Emma Yoon, born in South Korea, began learning the violin at the age of 5 in New Zealand. She was a junior student at the Pettman Junior Academy under Stephen Larsen, before gaining her Bachelor of Music at the University of Canterbury (NZ). In 2016, she graduated as a student of Professor Elisabeth Kufferath with a Master of Music from the University for Music, Drama and Media in Hanover and qualified for the post-graduate solo class. Emma Yoon has been a prizewinner in national competitions in New Zealand and was awarded the ROSL Arts/Pettman Scholarship. She has participated in numerous masterclasses and has performed solo and in chamber music ensembles in Europe, the US and New Zealand. In 2015/16, Emma won an internship with the NDR Radiophilharmonie Orchestra.

Zuzana Schmitz-Kulanova was born in Slovakia and began taking violin lessons at the age of six. Her move to Igor Karsko at Lucerne Music College – where she obtained her diploma in concert and solo performance with honours – was followed by continued studies with Vesselin Paraschkevov at the Folkwang University of Arts in Essen.

Between 2007 and 2017, she was concertmaster of the Folkwang Chamber Orchestra in Essen and has held the same post with the Cologne Chamber Orchestra since 2016. The violinist is a very welcome guest performer with the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne and the Aachen Symphony Orchestra. As a soloist, Zuzana Schmitz-Kulanova has frequently performed with the Folkwang Chamber Orchestra as well as with the Kosice State Philharmonic and the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra.

Her particular passion is for chamber music. She is a founder member of Ensemble Ruhr, with whom she performs regularly in a variety of chamber music formations. She has been a member of The Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen since 2017.

During her school days Friederike Latzko was a junior student at the University of Music in Cologne, where she received intensive chamber music lessons from the Amadeus Quartet. After earning her university entrance qualification, she changed to the University of the Arts in Berlin, where she gained further ensemble experience in all of the major West Berlin orchestras. She was a DAAD and Herbert von Karajan Foundation scholarship holder, associate teacher and lecturer with the German National Youth Orchestra and the Young German Philharmonic, as well as chamber music partner to renowned soloists.

In 1980, Friederike founded The Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen together with like-minded fellow students – at first under the name ›Chamber Orchestra of the Young German Philharmonic‹, then later from 1987 in Frankfurt ›Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie‹. In the meantime, she has been a solo violist and dedicated music teacher here for over 30 years.

With Mark Scheibe, she created the ›Melody for Life‹ and with Rodrigo Blumenstock, Stefan Latzko and Gunther Schwiddessen the orchestra project ›Sinfonia Concertante‹, in which members of The Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen play alongside dedicated amateurs.

Friederike Latzko has two grown-up children and spends any spare time in her studio painting and working on her next exhibition.