Sofia de Salis, flute

Flutist of Russian origin, Sofia de Salis won various international competitions and performed as a soloist with symphony and chamber orchestras; she also gave recitals with renowned pianists and chamber musicians. Her musicality and the quality of her sound are the distinctive elements of her talent.

Born in Moscow to a father who is well known as an artist-painter and to a singer mother, Sofia de Salis starts learning music at the age of four. After brilliant studies at the Moscow Conservatory, crowned with a concert diploma with distinction, she continued her training at the Conservatory of Basel in the class of Felix Renggli, where she obtained a concert diploma and an education diploma. She also studied in master classes or workshops with Renata Greis-Armin, Aurèle Nicolet, Ransom Wilson, Bartold Kuijken, Rachel Braun, Pierre-Yves Artaud, Andras Adorjan and Jacques Zoon.

To enrich her musical experience in the field of Baroque, she followed the traverso course given by Oskar Peter at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Her interest also extends to modern music and Sofia de Salis performed works by contemporary composers such as Pierre Boulez, Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina, Jost Meier, Jürg Wittenbach and Samuel Ducommun, some of whom she had the opportunity to collaborate with.

With her broad repertoire, she performed as a soloist and in orchestras in internationally renowned venues such as the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Theater Basel, Casino Basel, Carnegie Hall in New York, Kennedy Centre Washington and Tonhalle Zurich under the direction, among others, of Gennady Rojdestvinski, Krysztof Penderecki, Vladimir Spivakov and Valery Polyansky. She collaborated with various orchestras, including the Moscow Philharmonic, the Neues Orchester Basel and the Orchestre Symphonique Bienne-Soleure.

Iryna Krasnovska, piano

Iryna Krasnovska started piano lessons at age 6. In 1989 she attended the Music College for talented students in Charkov (Ukraine) where she was awarded the Goldmedal for her outstanding in 2001.
She participated in Masterclasses with Klaus Hellwig (Berlin), Adrian Oetiker (Basel), A. Jasinski (Polen) and Lew Naumow (Moskow).
At the young age she obtained first prizes in international competitions both as a soloist and a chamber musician.
From 2001 untill 2007 she studied at the Musik-Akademie in Basel (Switzerland) with Professor Adrian Oetiker. In 2007 she finished her Master with graduation.
She has performed with international acclaim in solo and chamber recitals in Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland. She played with renowned orchestras like Charkow Philarmonie, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Philharmonie Südwestfalen Musikkollegium Winterthur and in notable concert houses like Tonhalle Zurich, KKL Luzern, Casino Basel etc. with conductors Bernard Labadie, Giampaolo Bisanti, Marc Kissoczy, Thomas Füri, Giuliano Betta, Erik Nielsen etc.
She also appears regularly as a chamber musician and accompanist. She devotes herself intensively to the song accompaniment, which she cherishes in a special bond with Vesselina Kasarova. Further she received many artistic stimulation in collaboration with Gerard Wyss, Bjorn Waag and Werner Güra . As a member of the musical team at the Theater Basel she performed in numerous recitals and solo recitals. At the big tour of Basel’s Opera house in Japan in 2012 her interpretation of the recitatives in ” Le Nozze di Figaro ” and the solo and song recitals in Tokyo and Nagoya were highly praised by the Japanese press.

Amongst her numerous awards she has received the RAHN Music Prize for piano in Zurich in 2004, the First Prize at the Concours d’Interprétation Musicale de Lausanne 2005. She is winner of the Rotary Prize for Piano in 2005, as well as the Migros-Studentprize for music in 2006 and 2007.

Iryna Krasnovska has recorded for MDG (Dabringhaus & Grimm), Radio Swiss Romande and DRS2.
She obtained the “Supersonic Award” (Pizzicato-Luxemburg) for her chamber music CD with works by Gustav Jenner.