Kris Garfitt is principal trombone with the WDR Sinfonieorchester and won first prize at the 2022 ARD Music Competition, where he also won the ›Audience Prize‹ among numerous other special prizes. He has also been successful at a number of international competitions, including the Gold Medal at the 2019 Royal Overseas League Music Competition in London. He studied the trombone at the renowned Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, at Freiburg College of Music and Saar College of Music.

This ›Courtois Performing Artist‹ was trombonist with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie between 2016 and 2020. Alongside this permanent position, he also appeared regularly as principal trombone in a number of top orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunk. For the 2023/24 season, Garfitt has received concerto invitations from the Deutsche Symphonie Orchester, the Robert Schumann Philharmonie Chemnitz, the Hof Symphoniker, the Philharmonie Südwestfalen, the Göttinger Sinfonieorchester, the Bergischen Symphonikern, the Hamburger Camerata, as well as from orchestras in Switzerland, Austria, Spain and Poland.  On 3rd February, Kris Garfitt and Korean pianist Seri Dan will be releasing their first collaborative album.

Kris is also passionate about music education and teaches at the University of the Arts in Berlin.

Due to illness, Peter Ruzicka is unfortunately unable to conduct tonight’s concert. We are very grateful to Massimiliano Matesic who has very kindly agreed to stand in.

Similar to Ruzicka, Matesic, is doubly talented; born in 1969, he studied composition and conducting with (among others) Salvatore Sciarrino in his hometown of Florence and also in Freiburg. As guest conductor, Matesic has conducted concerts and radio recordings with numerous orchestras including the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo and the Orchestras of Bern, Basel and Reutlingen. Between 2002 and 2006, he was Chief Conductor of Sinfonieorchester Villingen-Schwenningen. Since 1996, he has taught orchestral conducting at Freiburg College of Music.

Massimiliano Matesic has composed several works for orchestra, chamber music and the stage. In 2016, his family opera Katze Ivanka, commissioned by Hamburger Staatsoper, premiered here very successfully. Further productions followed at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and the Bulgarian National Theatre in Sofia. He maintains a close relationship with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, which, together with Matthias Goerne, performed the orchestral version of Schubert’s Winterreise.

Since 2002, Matesic has lived in the Aargau Kaiserstuhl on the Swiss Rhine with his wife, the violinist Daria Zappa, with whom he directs the music festival »Festival der Stille«.