Originally from New Zealand, Emma Yoon began her studies with Stephen Larsen at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch. She then completed her master’s degree and concert exam with Elisabeth Kufferath at the Hanover College of Music, Drama and Media. She also studied chamber music with Oliver Wille in Hanover. Among other prizes, this violinist has won the New Zealand National Concerto Competition. In 2010 she made her solo debut with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra performing Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto. Emma Yoon is also an avid chamber musician, collaborating with outstanding artists such as Sarah Christian, Florian Donderer and Tanja Tetzlaff. Her most recent recording, the chamber music album ›Jonny‹, was nominated for an Opus Klassik in 2020.

Both as a soloist and as a chamber musician, Emma Yoon has performed concerts throughout Europe, the UK, the USA and New Zealand, and has appeared at international festivals such as the Edinburgh International Arts Festival, the Rottweil Musikfestival Sommersprossen and the Heidelberger Frühling. She was an academist with the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen from 2017 to 2019 before becoming a permanent member of the orchestra, and has played as concertmaster in ensembles such as the Kammer­philharmonie Landshut, Musica Assoluta and Camerata Hamburg.

She has also completed an internship with the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hanover and has played as a section leader in ensembles such as the Kammer­philharmonie Landshut and the Camerata Hamburg. Since 2018, Emma Yoon has also been a member of the Estonian Festival Orchestra, working with Paavo Järvi at the Pärnu Music Festival in Estonia.

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.