Count Eugène Traey (1915-2006) was born in Amsterdam of Belgian parents and studied music at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Antwerp, where his piano teacher was Emmanuel Durlet. He went on to study in Paris under Robert Casadesus and in Germany under Karl Leimer and Walter Gieseking. After this international training as a pianist, Eugène Traey pursued a career both as a concert performer and a teacher at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, of which he was the director until 1980. He gave recitals, performed with orchestras and took part in chamber music recitals with Arthur Grumiaux and Jean Laurent, as well as performing piano duos with Frédéric Gevers. He was the founder of the deSingel concert hall in Antwerp and was a regular member of juries at international competitions (Moscow, Warsaw, Munich and Tokyo, among others). From 1982 until 1995 Eugène Traey presided over the jury of the Queen Elisabeth Competition.

Pierre Amoyal won First Prize in the violin at the Paris Conservatory at the age of 12. At 17 he moved to study in Los Angeles under Jascha Heifetz, with whom he played chamber music and made his first recordings. Five years later he was playing all over Europe and in Japan, performing with the most prestigious orchestras and the greatest conductors (including P. Boulez, S. Ozawa, C. Dutoit, G. Herbig, L. Maazel, K. Sanderling, and M.W. Chung). His many recordings for Decca have included Fauré’s sonatas, the Chausson Concert, and the Franck sonata, as well as the Dutilleux, Saint-Saëns, and Respighi concertos. Appointed a professor at the Conservatoire National in Paris at a very young age, he has also taught at the Lausanne Conservatory, Haute École de Musique, where he founded the Camerata de Lausanne in 2002, recently renamed CameratAmoyal. Made up of 14 talented young musicians from all over the world, the Camerata has recorded a number of CDs. Pierre Amoyal teaches as well at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He is a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and a Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite. In 2006 he received the Prix de la Ville de Lausanne. Pierre Amoyal owns one of the world’s most celebrated violins, the 1717 ‘Kochansky’ Stradivarius, which was miraculously found in 1991 after being stolen in 1987.

Dorothy DeLay (1917-2002), or Miss DeLay, as she preferred to be called, began her distinguished career as a teacher at The Juilliard School in 1948.

She has been described as the world’s foremost teacher of the violin by publications as disparate as The New York Times, France’s Le Monde de la Musique, and South Africa’s Die Volksblad. More than just a teacher of the violin, she frequently also was mentor, confidant, career advisor, concert fashion consultant, and even surrogate mother. Among her students are many celebrated performers, including Itzhak Perlman, Cho-Liang Lin, Anne Akiko Meyers, Nadia SalernoSonnenberg, Shlomo Mintz, Nigel Kennedy, Robert McDuffie, Sarah Chang, Mark Kaplan, Rachel Lee, Midori, Gil Shaham, and Kyoko Takezawa. Violinists of the Juilliard, Tokyo, Cleveland, American, Takács, Mendelssohn, Blair, Fine Arts, and Vermeer String Quartets studied with her. She taught concertmasters of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Chicago Symphony, and many other major orchestras the world over. Numerous other former students teach at outstanding conservatories in the United States and abroad, including the Aspen Music Festival and School. First prizes were awarded to her students in every major international competition, including the Tchaikowsky, the Queen Elisabeth Competition, Montreal, Paganini, Thibaud, Menuhin, Wienawski, Naumburg, Indianapolis, Queen Sofia of Spain, Chile International, Leventritt, Sarasate, Hanover, and Nielsen competitions, among many others.

Miss DeLay held master classes in Europe, Korea, Israel, Japan, the People’s Republic of China, and South Africa. At The Juilliard School she occupied the Starling Chair, and held the Dorothy DeLay Faculty Chair at the Aspen Music School. Among her many honors are the Artist Teacher Award of the American String Teachers Association, the King Solomon Award of the America-Israel Foundation, and honorary doctorates from Oberlin College, Columbia University, Michigan State University, Duquesne University, Brown University, and the University of Colorado. She was a Fellow of the Royal College of Music in Great Britain. In 1994 she received the National Medal of Arts, presented by President Clinton at a White House ceremony. In 1995 she received the National Music Council’s annual American Eagle Award, and in 1997 she received Yale University’s highest award for Distinguished Contributions to Music, the Sanford Medal. “For her contributions to Japan’s musical culture,” Emperor Akihito bestowed on her the Order of the Sacred Treasure.

Miss DeLay is the subject of a biography by Barbara Lourie Sand, Teaching Genius: Dorothy DeLay and the Making of a Musician, published in 2000. Miss DeLay also has been the focus of numerous articles, and documentaries throughout her career. At Juilliard in 2002 she moderated the Starling-DeLay Symposium on Violin Studies, How to Teach the Exceptional Young Violinist, with master teachers Itzhak Perlman, Cho-Liang Lin, and Robert McDuffie, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Midori, Stephen Clapp, Cathy Cho, and Brian Lewis attended by 250 young artists and string teachers from around the world.

Born in Medicine Lodge, Kansas, on March 31, 1917, Dorothy DeLay attended Oberlin College, Michigan State University, and what was then called The Juilliard Graduate School before beginning a concert career. That career was interrupted by World War II when her husband, writer Edward Newhouse (a regular contributor to the New Yorker for 30 years) was transferred to a series of Air Force bases. After the war, they settled in Rockland County, New York, where they still lived.

Since 1970 she taught at the Aspen Music Festival, where she nurtured many of the world’s most beloved performers each summer as part of the Aspen Music School.

After graduating from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1948, Toshiya Eto studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Efrel Zimbalist. While attending the conservatory, he gave a recital at Carnegie Hall in 1951. He devoted himself to educating younger players, including Akiko Suwanai and Mariko Senju. A member of the Japan Art Academy, he served as chief of Toho Gakuen School of Music. He has recorded for RCA.

Tuomas Haapanen studied the violin at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. After his debut in 1948 he pursued his studies in Paris with Léon Nauwinck and René Benedetti. In addition to a fine career as soloist and chamber musician, he has also been appointed concert master for the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Helsinki Chamber Orchestra. In 1962 he was appointed head violin teacher at the Turku Conservatory, and in 1978 he became violin professor at the Sibelius Academy; where, from 1987 to 1990, he also acted as principal. He has held master classes in Europe, America and Japan, and many of his students have won prizes in international competitions. Tuomas Haapanen acted as the chairman of the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition from 1981 to 2001, and has regularly been invited to serve as member of the jury in most major violin competitions. In 1999 he received the Finnish State Music Prize.

Born in Chelm, Poland Ida Haendel began playing the violin when only three and a half years of age. Her father, an artist, recognised her talent and subsequently devoted as much time as possible towards furthering her career. Her studies began at the Warsaw Conservatoire where she gained a gold medal at the age of seven and won the Huberman Prize. After leaving Poland she continued her studies with Carl Flesch and later with George Enescu.

Ida Haendel began her professional career as a child prodigy at the Queen's Hall in London under the baton of Sir Henry Wood, playing Brahms Violin Concerto. During the War she lived in London becoming a British subject, and gave many concerts for the troops. Her international career developed as soon as the War was over, performing world-wide throughout Europe, Israel, North and South America and the Far East and the USSR.

A regular visitor to all UK major orchestras she has accompanied them on many foreign tours; the London Philharmonic to the first Hong Kong Arts Festival (1973) and on their subsequent tour of China, the BBC Symphony to Germany, Australia and Hong Kong and the English Chamber Orchestra to Mexico. Ida Haendel collaborated with such eminent conductors as Haitink, Rattle, Decker, Sanderling and Ashkenazy. She made regular appearances at major festivals such as Edinburgh and the BBC Proms, as she did in 1994 with the BBC Symphony and Andrew Davis.

As well as in the UK, she worked with leading conductors and prominent orchestras around the world, and in 1998 took part in a tour to Japan with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. Engagements have included the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic and Bayerisches Staatsorchester.

Ida Haendel speaks seven languages and has published the first part of her autobiography (Woman with Violin, Victor Gollancz). In 1982, she was awarded the Sibelius Medal by the Sibelius Society of Finland on the 25th Anniversary of the composer's death, in recognition of her distinguished performances of his Violin Concerto. In the 1991 New Year's honours list she was awarded a CBE for her outstanding services to music.

Ida Haendel has recorded for EMI and Decca. In 1996 her recording of Bach solo works on the Testament label was released and she completed her chamber music recordings with Vladimir Ashkenazy for Decca.

Yuzuko Horigome started learning the piano at the age of four; she began the violin the following year, with Ryosaku Kubota. In 1975 she continued her violin studies with Toshiya Eto, before graduating from the Toho Gakuen School of Music in 1980. That same year she became the first Japanese musician to win First Prize in the Queen Elisabeth Competition. She has played with the Berlin and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, the London, Chicago, St Petersburg, Montreal, Vienna, and Tokyo Symphony Orchestras, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, La Scala (Milan), the RAI Orchestra, the New Japan Philharmonic, and the Camerata Salzburg. She has performed with prestigious conductors such as C. Abbado, A. Prévin, K. Masur, C. Dutoit, R. Chailly, E. Leinsdorf, S. Ozawa, I. Fischer, S. Rattle, A. Dimitriev, V. Ashkenazy, and S. Vegh. In chamber music she has played with M. Argerich, A. R. El Bacha, P. Rogé, W. Manz, G. Kremer, P. Graffin, T. Zehetmair, N. Imai, K. Kashkashian, M. Maisky, A. Meneses, and many others. Yuzuko Horigome has been and continues to be a guest at many international festivals, including Marlboro, Lockenhaus, Tanglewood, Musicfest La Jolla California, Lugano, and Buenos Aires. A guest teacher at the Brussels Conservatory, she is one of the most prominent soloists in Japan, where she tours for several months every year.

Herman Krebbers made his first public appearance as a nine-year-old prodigy. Since 1945 he has toured the United States, France, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Italy, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Argentina, Russia, Portugal and England. He received a Golden Record for his interpretations of the Beethoven, Brahms and Mozart violin concertos together with the Concertgebouw orchestra, as well as an Edison for Haydn’s two concertos. He has recorded concertos by Paganini, Dvorák, Viotti No. 22, Bruch, Vieuxtemps No. 4, Bach A moll, Brahms’ double-concerto with Tibor de Machula on cello, Vivaldi and Bach double-concertos with Theo Olof on violin, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Saint Saens’ Havanaise and Rondo Capriccioso and Ravel’s Tzigane. Herman Krebbers was a professor at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf and has taught at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam for over 30 years. He has served as a jury member at competitions around the world. To give master classes, he has been invited to Japan, Canada, France, Spain, South Africa, England, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Holland. On account of his many contributions to musical life in the Netherlands, he was appointed Officer in the Order of Oranje-Nassau.

Viktor Liberman (1931 - 1999) graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory and was a member of the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra under Mavrinsky from 1950 until 1979, the last eleven years of which he was first concert-master. During this period he was also professor at the Leningrad Conservatory where he had a special violin class. In 1958 he was a prizewinner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition.

Meanwhile, Viktor Liberman built up his concert experience as a soloist with the leading symphony orchestras of the former USSR under famous conductors such as Kondrashin, Dmitriev, Svetlanov and Sanderling. Furthermore, he was an active chamber musician and maintained excellent contacts with contemporary Soviet composers some of whom have dedicated violin concertos to him, for instance Falik and Tishenko. In 1971 he was awarded the honorary title of 'Merited Artist of the USSR'. Outside Russia Viktor Liberman appeared as a soloist in the USA, Germany, Austria, the U.K., Holland and the Scandinavian countries.

Since 1979, Viktor Liberman lived in the Netherlands where he worked as concertmaster of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra until 1985. In that year he was appointed concert-master of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. With that orchestra he has made solo appearances with conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Sir Colin Davis, Riccardo Chailly, Charles Dutoit, Mariss Jansons and Kurt Sanderling.

Internationally in demand for coaching and masterclasses, Viktor Liberman held a professorship at the Utrecht Conservatory and was a tutor with the European Community Orchestra. He regularly conducted the Dutch National Youth Orchestra.

Viktor Liberman regularly appeared as a soloist in the Netherlands and abroad and had a busy recital career. He was very active as a conductor working with the North Netherlands Orchestra, the Orquestra Filharmonica de Gran Canaria, L'Orchestra Da Camera di Padova e Del Veneto and the Copenhagen Philharmonic, the Kölner Philharmoniker, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Royal Danish Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders and The Rotterdam Philharmonic.

One of the leading musicians of his age, Alberto Lysy (1935-2009) has played with world-renowned orchestras, from the New York Philharmonic and the US National Symphony Orchestra to the Royal London Philharmonic, the RAI Symphony Orchestra in Rome and the Amsterdam Philharmonic, under the baton of such famous conductors as Sir Adrian Boult, Sir Colin Davis, Pierre Boulez and Mstislav Rostropovitch. He has also given chamber music concerts with the greatest musicians of his time, including Benjamin Britten, Pablo Casals, Nadia Boulanger and Yehudi Menuhin, who was his teacher. Alberto Lysy was the artistic director of the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad and Blonay, where he taught the violin. Often invited as a guest instructor, he gave classes in interpretation at leading music schools. Founder of the Camerata Lysy Gstaad, he has toured with this ensemble in Europe, the United States, Canada, South America, the Far East and South Africa.

Yehudi Menuhin was born in New York of Russian-Jewish parents, but later became a British subject. He made his violin debut at the age of seven with the San Francisco Symphony in Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole, following this with a recital in New York a year later. By the time he was eleven he had made his historic debuts in Paris and Carnegie Hall, at twelve in Berlin and at thirteen in London, thus launching himself at an early age on a career that was to take him all over the world for the ensuing decades, playing with all the leading conductors and orchestras. In addition to his renown as a great musician he is equally recognized for his committed humanism, exemplified by his interest in and work for the young, for international understanding, and all the many causes he finds close to his synoptic mind and generous spirit.

lt was on his first visit to lndia in 1952 at the invitation of Prime Minister Pandit Nehru, that he met Ravi Shankar, developing a deep admiration for both Shankar and Indian music. Subsequently, they gave many concerts together and made numerous recordings which sold into the millions; the proceeds of all the coneerts given on his tours of India were donated to charity. In 1960 he was awarded the Nehru Peace Prize for International Understanding. Some thirty years later, in 1992, he was honoured with the title of Ambassador of Goodwill to UNESCO.

In recognition of the many concerts he gave for the Allied Forces during the second World War, flying over from America whenever he could find space in a military plane, Yehudi Menuhin was awarded numerous honours, amongst which were the Legion d'Honneur and the Croix de Lorraine from France, the Order of Merit from Germany, the Ordre Leopold and the Ordre de la Couronne from Belgium, from England the Royal Philharmonic Society's Gold Medal and in 1995 from Spain the Gran Cruz de la Orden del Merito Civil. Queen Elizabeth II bestowed a knighthood on him in 1965 and gave him the Order of Merit in 1987, followed by a life peerage in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in 1993.

He is an Honorary Doctor of over 30 universities in different countries, including those of Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrew's and the Sorbonne as weil as being a Freeman of the cities of Edinburgh, Bath, Reims and Warsaw and holding the Gold Medals of the cities of Paris, New York and Jerusalem. He was also the first Westerner to be made an Honorary Professor of the Beijing Conservatoire in recognition of his concerts in China and of his endeavours in helping many young Chinese violinists to continue their studies in the West.

In 1963 he achieved one of his greatest ambitions, creating a boarding school for promising young musicians, starting from the age of seven and based on the Central School of Moscow, where the students receive both their scholastic and musical education under one roof. Numerous students of the Yehudi Menuhin School, which is officially associated with its Moscow equivalent, have gone on to earn university scholarships.
In 1977 he founded the International Menuhin Music Academy for young graduate string players in Gstaad, Switzerland, the site of the Menuhin Music Festival, of which he was artistic director for 40 years and for which he was awarded Swiss citizenship.

Yehudi Menuhin made his first record at the age of twelve and a year later began his long association with HMV/EMI, with whom he continued to record for many years. He has also recorded for Deutsche Grammophon (the complete Beethoven sonatas with Wilhelm Kempff) and conducted numerous orchestral works for Philips, Virgin, Nimbus and other labels. A great number of his early recordings have been reissued on CD on the occasion of his 75th and 80th birthdays by Biddulph Recordings, and IMG Records issued a boxed set of the complete Beethoven symphonies, performed by the Sinfonia Varsovia under the baton of Lord Menuhin.

Born in Moscow in 1957, Shlomo Mintz emigrated with his family two years later to Israel, where he studied with the renowned Ilona Feher. At age eleven, he made his concerto debut with the Israel Philharmonic. He made his Carnegie Hall debut at age sixteen in a concert with the Pittsburgh Symphony, and subsequently began his studies with Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School of Music.

At age eighteen, he added the role of conductor to his artistic endeavours; since then he has conducted acclaimed orchestras worldwide, and became Music Advisor of the Israel Chamber Orchestra and Artistic Advisor and Principal Guest Conductor of the Maastricht Symphony. He was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008.

Shlomo Mintz regularly appears with the most celebrated orchestras and conductors on the international scene and is heard in recitals and chamber music concerts all around the world. He also frequently performs as a violist with leading chamber ensembles as well as in recitals.

He is the recipient of several prestigious music prizes including the Premio Accademia Musicale Chigiana, the Diapason D’Or, the Grand Prix du Disque, the Gramophone Award and the Edison Award. Since 2004 he is recording for AVIE Records, London.

Shlomo Mintz is patron and one of the founders of the Keshet Eilon International Violin Mastercourse in Israel, and gives master classes worldwide. He has been a jury member of several international competitions including the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Brussels. He was President of the Jury of the International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Poznan and since 2002 is President of the Jury of the Sion Valais International Violin Competition in Switzerland.

Georges Octors, a prizewinner of various international competitions, initiated his career as violin soloist. In 1956, he set up the Ensemble Bach in Antwerp which was welcomed with enthusiasm throughout its many European tours. In 1960, André Cluytens, the musical director of the Belgian National Orchestra at the time, hired him as his assistant. In 1975, in turn Georges Octors was appointed maestro and musical director of the same symphonic group. Georges Octors is very popular in the Netherlands and conducts various orchestras there. He has also been in charge of the musical direction of the Gelders Orkest in Arnhem for ten years, and has often been invited by many orchestras in eastern and western Europe (for the London Symphony Orchestra among others), in the United States, in the former USSR (for the Philharmonic Society of St-Petersburg among others) and in South Korea, where he performs every year. From 1976 to 1989, he conducted the finals of the Queen Elisabeth Competition without a break. Georges Octors then took up the musical direction of the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, with which he recorded various discs which resounded in the international music press (Fanfare, Diapason, Crescendo). Georges Octors has also been invited to partake in the jury of various international competitions in Japan, Italy, Germany, etc.

Igor Oistrakh, the son and pupil of David Oistrakh, was born in Odessa in 1931. He won first prizes in the Budapest International Competition of 1949 and at the Wieniawski International Competition in Poznan´ in 1952. His Western debut took place at the Royal Albert Hall in London and was followed by concert tours throughout the world. Igor Oistrakh has performed with the world’s greatest orchestras under conductors such as O. Klemperer, F. Reiner, H. von Karajan, E. Ormandy, C.M. Giulini, G. Solti, L. Maazel, S. Ozawa, and G. Rozhdestvensky. He also performed with Pablo Casals and Yehudi Menuhin. For 27 years Igor Oistrakh played in a unique duo with his father, with whom he made several recordings. Since 1968 he has conducted chamber and symphony orchestras as well as performing as a viola player. He has recorded for EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, RCA, Collins, Melodia, and Art and Electronics. The recipient of numerous awards, he is President of the Fondation César Franck and serves on the jury of highly prestigious violin competitions (including the Tchaikovsky, Wieniawski, and Carl Flesch competions). Since 1996 he has been a professor at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels.

Launched very early onto the international stage, Clemens Quatacker first studied with his father and then with J. DeLoof, H. Gadeyne and Y. Menuhin. After winning numerous prizes, among them the Prix Vieuxtemps in Verviers and in 1955 the 10th prize of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, he was invited to undertake concert tours in Europe, Africa, Mexico, Canada, Haiti, Uruguay, Brazil, ... He had many contacts with David Oistrakh, who had a high opinion of his young talent. In 1967 he founded the string quartet that bore his name, an ensemble that found rapid success. His group was regularly asked to perform at festivals, national and international. Clemens Quatacker has taught the violin at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel and has an honourary chair at the Brussels Conservatory.

Berl Senofsky was accepted by the Juilliard School in 1931, at the age of six. There he studied with Louis Persinger and later with Ivan Galamian. Invited to the celebrated Malboro Festival and then to be second concert master of the Cleveland Orchestra, it was in 1955 that he won the Grand Prize of the Queen Elisabeth Competition.

From 1965 until his retirement, Berl Senofsky was on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore as principal professor of violin. He was principal of string classes from 1965 to 1977. That same year, he founded the American Artists International Foundation, an institution that has been able to aid Peter Zazofsky and Irina Tseitlin, among others.

To his international career as soloist, Berl Senofsky adds an extensive discography on Philips, Epic, RCA and Deutsche Grammophon.