Jens Peter Maintz, Konstantin Heidrich and Danjulo Ishizaka are the Creative Directors of the festival.

Born in Hamburg, he studied under David Geringas and attended masterclasses with leading cellists such as Heinrich Schiff, Boris Pergamenschikov, Frans Helmerson and Siegfried Palm. His intensive chamber music studies with Uwe-Martin Haiberg and Walter Levin also had a formative influence on him. In 1994, he won first prize at the ARD International Music Competition, a prize that had not been awarded to a cellist for the previous 17 years.

He gained valuable orchestral experience as principal cellist of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and toured the world as a member of the renowned Trio Fontenay. Since 2006, Jens Peter Maintz has been principal cellist of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra at the invitation of Claudio Abbado.

His solo career has brought him together with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Herbert Blomstedt, Marek Janowski and Franz Welser-Möst. He has appeared as a soloist with, amongst others, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. In addition to the classical repertoire, Jens Peter Maintz has performed numerous works by contemporary composers.

Since 2004, he has been a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts, where he heads an exceptionally successful cello class. His students hold leading positions in major orchestras and have won first prizes at all the major international competitions, such as the Tchaikovsky Competition, the ARD Competition and, most recently, the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, where three of the six prize-winners were his students.

Jens Peter Maintz is also in great demand as a chamber musician. He is a member of the renowned ‘Spectrum Concerts Berlin’ series and performs with chamber music partners such as Janine Jansen, Kolja Blacher, Isabelle Faust and Akiko Suwanei. For over 30 years, he has formed the cello duo ‘Cello Duello’ with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. Together they perform at the world’s most prestigious festivals. Jens Peter Maintz was awarded the ECHO Klassik Prize for his Sony Classical CD featuring solo works by Bach, Dutilleux and Kodály.

Since 2017, he has also been a professor at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid.

Jens Peter Maintz plays the ‘Ex-Feuermann’ cello by David Tecchler, built in 1741.

Konstantin Heidrich is the cellist of the Fauré Quartett and Professor of Violoncello at the Berlin University of the Arts. As a soloist, the Hamburg-born musician has collaborated with conductors such as Andrea Marcon and
Kristjan Järvi. Orchestras including the MDR Symphony Orchestra and the Duisburg Philharmonic have accompanied his concerts. He has appeared as principal cellist with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Kammerakademie Potsdam. His students are international prize-winners and perform with leading orchestras. He regularly gives masterclasses at Forum Artium, the MSA Bad Sobernheim, the International Summer Academy for Chamber Music in Lower Saxony, the Szczecin Classic Festival and the Allegra Festival in Sofia.


With the same line-up since its foundation 30 years ago, the Fauré Quartett is one of the most successful chamber music ensembles internationally. The ‘Quartet in Residence’ at the Karlsruhe music conservertoire is booked for tours and festivals all over the world and makes guest appearances at venues including the Musikverein in Vienna, Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Alte Oper
in Frankfurt, the Kölner Philharmonie, the Conservatorio G. Verdi in Milan, the Palau de la Música in Barcelona, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Toppan Hall in Tokyo and the Frick Collection in New York.

Recordings have been released by Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft (Mozart / Brahms / Mendelssohn / pop songs / Pocket Symphonies), by SONY (Strauss and Mahler) and by Berlin Classics (Mussorgsky and Rachmaninoff / Fauré / After Hours). Among the more than two dozen prizes and awards received by the Fauré Quartet are the Brahms Prize, the Rhineland-Palatinate Art Prize, the German Record Critics’ Prize, two ECHO Klassik awards and, most recently, three awards for the best foreign chamber music ensemble from the Argentine Music Critics’ Association.  

Konstantin Heidrich is Artistic Director of crescendo – the music festival of the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK Berlin).

The German-Japanese cellist Danjulo Ishizaka attracted attention at a young age by winning numerous international competitions, including first prizes at the international Gaspar Cassado competition 1998, the international Lutoslawski competition 1999, the renowned international ARD competition in Munich in 2001 as well as the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann in Berlin 2002 including the Reger special prize.

The cellist's earlier concerts took him to the Berlin Philharmonic at the age of 17. He finally made his debut at the Musikverein in Vienna in 2003, at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo in 2004, at the Carnegie Hall in New York in 2006, at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2008 and at the Royal Festival Hall in London in 2010.

He studied at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin from 1998 until 2004 with Boris Pergamenschikow followed by studies with Tabea Zimmermann from 2004 to 2006. In addition, he has been profoundly influenced by Bernhard Greenhouse, Michael Denhoff, György Kurtág, Menahem Pressler and the Amadeus-Quartet.

Mstislav Rostropovich supported Danjulo Ishizaka in the last phase of his life by repeatedly inviting him to concerts under his direction and giving him lessons in personal consultations - Danjulo Ishizaka is probably one of the last to receive lessons directly from him.

In 2007-2008 Danjulo Ishizaka was selected for BBC Radio 3's New Generation Artists scheme, which included numerous radio productions solo, with piano, with the five BBC symphony orchestras as well as a debut recital at Wigmore Hall London and with the BBC Proms, the largest classical music festival in London.

His debut CD album with Sony BMG recorded with pianist Martin Helmchen was awarded with the “Echo Klassik” award of the German Phonographic Academy in 2006. In 2012 Danjulo was honored with the Hideo Saito Memorial Fund Award, one of Japan’s biggest music awards, presented by the Sony Music Foundation. In 2014, he was awarded the Gramophone Award for the Chamber Music Recording of the Year.

His international concert schedule regularly takes him throughout Europe, Asia and the US. He has been performing around the world with artists including Gidon Kremer, Lisa Batiashvili, Tabea Zimmermann, Julia Fischer, Ray Chen, Nils Mönkemeyer and Vadim Repin and with leading orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Opera National de Paris and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, to mention a few.

Among others, he performed under the baton of such famous conductors as Sir Andrew Davis, Christoph Eschenbach, Lawrence Foster, Michail und Vladimir Jurowski, Sir Roger Norrington, Michael Sanderling, Mstislaw Rostropovich and Leonard Slatkin.

Danjulo is regularly invited to perform at renowned music festivals such as the Cellofestival in Kronberg, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Rheingau Musik Festival, the Kissinger Sommer, the BBC Proms, the Verbier Festival, the Luzern Festival, the Hong Kong Arts Festival and the Salzburg Easter Festival.

Danjulo Ishizaka is an official Larsen Artist, Professor of Violoncello at the City of Basel Academy of Music and the Berlin University of the Arts (UDK Berlin). He plays on a cello jointly handcrafted by Domenico Montagnana and Giovanni Battista Rogeri.