© ALLEGRAMatthias Weilenmann was born 1956 in Zurich and began his studies there. 1974-1982 he studied in Zurich, Winterthur, and Amsterdam, where he received his soloists's diploma cum laude. Among his important recorder teachers were Conrad Steinmann, Kees Boeke, and particularly Walter van Hauwe. His studies were augmented with musicology and art history. He received important impulses from Nikolaus Harnoncourt, under whose direction he has played since 1975 in various orchestras (Zurich opera, Concertgebouw Orkest Amsterdam, Concentus musicus Wien). He has also collaborated with conductors such as Marc Minkowski, William Christie, Franz Welser-Möst, and Adam Fischer. As a soloist and chamber musician, such as in the ensembles ASPECTE and BROKEN CONSORT as well as duo partner of the lutenist Joachim Held, and as instructor he pursued an intense concert and teaching career in Europe, USA, and Taiwan. Radio and CD recordings document his activities...
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© ALLEGRAA recorder virtuoso familiar with both contemporary and early music, Susanna Borsch is one of the few instrumentalists able to bridge both styles of music with complete ease. Susanna’s first solo cd off-limits featured several new works composed especially for her and the combination of recorder with live electronics, and received critical acclaim from all quarters when issued in 2006. Since April 2014 she is teaching at the Trossingen University of Music. She plays in several ensembles: The renaissance recorder consort Mezzaluna, which interprets polyphonic music composed between ca. 1480 and 1630, using historically documented performance practice. Hexnut, a contemporary music band formed in 2004 comprising the unusual combination of flute, recorder, trumpet, voice and piano. In 2014, Susanna joined BRISK recorder quartet...

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© ALLEGRAMechthild  Karkow,  professor  of  baroque  violin  since  2013  at  the  University  of  Music  and Theatre in Leipzig, developed a busy concert career whilst still studying at the conservatoires of Lübeck, Hannover, Frankfurt and Basle. Since 2002 Mechthild Karkow has dedicated herself to period performance,  receiving  tuition from  John  Holloway,  Simon  Standage  and  Anton  Steck. In  2006  she  made  the  decision  to specialise  in  the  baroque  violin,  and  went  on  to  graduate  from  the  Frankfurt  University  of Music  and  Performing  Arts,  as  a  student  of  Petra  Müllejans. She also studied with Chiara Banchini at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, where in June 2010 she was awarded a Master of  Arts  with  distinction,  before  completing  a  Masters  in  historical  improvisation  under  Rudolf Lutz and Emmanuel Le Divellec. Mechthild Karkow  holds  a  scholarship  from  the  Yehudi  Menuhin  trust, "LiveMusicNow",  was winner  of  the  Premio  Bonporti  international  baroque  violin  competition  in  Rovereto,  Italy  in 2007, and won a special prize at the Leipzig International Bach Competition in 2010. In  addition  to  her  professorship  at  the  University  of  Music  and  Theatre  in  Leipzig,  Mechthild Karkow has also been teaching baroque violin at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main since 2015...

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© ALLEGRAEva Maria Pollerus, born in 1976 near Graz, Austria, is Professor of Harpsichord and Performance Practice at the Graz University of Music and Performing Arts, and chair oft he Institute for Early Music and Performance Practice there. Already as a child she discovered through piano playing her passion for music, and collected intensive concert and competition experience already early on. In addition to her piano studies, which she commenced at the age of fourteen ah the Graz University oft he Arts, she began two years later to become interested in Early Music and the harpsichord, which ultimately was to be her area of specialization. She studied harpsichord at the Universities oft he Arts in Graz (with K. Rieckh, among others) and Vienna (with W. Glüxam) as well as at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (with J. B. Christensen), and received her Magistra artium with honors. In addition to intensive concert activities as a solist, she performs with various orchestras and ensembles, including several that she directs, and with the ensemble “Musick’s Pleasure Garden“, of which she is a co-founder. Moreover, she is working on a dissertation on the ornamentation practice oft he German/English High Baroque.

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© ALLEGRAJesper Christensen is teaching harpsichord, continuo-playing, ensemble, fortepiano and performance practise since 1988 at the Schola Cantorum, Basel. Internationally renowned as a leading expert in the field of Basso Continuo, he has given innumerable concerts and master classes in most European centres and festivals of Early Music. His pioneering, profound studies as well as his passionate artistic realisation thereof have been decisive for the reawakening of the art of continuo-playing in its different historical-stylistic aspects, according to the teachings of the 17th and 18th century masters. Other important aspects of performance practise central to his work are Rhythm, Tempo and Tempo rubato with a special focus on Italian baroque orchestral and vocal practise. Recordings of music by A. Corelli, G. Muffat, F. Geminiani, F. Bonporti, J. Mattheson won international acclaim and awards. Until 1985 professor at the Royal Danish academy of Music in his native city Copenhagen, Jesper Christensen then – living for more than ten years in Italy – taught 1988-2000 as guest professor in Geneva/CH (Centre de Musique Ancienne) and in Lyon/F (Conservatoire Superieur de Musique), 2004/05 in Graz/A (Kunstuniversität) and 2005/06 in Potenza/I (Università di Basilicata) contemporary to his work at the Schola Cantorum...

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© ALLEGRABernd Niedecken, who trained as a classical dancer in Freiburg and Strassbourg and baroque and renaissance dance in Paris, dances at the Freiburg Stadttheater and for various free-lance companies. In 1993 he and his wife, the musician Antje Niedecken, founded the Erato Ensemble, who he has also directed (including Le Mariage forcé by Molière/Lully/Beauchamp and Don Juan and Semiramis by Gluck/Angiolini). He has worked as an interpreter and teacher of historical dance with leading companies (L'Eventail, Fêtes Galantes, Passo Continuo, RenaiDanse) and holds regular courses at Freiburg, Trossingen and Zürich music universities. Bernd Niedecken has worked as a professor for historical dance at the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar since 2009.

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