The viola player Barbara Linke-Holicka was born in Prague in 1976. Initially a student at the Prague Conservatory, she later went on to study with Professor Kim Kashkashianan at the Hanns Eisler College of Music in Berlin, where she attained her degree with honours. She also completed a solo Performance Diploma with Wolfram Christ at the Freiburg College of Music.

Barbara Linke-Holicka played as one of the youngest members of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra under the direction of Claudio Abbado in 1993. She has been awarded several prizes and also a number of scholarship awards. During her time as an academy student at the opera house in Zurich she devoted much of her attention to historical performance practices, since which time she has continued to play baroque viola. She has performed as solo viola with the Camerata Academica Salzburg, the Czech Philharmonic, the National Theatre Mannheim and the State Opera Oldenburg. She has also been a member of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Barbara Linke-Holicka is solo viola with the Ensemble Musica Assoluta in Hannover and has given frequent performances together with the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen as part of its Chamber Music Series. The Czech-born viola player has lived with her family in Bremen since 2007.

The Japanese violinist Hozumi Murata was a prizewinner in a national competition in Japan, where he began his studies with Prof. Toshiya Eto. He made the move to Europe in order to continue his studies at the Music Academy in Prague and has been here ever since.

He was a prizewinner in the Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition in Odense (Denmark) and subsequently performed for several years as a soloist at concerts all over Europe. He later continued his studies in Düsseldorf with Rosa Fain and the Amadeus Quartet.

He took part in numerous masterclasses, where Nathan Milstein and Ivry Gitlis were his most important teachers. Hozumi Muarata has been a member of The Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen since 1988.

Nuala McKenna initially began learning the piano with her father at only four years old before switching to the cello soon thereafter. After completing her studies with Ulf Tischbirek at Lübeck College of Music, with Jean-Guihen Queyras in Freiburg, Ivan Monighetti (Basel) and Conradin Brotbek (Stuttgart), she then went on to take a Master’s degree with Conradin Brotbek. This German-Irish musician has been a member of the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble since 2012 and has performed regularly with the Camerata RCO since 2014. During the 2013/14 season Nuala McKenna was an Academy Student at the Concertgebouw Orchestra and from 2015 to 2017 she was also an Academy Student with The Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen.

As a chamber musician, McKenna has already performed with renowned musicians such as Maria João Pires, Boris Garlitsky, Augustin Dumay, Miguel da Silva and Olli Mustonen. In addition, this cellist has appeared at various festivals including Verbier Festival, the Southwell Music Festival and has also founded her own family festival: The Musikfest Kahleby. In 2018/19 McKenna was a finalist in the Dutch Classical Talent Awards which took her on a solo tour through all the well-known halls of The Netherlands. Her debut album of works for solo cello will be released in 2021.