Alexandra Kaptein (1999, Netherlands) studies piano / vocal rehearsal with Frank van de Laar at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and works as an Associated Pianist at the Dutch National Opera Academy. She previously graduated cum laude from the ArtEZ Conservatory and her Masters from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, and studied Music Theory at the Royal Conservatory.
The young pianist took part in a long series of national and international piano competitions and won prizes at the Von Bremen Piano Competition, the EPTA International Piano Competition, International Piano Competition Enschede and the international competition in Val Tidone ‘Silvio Bengali’ Italy.

She attended master classes with masters such as Leslie Howard, Hannes Minnar, Alexander Gavrylyuk, Boris Giltburg.
Alexandra gives concerts throughout Europe, solo and in chamber music, at music festivals in Greece, Italy, Poland and Germany. She also performed with renowned orchestras such as the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra.
Her debut CD album contains Transcriptions of Franz Liszt with the international label TRPTK (release April 2024).
She is also vice president of the Franz Liszt Circle in the Netherlands, for which she writes and publishes articles, in combination with her mission to promote music theory, musicology and performance.

The Ecuadorian pianist Aarón Ormaza Vera obtained his bachelor’s degree in his home country in 2016 and then his second bachelor’s degree in 20202 with the renowned pedagogue Jan Wijn at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. He is currently following a Masters in Amsterdam with Frank van de Laar.
During his stay in Amsterdam he also studied fortepiano with Olga Paschenko, and benefited from master classes with Jeff Cohen, Kelvin Grout, Geoffrey Madge, Enrico Pace, Aleksandar Madžar, Boris Slutsky, Alexander Gavrylyuk, James Giles, Artur Pizarro, Boris Berman and Miguel Ituarte.
He is a prize winner of the 8th YPF European Piano Competition (Netherlands), the IX Stasys Vainiūnas Competition for Pianists and Chamber Ensembles (Lithuania) and the International Student LiedDuo Competition in Groningen (Netherlands).
Aarón is an experienced chamber musician and accompanist. He has already played in some of the most important concert halls in the Netherlands, such as TivoliVredenburg, Muziekgebouw aan het IJ, Muziekgebouw Eindhoven and the Toonzaal Den Bosch.
He currently plays in song duos with Kris Ng and Lucie van Ree and is part of Duo Ormaza with his brother Jacob. He also works as a freelance accompanist for the Dutch National Opera Academy of the Conservatory of Amsterdam. He also performed frequently as a soloist with an orchestra in Ecuador, where he played concertos by Haydn, Beethoven, Grieg and Liszt.

Malaysian pianist Magdalene Ho was born in 2003 and started playing the piano at the age of four. In 2013 she began her studies with Patsy Toh at the Purcell School in Great Britain. In 2015, she received the ABRSM Sheila Mossman Prize and Silver Award. As part of a prize at the PIANALE piano festival in Fulda, Germany, she released an album of works by Bach and Messiaen in 2019. She was a finalist at the 2023 Düsseldorf Schumann Competition and a few months later received the Joan Chissell Schumann Prize for piano at the Royal College of Music. In September 2023 she won the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Vevey and received the Audience Prize, the Young Critics’ Prize and the Children’s Corner Prize. Magdalene has been studying with Dmitri Alexeev at the Royal College of Music since September 2022, where she is a Dasha Shenkman Scholar supported by the Gordon Calway Stone Scholarship. She is also sponsored by the Weir Award through the Keyboard Charitable Trust.

Emanuil Ivanov attracted international attention after winning first prize at the 2019 Ferruccio Busoni Piano Competition in Italy. This achievement was followed by concert performances in some of the world’s most prestigious halls, including Teatro alla Scala in Milan and the Herculessaal in Munich.
Emanuil Ivanov was born in 1998 in the city of Pazardzhik in Bulgaria. From an early age he showed a great interest and love for music. He started taking piano lessons with Galina Daskalova in his hometown around the age of seven. Ivanov studied with the famous Bulgarian pianist Atanas Kurtev from 2013 to 2018. He is currently studying on a full scholarship at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire under the tutelage of Pascal Nemirovski and Anthony Hewitt.
In February 2021, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ivanov gave a solo recital at Milan’s famous Teatro alla Scala that was streamed online.
In 2022 he received the Silver Medal of Honor from the Musicians’ Company, London and later that year he was awarded the prestigious Carnwath Piano Scholarship.
Emanuil Ivanov has given critically acclaimed performances and tours in Japan, France, Italy, Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom, among others, and has played with leading orchestras in South Africa, Bulgaria and Italy. In the summer of 2023 he recorded an album of Scarlatti sonatas for the renowned Naxos label.

Damiën Heemskerk (2002) started playing the piano at the age of twelve. He took lessons with Elly van der Wallen and quickly developed his talent for the instrument. Since 2019 he has been studying at Codarts in Rotterdam with Bart van de Roer. He won prizes at the Princess Christina Competition, but also at the Princess Marianne Competition and, together with violinist Nina Broeva, the Gelre Chamber Music Competition. He played Chopin’s First Piano Concerto in 2018, performed his own composition for piano and orchestra in 2020 and gave a performance of Willem Pijpers’ orchestral piece with piano in 2022 in De Doelen in Rotterdam. Since 2022, Damiën has regularly played in the DoelenEnsemble, where he can also express his love for the modern repertoire.
Furthermore, Damiën is also very interested in other art forms, such as graphic art and literature. He often designs and draws his concert programs himself and is always looking for new ways to combine different art forms and disciplines.