Niklas Balbon

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Hugo Moinet

Hugo Moinet was born in Royan, France, in 1992. After graduating from the Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Paris, where Annick Roussin was his teacher, he began studying with Julia Schröder at the Freiburg Music Academy, then moving on to the class of Heime Müller at the Lübeck Music Academy, where he completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He has been a member of the Orchestre Français des Jeunes, the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ensemble Resonanz, and of the Academy of the Staatskapelle Berlin.

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Yitong Guo

Yitong Guo was born in Lanzhou, China and raised in Beijing. He studied at the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music in New York, at the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin, and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He currently continues his concert degree studies at the Hamburg Academy of Music and Theatre. His teachers and mentors include Thomas Riebl, Pinchas Zukerman, Hartmut Rohde, Anna Kreetta, Patinka Kopec, Samuel Rhodes. Yitong Guo has won the first prize at the International Clara Schumann Competition, the second prize at the Hudson Valley String Competition, the fifth place at the International Max Rostal Competition and the Young Artist Award from Canada’s National Arts Centre. He has appeared at the Ravinia Festival and the Yellow Barn Festival and participated in the International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove and the Seiji Ozawa International Academy. Since 2020 he has been a member of the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra.

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Olivia Jeremias

Olivia Jeremias is one of the outstanding cellists of her generation. She began playing the instrument at the age of five. Taught by renowned cellists such as Peter Bruns, Colin Carr and Josephine Knight, she completed degrees at the Dresden Music Academy Carl Maria von Weber and at the Royal Academy of Music in London, both with honours. At the age of 20, she played the solo part in Dvořák’s Cello Concerto under the baton of Sir Colin Davis at Dresden’s Semper Opera, a performance also recorded for radio. She won international renown with a first prize at the Heran Competition in the Czech Republic and as a finalist in the Antonio Janigro Competition in Zagreb. In 2004 she received the Pierre Fournier Special Award. Olivia Jeremias appears regularly as a soloist with various orchestras, for example as the soloist in Tan Dun’s cello concerto “The Map” with the Essen Philharmonic. She has been invited to well-known festivals such as the Kilkenny Festival in Ireland, the Encuentro de Musica y Academia Festival in Santander, Spain, the Highgate Festival and Spitalfields Festival in London. In the summer 2004 she appeared at the Music at Menlo Festival in San Francisco, USA. In September 2005 Olivia Jeremias moved to Hamburg, where she holds the position of principal cellist of the Philharmonic State Orchestra.

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Katharina von Held

Katharina von Held has been a member of the double bass section of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra since 1997. She discovered her love for the double bass by way of jazz. She studied her instrument with Günther Klaus at the Frankfurt Academy of Music and Performing Arts; further teachers included Gary Karr, Klaus Stoll and Dieter Manderscheid. She began her career as associate principal double bass at the Mainz State Orchestra, followed by the orchestras of the Saarländischer Rundfunk and the Luxembourg Radio Symphony Orchestra. Her chamber music activities still speak of her love for jazz. Apart from purely classical formations such as the Frankfurt Double Bass Quartet, she appears with crossover ensembles such as The Philharmonic Clowns (together with the Philharmonic’s clarinettist Christian Seibold). For many years she has also been a pedagogue, holding positions at the Hamburg Academy of Music and Theatre and the Rostock Music Academy.

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Manuela Tyllack

Even as a child, Manuela Tyllack, who was born in Hamburg in 1968, loved the beautiful sound of the flute; at the age of ten she received her first lessons on the instrument. At 15 her teacher became Michael Bardeli, then a flutist in the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, who was a profound influence and awakened her wish to become an orchestra musician. A first prize at the “Jugend musiziert” competition and other awards paved the way for her studies with Karlheinz Zoeller at the Berlin University of the Arts, followed by a scholarship of the Karajan Academy from 1992 to 1994. During these two years, she was taught by Andreas Blau and was able to join concerts and tours of the Berlin Philharmonic in North America, Japan, Israel and Europe. In 1994 Manuela Tyllack was appointed to her first principal flute job in Lübeck, followed by the engagement as associate principal flute at the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra in 1996.

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Sevgi Özsever

Sevgi Özsever studied oboe and composition at the Istanbul Conservatory, the Hanns Eisler Music Academy and the University of the Arts in Berlin. She gathered her first orchestral experiences as a member of Jeunesses Musicales and the orchestra academy of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. She attended master courses with François Leleux and Albrecht Mayer and held scholarships from the Eczacibasi Cultural Foundation and the German Academic Exchange Service. Sevgi Özsever was a member of the academy of the Berlin State Opera, played principal English horn at the Stuttgart State Opera and has appeared as a soloist with the Istanbul Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. Since 2007 she has been associate principal oboe of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra.

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Christian Seibold

Christian Seibold was born in Waiblingen, Baden-Württemberg, in 1966. He enrolled as a junior student at the Munich Music Academy at the age of 17, studying with Gerd Starke from 1982 to 1989. After an engagement at the Frankfurt Opera, he joined the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra as an E-flat clarinettist in 1993. His orchestral activities have taken him to internationally renowned orchestras, such as the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic and the Gürzenich Orchestra, where he has performed under such conductors as Valery Gergiev, Giuseppe Sinopoli and Wolfgang Sawallisch. He also makes regular guest appearances at major opera houses, e.g. the Bavarian State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Cologne Opera, Essen Opera and Hanover State Opera. In addition to his orchestral work, he has long been an active piano accompanist. Alongside his love for opera and art song, he also has a passion for jazz. In 2005 he founded the “Philharmonic Clowns” together with Larry Elam (trumpet), and they can be heard regularly with popular jazz standards throughout Hamburg. Another important focus for Seibold is chamber music. He has performed with various ensembles at such events as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, in Hitzacker and the Waldhaus Concerts in Flims, Switzerland. The clarinettist also teaches at the Hamburg Conservatory and serves as a juror for the federal competition “Jugend musiziert”. He has coached the wind section of various youth orchestras, such as the Albert Schweitzer Youth Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Hamburg University, and teaches at various summer academies.

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Pierluigi Santucci

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Minju Kim

Minju Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea and has received bassoon lessons from when she was eleven years old. At the 73rd Prague Spring International Music Festival she won not only first place, but also five special awards. Additionally, she was the winner of the International Muri Competition, where she was also awarded the audience award.
Early on, she was awarded many first prices at prominent competitions in Korea, like for example the first price at the music competition of the newspaper Dong-a Ilbo, and the first price and the Head Mayor’s Award at the music competition of the TV-channel Busan MBC, amongst others.
Recently, she has played as a substitute with the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and the Zürcher Symphoniker. She was also able to expand her orchestral experience during her internship with the Bern Symphony Orchestra. Furthermore, she took part in the Gstaad Menuhin Festival as the leader of woodwind instruments of the Amateur-Project Orchestra.
For her Bachelor’s, Minju Kim studied at Seoul National University. After that, she completed her MA at Zurich University of the Arts, where she is currently studying with Matthias Rácz in the course MA Specialized Music Performance – Soloist.
Minju Kim has been a member of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra since the season of 2022/23.

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