. His repertoire stretches from Bach and Beethoven to Chopin, Liszt, Debussy, Prokofiev and contemporary music. He has studied with Prof. Peter Mack in Seattle, at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Marjes Benoist and Nino Gvetadze, and at the International Piano Academy in Imola with Igor Roma. In 2021, Carter completed his Bachelor’s degree with Prof. Till Fellner at the Zurich University of the Arts, where he will continue his studies in the Soloist Master’s program. He has received masterclasses from various maestri throughout Europe and the USA, including Angela Hewitt, Dmitri Alexeev, Leif Ove Andsnes and Enrico Pace.

Carter has received awards at the Bach Festival, the Russian Composer Festival, Young Musician of the Year Competition of the Royal Concertgebouw, Princess Christina Competition, YPF Piano Competition, as well as the title ‘Classic Young Master’.

Besides the piano, Carter has taken classes in composition with Mathias Steinauer and conducting with Iwan Wassilevski at the ZHdK, after previously having studied with Taco Kooistra at the Netherlands Young Conducting Academy. He also maintains a strong interest in chamber music and forms a duo with violinist Kamilia Boris.

Pianist Ruben Plazier obtained his Diplôme Supérieur d’èxécution unanimously in 2021 at the Ecole Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot in Paris, where he was accompanied by Jean-Bernard Pommier.

Ruben started playing the piano at the age of 6 because his parents had a piano at home. After much experimentation behind the piano, he received his first lessons at the local music school in Dordrecht.

At the age of 13 he received a number of lessons from Wibi Soerjadi at his home in Zeist. These lessons provided a lot of motivation. Shortly afterwards, at the age of 14, he entered the Rotterdam Conservatory where he studied with the Belgian pianist, Stéphane De May.

Through Stéphane De May, Ruben got to know the French pianist Jean-Bernard Pommier. Pommier’s lessons and playing inspired him to such an extent that Ruben seized every opportunity to play for him. For 3 years Ruben traveled everywhere he could play for Jean-Bernard Pommier, mostly to Beziers in the South of France. He did all this while obtaining his Bachelor’s Degree at the Conservatory of Rotterdam with Stéphane De May.

Pommier started teaching at the Ecole Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot in Paris. From then on, Ruben traveled every week between Paris and Rotterdam. Here Ruben obtained the diplôme Supérieur d’Enseignement and Supérieur d’execution with unanimity of the jury. He is currently attending the Concertiste program (artist diploma) of the Ecole Normale in Paris.

The special bond he has developed with Pommier has an enormous influence on his playing. He inherited the old Russian schooling in ideas about sound and phrasing.

Ruben has won several prizes over the years including the international FestiVal d’Anniviers Prize in Switzerland, first prize at the Archipel Music Competition, Concerto Competition in the Netherlands, and more.

As a soloist, Ruben has performed with the Orchester de Conservatoire royal de Liège, Symphony Orchestra Rijnmond, Orkest van Utrecht, Orchester de FestiVal d’Anniviers, among others. One of the highlights of Ruben’s career was the invitation to perform with the Latvian Radio Choir conducted by Sigvards Klava.

Ruben received masterclasses from renowned pianists such as: Jean-Bernard Pommier, Angela Hewitt, Frank Braley, Wibi Soerjadi, and Håkon Austbø.

He played in all major venues in the Netherlands such as: The Concertgebouw Amsterdam, De Doelen Rotterdam, TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, Muziekgebouw in Eindhoven and more.

He was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain) in 1996. He began studying piano at the age of 7 with his mother. He continued his studies at the Conservatory of Music of Gran Canaria with Emilio Tabraue. He also took lessons with Galina Neporozohnya.

He finished his Bachelor’s degree with Alexander Kandelaki at the CSM “Bonifacio Gil” of Badajoz in Spain, obtaining Cum laude score in his final exam of the Bachelor’s Degree and the Extraordinary Prize of end of career. He earned his Master’s degree at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with David Kuyken. Nowadays he continues his studies of Konzertexamen with Aleksandar Madžar at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg, Germany.

He has received masterclasses from musicians as Pascal Nemirovsky, Marta Gulyas, Boris Berman, Boris Giltburg, Enrico Pace, Claudio Martínez Mehner, Nino Kereselidze, András Kemenes, Ángel Sanzo, Péter Nagy, Kennedy Moretti, Begoña Uriarte, Miguel A. Ortega Chavaldas, Albert Atenelle, Daniel del Pino, Frank van de Laar, Naum Grubert, among others.

He has been awarded in many national and international competitions as the 1st prize at the “Piano Competition Veguellina de Órbigo” (León, Spain 2012), 1st prize at the “Competition Jóvenes Músicos de Extremadura”, (Almendralejo, Spain 2013), 1st prize at the “National Competition Jacinto Guerrero” (Toledo, Spain 2014), 1st prize at the “Santa Cecilia International Competition” (Porto, Portugal 2014), 1st prize at the “International Piano Competition Esteban Sánchez” (Cáceres, Spain 2014), 2nd prize at the “Cidade do Fundão” (Fundao, Portugal 2013) or 2nd prize at the “City of San Sebastián Competition” (San Sebastián, Spain 2015).

He has played in the most important concert venues in Spain and abroad as the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium (Spain), Auditorium of Cuenca (Spain), Teatro Real (Spain), Tilburg Theater (Netherlands), Teatro Leal (Tenerife), Oosterport Groningen (Netherlands), Casa da Musica (Porto, Portugal) Helsinborg (Sweden), Copenhague, (Denmark), Brussels and Antwerp (Belgium) as well as in many festivals as the III and IV International Festival “El mundo en un piano” (Spain), X Festival Musique en Vall e du Tarn (France), XV Concert Series “Esteban Sánchez” Badajoz (Spain), the X and XI editions of M sica Actual Concert Series (Badajoz) as well as at the International Festival of Music of the Canary Islands (2021), this last one being broadcast by the Canarian TV channel. He has a broad experience as a soloist performing in several times piano concertos with the CSM “Bonifacio Gil” Orchestra and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Gran Canaria with conductors as Salvador Vázquez, Corinna Niemeyer or Ignacio García Vidal.

He develops an extensive chamber music activity. In February 2020, he was awarded with the first prize at the “Tribuna SaxEnsemble” chamber music Competition that took place in Madrid.

Since October of 2019, he enjoys a Grotrian Steinweg grand piano from The Dutch Musical Instruments Foundation.

He has been supported by institutions as Juventudes Musicales of Madrid, Fundación Alvargonzález, Musici van Morgen Foundation, Fundación MAPFRE Guanarteme, Sociedad AIE, as well as the Jacques Vonk Foundation, this last one given as the best incoming Master’s candidate to the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.

“This pianist can electrify even the empty halls” wrote the Tagesspiegel magazine after the broadcast of Debut concert of Zhora Sargsyan for the Deutschlandfunk Kultur during the pandemic in 2021.

Zhora Sargsyan gained international attention after winning the 3rd grand prix at the prestigious International piano competition Long – Thibaud in Paris in 2019. Many concerts brought him to different countries of the world, where he appeared both as a soloist and as a chamber music partner as well. He played at many Festivals such us Deutschlandsberger Festival and Salzburger Schlosskonzerte in Austria, Bachtage Potsdam, Harleshauser Musikfest und Niesthetaler Klavierfestival in Kassel, Amici di Paganini in Genova Italy, Hvide Sande Festival in Denmark etc.

As a soloist he appeared with orchestras such us Orchestra national de France, Armenian symphonic and Armenian Opera and Ballet Theatre Orchestras, UdK Sinfonieorchester, Kammer Academy Halle under the button of Conductors such us Jesko Sirvend, Steven Sloane, Karen Durgaryan, Armando Merino, Sergey Smbatyan, Andrey Rubtsov etc. For several years he played in Duo with renowned Violist Natalia Prishepenko. He got masterclasses from musicians such as Dmitry Bashkirov, Eldar Nebolsin, Paul Lewis, Severin von Eckardstein and Hortense Cartier-Bresson.

He currently lives and studies in Berlin at the University of Arts in the class of Prof. Klaus Hellwig. Before he studied in his hometown in Armenia at the State Conservatory of Yerevan after the name of Komitas in the Class of Prof. Vagharshak Harutyunyan.

He was supported by Ad Infinitum and Clavarte Foundations,Paul Hindemith Foundation and Richard Wagner Verband in Berlin. He is a Member of Kammerton Organization since 2008.