In every European country specialised music schools breed gifted young students with exceptional musical skills. The Young Talent School of the Royal Conservatoire The Hague is a Dutch example of such a school. A fully fledged academic curriculum can be combined with an intensive professional music course. Every year four young students from the Dutch secondary school are selected to prepare and perform a chamber music program with four youngsters from Konservatorium Winterthur. Preparations are coached by professional music teachers from both schools. Swiss performances take place in September in the Piz Amalia area. This mountain is named after the Dutch Princess of Orange. Two months later concerts are to be performed in The Hague and Amsterdam.

The 2021 ensemble consists of a string quartet with harp, completed by oboe, French horn and trumpet. The concert program for this combination of instruments consists of compositions form Swiss composers – Ernest Bloch, Paul Hindemith and Frank Martin – and Dutsch composers - Marius Flothuis, Oscar van Hemel, Andries de Braal en Otto Ketting. In addition works will be performed by the American composer Lorraine St. George Tucker, the French Marcelle Soulange and the German E.T.A Hoffmann. Music by Ludwig van Beethoven will be performed, of whom some people say he is to be born at Zutphen.

The final piece of the program is an assignment of the Piz Amalia Music Festival for Enrico Ferri, a young composer from Bergamo (Italy), who is nowadays studying in Tilburg with Anthony Fiumara

Konservatorium Winterthur
Valentin Lupp, trumpet - Zoë Hirst, violin / viola - Simone Kolb, violin / viola - Sophie Maria Ochsner, cello

School voor Jong Talent Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag
Else Marije Baas, violin / viola - Claire Schuurmans, harp - Leonardo Costa, oboe - Laima Minenko, horn

Anthony Zielhorst, artistic direction