ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Culture Summit at the Scottish Parliament, Tahlia presented on ‘Culture and Education’ together with Andreas Schleicher, Director of Education at the OECD. Tahlia was also a speaker at the 2022 UK/Australia Cultural Leadership Dialogue, again at the Scottish Parliament.

In 2023, Tahlia takes on a new role at the London Symphony Orchestra’s ‘SoundHub’ program, where she mentors the collaboration between LSO musicians and over 70 emerging composers. In May 2023, Tahlia presented the KLASSIK underground ‘Wunderhorn Festival’ in Leipzig, in collaboration with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic. The Wunderhorn Festival is the subject of a documentary film to be released in late 2023. 2023 also sees KLASSIK underground’s return to the Illuminate Festival Adelaide after its widely acclaimed debut there in 2022.

Born in Sydney, Tahlia initially studied Law in Australia, completing her studies two years early and wining multiple university prizes. Tahlia also studied Law at Humboldt University in Berlin. Her academic work has been published in the Australian Journal of International Law and has been cited in publications and by institutions including the Chicago Journal of International Law, the Washington College of Law and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Tahlia speaks French, German and Mandarin.

Axel von Huene Cello

Axel von Huene grew up in Bavaria in the southern part of Germany. He started playing the cello at the age of seven. His professional training began with Prof. Helmar Stiehler in Munich, and ended with Prof. Gustav Rivinius in Saarbrücken. In between, he spent a year in Boston (USA) with Prof. Andrés Diaz at the New England Conservatory and a year in Sydney (Australia) with Prof. Uzi Wiesel. During his training he was promoted by the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation.

He started his orchestral career as Principal Cellist in the European Union Chamber Orchestra, and also in the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Daniel Harding. Since 2002 Axel von Huene has been a member of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. He is also Principal Cello in the Baroque ensemble ‘Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum’. Chamber music plays a big part in his artistic life. Together with Yun-Jin Cho and other colleagues of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, he takes part in the KLASSIK underground series, where they play chamber music concerts in an intimate club atmosphere together with artists like Anne-Sophie Mutter, Leif Ove Andsnes and Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider.

Axel von Huene enjoys teaching his students and when he finds time, working as a lecturer for several German youth orchestras. His latest musical adventure is the Gewandhaus ensemble, ‘Cellists of the Gewandhaus Orchestra’. Since their debut in 2015, the formation has played numerous concerts in Europe.

Artist Biographies

Burak Marlali

Double Bass

Burak Marlali was born in 1980 in Ankara, Turkey and started his studies at the Ankara State Conservatory with Tahir Sümer. He went on to study at the Royal Northern College of Music in England with Corin Long and Jiří Hudec where he obtained his bachelor and soloist diploma in 2004. Right after his studies, he won his first orchestral position in the Halle Orchestra in Manchester. He continued his studies with Božo Paradžik at the Musikhochschule Freiburg and participated from 2007–09 in the Akademie des Symphonieorchesters des Bayerischen Rundfunks. He won numerous prizes, including the Gustav Scheck Preis in Freiburg, Germany, the Eugene Cruft Prize for Double Bass of the Royal Northern College of Music, and prizes at the Brno Double Bass Competition, Czech Republic, the British Council’s Young Musician of the Year in Turkey (first prize), and the 47th Neerpelt European Music Festival in Belgium (first prize summa cum laude).

His chamber music partners are amongst Argerich, Barenboim, Uchida, Schiff and the Armida Quartett. He guest leads various orchestras, such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Bamberger Symphoniker, Münchner Philharmoniker, Deutsches

Sinfonieorchester, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, WDR Sinfonieorchester and worked with conductors such as Abbado, Barenboim, Berglund, Blomstedt, Boulez, Chailly, Davis, Dudamel, Eschenbach,

Harding, Gatti, Gilbert, Haitink, Mäkelä, Mehta, Muti, Nelsons, Nézet-Séguin, Jansons, Järvi, Pappano, Petrenko, Rattle, Salonen, Thielemann and Welser-Möst. In addition, he has played with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Dresden Staatskapelle and Concertgebouw Amsterdam. Additionally he was a member of Lucerne Festival Orchestra under Claudio Abbado. Burak Marlali is solo bassist with the Gewandhaus Orchestra. Previously he was solo bassist of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Staatskapelle Berlin. He taught at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam from 2020 until 2022 and from Wintersemester 2022–23

Burak Marlali is the new Professor at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden and from October 2022–23 also starting as the new Professor at the Universität der Kunst Berlin.

Artist Biographies

Edgar Hesske Clarinet

Edgar Hesske was born in 1986 in Wernigerode, Germany. In 2002 he became a pre-college student at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig, and from 2005 until 2012 he studied at this institution with Prof. Wolfgang Mäder and received his diploma with distinctions. Furthermore, he took part in masterclasses with Sabine Meyer, Charles Neidich, Jörg Widmann and Karl Leister. He regularly appears as a soloist with orchestras such as the Leipziger Sinfonieorchester, Akademisches Orchestra Leipzig among others.

As a chamber musician, Edgar has played at prestigious festivals like the Rheingau Festival and the Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival as well as at the Semperoper Dresden and the Stuttgarter Schloss. As a frequent guest in the KLASSIK underground series in Leipzig, he shared the stage with artists such as Nikolaj SzepsZnaider, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Omer Meir-Wellber.

Having a passion for teaching, he has given masterclasses at the Royal College and the Guildhall School of Music in London, and was a faculty member of the Norddeutsche Klarinettentage Bremen as well as at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig. In 2008 he joined the Orchestra of the Musikalische Komödie Leipzig as associate principal clarinetist, and in 2012 he was appointed Principal E-flat Clarinettist of the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig.

Axel Benoit Bassoon

The French bassoonist Axel Benoit, one of the most sought-after artists of his generation, has been Principal Bassoon at the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Leipzig since 2020. Before occupying his current position, Axel Benoit was, at 21 years old, Principal Bassoon of the Bern Symphony Orchestra (2013–16), and later on Principal Bassoon of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne (2016–20).

He has been regularly invited as Principal Bassoon in other prestigious orchestras such as the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Tonhalle-Orchestra Zürich, the Lucerne Festival Strings, the Zürich Opera House, the Kammerorchester Basel, the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, the Musikkollegium Winterthur, and the European Philharmonic of Switzerland.

Born in 1992, he started taking lessons of piano at the age of six and bassoon at the age of nine, with Professors Jean-Luc André and Hervé Issartel. After graduating from the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional du Grand Avignon (CRR) with distinction in both instruments, he was admitted to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon (CNSM) in the class of Professor Carlo Colombo in 2010. In 2012, he joined the Zürich Opera as academist. In the meantime, he obtained a soloist Masters degree at the University of Arts in Zürich (ZhdK) in the class of Giorgio Mandolesi.