ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

At 19 years old, in 2011, Axel Benoit won the 1st prize at the International Double Reed Society competition in Tempe (USA) and has since participated in many festivals such as Verbier and Zermatt, in the most famous international orchestras, such as the Verbier Festival Orchestra, the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and the Gustav Mahler Academy.

He regularly gives concerts in the most prestigious halls in the world, such as the Berliner Philharmonie, the Royal Albert Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie de Paris, the KKL in Lucerne under the direction of famous conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Andris Nelsons, Bernard Haitink and Valery Gergiev.

Axel Benoit is invited as soloist and professor at the most renowned international bassoon festivals in China, and gives recitals and masterclasses at prestigious high schools of music such as the international Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

He is a member of the ‘Ensemble Confoederatio’ wind quintet in Switzerland, the ‘Universal Bassoon Ensemble’ in China and leader of the ‘Assemblage’ bassoon quartet in Japan. Since 2021 he is Professor at the international Tibor Varga Academy in Sion (Switzerland) and gives masterclasses there every summer. From 2022, he started as mentor for the Mendelssohn Orchestra Academy in Leipzig.

Axel Benoit taught at the Escuola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo (ESMAE) in Porto (Portugal) from 2018–20, and regularly performs as soloist and professor abroad: Japan, China, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany, and France.

He is a Püchner artist and plays on a ‘Superior’ model instrument.

Artist Biographies

Simen Fegran Horn

German/Norwegian born horn player

Simen Fegran enjoys an active career as an orchestral and chamber musician. He was appointed second horn of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in 2019 with which he regularly performs at Europe’s leading music festivals as well as in Asia and North America.

Simen received his first horn lessons at the age of six with Johannes Theodor Wiemes. Parallel to his final years of public school, at age fifteen he was accepted in the Institute for the Early Advancement of the Musically Highly Gifted (IFF) at the University of Music in Hannover, where he was given advanced training in music theory and conducting, while receiving horn lessons with Markus Maskuniitty.

In 2011, Simen took up his studies with Michael Höltzel in Rostock and later continued under the guidance of Thomas Hauschild in Leipzig. He gathered early orchestral experience as a member of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and also held a temporary contract with the Hannover State Opera.

Being an enthusiastic chamber musician and looking to flex his creativity beyond the stage, Simen co-founded the Alma Mahler Kammerorchester in 2017, a chamber orchestra bringing together young professional musicians from all of Europe, where he remained a board member for three years.

Simen is a regular guest musician with some of Europe’s leading orchestras, including the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Artist Biographies

Australian National Academy of Music

‘ANAM is an extraordinary institution: intense, demanding, challenging and immensely rewarding to be involved with. The musicians are totally engaged and committed.’

– Simone Young AM, Conductor

The Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) is dedicated to training the most exceptional young classical musicians from Australia and New Zealand. It is the only professional performance training institute of its kind in Australia, and one of few in the world.

ANAM musicians fly between the stage and the studio; performing in over 180 events each year and receiving more than 60 hours of one-on-one training and hundreds of hours of coaching from an esteemed Faculty and impressive list of national and international guest artists. From taking meditation classes, singing Bach chorales, laying down a concerto, or building a buzz around their forthcoming gig, to learning how to work a scale, work a fugue, work a room, or work towards securing a vibrant future for classical music. They find themselves sitting crosslegged on the floor with a class of local third graders one day, to performing with the world’s finest artists on stages all across the country the next.

With an outstanding track record of success, ANAM alumni work in orchestras and chamber ensembles around the world, performing as soloists, contributing to educating the next generation of musicians, and winning major national and international awards.

ANAM aims to inspire these future music leaders and encourages audiences to share the experience.

Biographies of the ANAM musicians performing in this festival are available at ukaria.com/Gewandhaus-ANAM-2023