The Musicians

József Lendvay

József Lendvay is one of the most outstanding contemporary violinists. Thanks to his virtuoso skills and charisma, he has gained enormous popularity all over the world. Born in Budapest in 1974, he began learning to play the violin at the age of five. Initially taught by his father, József Lendvay Sr., after a few years he had his first successes one of them being the 1st Prize in a competition for young violinists held in Hungary’s capital. At the age of eight, he became a student of Franz List Academy of Music, Budapest, in professor Miklos Szenthelyi’s class of violin. He also learnt from such famous violinists as Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Ida Haendel, Igor Oistrakh, Ruggiero Ricci, Jaap van Zweden, Sandor Vegh and Dorothy DeLay.

József Lendvay is a laureate in numerous international violin competitions, among them being the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition Sion Valais, Switzerland. His talent and accomplishments were appreciated in 1997 when he received the Gold Cross from the President of the Republic of Hungary.

József Lendvay’s repertoire is highly impressive as it includes most violin works, both solo, chamber music as own arrangements. He has cooperated with the best soloists and conductors like Yuri Bashmet, Vadim Repin, Andrea Bocelli, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Yehudi Menuhin and Prof. Krzysztof Penderecki. He gave concerts in the most prestigious concert halls on five continents, e. g. New York (Carnegie Hall, 2009), Los Angeles (Walt Disney Concert Hall), Shanghai (Shanghai Concert Hall), London (Royal Albert Hall), St Petersburg (Mariinsky Theatre), Johannesburg (Linder Auditorium), Buenos Aires (Teatro Colone) and Rio de Janeiro (Teatro Municipal). For a long time he has been collaborating with Budapest Festival Orchestra (BFO), conducted by maestro Iván Fischer. The result of the cooperation was the recording of Johannes Brahms’s Hungarian Dances, orchestrated by Iván Fischer, and published by Philips. József also performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonic of the Nations, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Moreover, József Lendvay has performed at Castel Gandolfo, having been invited and awarded the Medal for his cultural contribution by Pope Johannes Paul II, and has also played for very important politicians like Mikhail Gorbachov, Angela Merkel, George Bush Sr, Helmut Kohl.

József has participated in Europe’s most prominent festivals like Schleswig Holstein and MDR Musiksommer (Germany), Salzburger Festspiele and Feldkirsch Festival (Austria), Brescia and Bergamo Festival (Italy), Edinburgh International Festival and BBC-Proms, London. In 2009 he got the status of the leading solist at Musiclandschaft Westfalen, Germany, and in 2012, at its another edition, conducted by Krzysztof Penderecki.

József Lendvay is a very universal violinist. Apart from classical music, he performs folk music coming from Hungary, Romania, Moldova, and Russia. Klezmer music is another important part of his repertoire, which could have been induced by Jozsef’s partly-Gypsy, partly-Jewish family background. This might be why his performances of Maurice Ravel’s Tzigane and Pablo de Sarasate’s Gypsy Melodies sound so authentically and uniquely.

Back in 2005, Jozsef Lendvay won the “Echo Prize” award, in the category of Klassik ohne Grenzen, for his Lendvay CD, recorded for Sony Classical. For a long time, the album topped classical music charts in South Korea and Japan.

Letizia Sciarone

Letizia Sciarone started playing the violin at the age of 7 with Josef Schebal. At the age of 10, she was invited to perform Luciano Berio’s duets with members of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the maestro himself. Letizia completed her master’s degree with Kees Hülsmann and Janet Krause at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. She studied with Zakhar Bron and Natalia Morozava before completing her postgraduate with honours at the Royal College of London with Dr. Felix Andrievsky. Letizia has won various prizes and scholarships, including the Associated Board Scholarship, the first prize of the Ian Stoutzker competition and the prize for best performed Bach. She followed masterclasses with, among others, Igor Osim, Erik Friedmann, Cleveland Quartet and Talig Quartet.

As a chamber musician, Letizia played in various festivals, such as the Schleswig Holstein Festival, Montodon Festival, Gergiev Festival in various formations. With her former Sciarone String Trio played for HRH Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace. In addition, Letizia also directed several productions that united music, theater, and dance that resulted choreographing Kurt Weil’s Youkali, where she danced while playing the violin, and directing Hindemith’s Minimax, where the quartet acted while playing. As the artistic director of the Meneone Foundation, Letizia also had festivals for young talented people where young people played an instrument but also acted and danced at the same time.

Letizia played as a soloist with various orchestras, including the Festival Orchestra Virtuosi of the year 2000 in St. Petersburg, with The European Union Chamber Orchestra in India and Dubai and a benefit concert with the Kensington Symphony Orchestra in London that was broadcast on Sky One. After touring extensively around the world with The European Union Chamber Orchestra, Letizia has been a member with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra from 2002 till 2023.

In addition to being a performer, Letizia is also active coaching students, being professor at Codarts as main subject and orchestral teacher. Letizia has also been professor for orchestral lessons at the Royal Music College of The Hague beside teaching at the Pivo, the Hellendaal institute, and Akademie Musical Talent academy, all preparatory courses for talented children.

Julia Dinerstein

Julia Dinerstein participated as a soloist and chamber music player in International Festivals in Europe, America, and Far East. She played chamber music with musicians like Dmitri Sitkovetsky, Daniel Rowland, Priya Mitchell, Niek de Groot, Maria Milstein, Michael Kugel, and the Utrecht String Quartet. Julia has played numerous concerts as a member of the The Hague String Trio, and the Zemtsov Viola Quartet. She is regularly performing on TV and Radio and she has participated in CD recordings for the labels Challenge, Cobra, Navis.

Beside chamber music Julia has worked as a guest principal violist at the Limburg Symphony Orchestra, Holland Symphonia (Holland), Flamish Philharmonic, Brussels Philharmonic, and De Munt Orchestra (Belgium) amongst others.

Julia Dinerstein is also one of the most prominent viola and violin teachers in the Netherlands. She works at the Rotterdam Conservatory Codarts, ARTEZ Conservatory in Zwolle, Maastricht Conservatory, and the Hellendaal Music Institute (Rotterdam). She also has been teaching at the Academy for Musical Talent (Utrecht) and Musica Mundi School in Waterloo, Belgium, being a colleague of Maxim Vengerov and Ivry Gitlis. Julia regularly gives summer masterclasses in France, Spain, US, China, Italy, and South America. A great number of Julia’s pupils and students have become winners of National and International Competitions. Julia is regularly invited as member of jury in the International Competitions. Julia herself is the 2nd Prize winner at the Beethoven International viola competition.

Julia has started violin lessons with her father Boris Dinerstein in Minsk (Bielorussia), then she continued at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory with Elizabetha Gilels and Andrei Korsakov. Later she studied viola with Michael Kugel at the Maastricht Conservatory where she received a Soloist master’s degree with Distinction.

Katja Dirven-Didychenko

Born in the Ukraine, Katja is a cum laude graduate of the famed Kiev Conservatory where she studied with Prof. Е. Chervovа and was a prize winner at the International

Lysenko Music Competition. She continued her master’s degree studies at the Rotterdam Conservatory under the tutelege of Marien van Staalen, Dmitri Ferschtman and Herre-Jan Stegenga. 

She developed her love for solo and orchestral playing at a young age. During her studies in the Ukraine she performed and toured with various professional orchestras during her studies including the Lyatoshinsky Ensemble and the Kiev Soloist Ensemble.

Katja is privileged to play with many Dutch and foreign professional orchestras including.

Philharmonie Zuid-Nederland, Sinfonia Rotterdam, Camerata Amsterdam and is a regular guest performer at Musik: Landschaft Westfalen in Germany.

Chamber music plays a major part in Katja’s life. She regularly performs with musicians including: József Lendvay, Vera Laporeva, Mikhail Zemtsov, Igor and Vesna Gruppman and the Daniel Quartet and the Lendvay Ensemble. In 2020-2021, Katja was appointed Artist in Residence for the concert series Van Cappellenhuis. Contributing further to the Rotterdam music scene, she can also be heard regularly in the chamber music series Muzikc in Kralingen.

In 2020, The Beethoven Year, together with the pianist Roderigo Robles de Medina, Katja recorded complete cello sonatas from L.van Beethoven.

Katja also enjoys an extensive teaching practice. Since 2016, Katja, together with colleagues, has been the Artistic Director of the Rotterdam Hellendaal Music Institute. Spreading her wings further, she coaches at the Dordrecht Cello Festival.

As a versatile cellist, Katja does not limit herself to classical music. She has provided musical support for shows and recordings by Edison winner Wende Snijders.

Itamar Shimon

Itamar Shimon Born in Romania, where he learned to play the violin. He continued his violin studies in Israel at the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv with Prof. Rami Shevelov. After this, he moved to the Netherlands. He became a member of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, where he played for 40 years. He was also a member of the Daniel Quartet for 45 years. With both he participated in many international tours. He also taught at the Codarts Conservatory. He has played chamber music with several prominent musicians, including Henk de Graaf and Daniël Wayenberg, with whom he formed a trio.

John van Lierop

John van Lierop is principal double bass for Sinfonia Rotterdam, prior to this he held principal positions for the Limburgs Symphony Orchestra, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

As guest principal he has frequently performed many orchestras among which the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London, the Belgian National Orchestra, the Brussels Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gurzenich Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

He held teaching positions at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Douglas Acadamy and St Andrews University.

He gives masterclasses around the world.