Çisem Özkurt
Violin - Turkey
Çisem Özkurt began playing the violin at the age of 12 in Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory. She graduated from high school and bachelor degrees with high honors. She completed her masters with Gordan Nikolic and Goran Gribajcevic at the Codarts University of the Arts in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Çisem Özkurt played as a soloist in France, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Italy. She premiered a piece for violin and orchestra called “Vibes'' in February 2017 as a soloist, written by Jannum Kruidhof, in de Doelen Rotterdam. She produced sound track for the short movie called “Atilla” by Alkan Çöklü, which was selected for the NFF 2020 Debut Competition.
She gave countless solo, chamber music and orchestra concerts in different continents and got the chance to play in important stages such as Het Concertgebouw, North Sea Jazz Festival, Gergiev Festival, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Auditorium Santa Cecilia, Tivoli Vredenburg, De Kleine Komedie and many more.
Çisem Özkurt has been concertmaster of Uva – Orkest J. Pzn Sweelinck, Nescio Ensemble, and Codarts Symphony/String Orchestra and assistant concertmaster for the KonCon Symphony Orchestra for Gergiev Festival. She has been playing important crossover projects in genres such as jazz, pop, soul, hip-hop and world music.
Çisem Özkurt is currently freelancing with different ensembles in diverse music genres and works as a studio and concert violinist.
Ángela Moya
Violin - Spain
Ángela Moya started to play violin at the age of 8 in the Conservatory of Sevilla, her hometown, with the teacher Miriam Piñero. Later she continued learning in the Academy of Orchestral Studies “Barenboim-Said” with Axel Wilczok (Berliner Staatskapelle).
After getting the Diploma in the Conservatorio Superior of Sevilla with Lourdes Galache, she moved to The Netherlands to study Bachelor in Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht and Master in Fontys Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Tilburg with Chris Duindam (modern violin) and Antoinette Lohmann (baroque violin).
Ángela Moya took modern and baroque violin masterclasses with Professors like Kevork Mardirossian, Michael Thomas, Karin-Regina Florey, Kristoff Barati, Anton Barachovsky, Andrei Baranov, Jordi Jiménez, Hiro Kurosaki or Enrico Onofri.
She has played in many youth and professional orchestras in Spain and The Netherlands, among others the Orquesta Joven de Andalucía, Orquesta de Cámara Andaluza, Orquesta Ciudad de Almería, Orquesta Melkart, Archivo 415, Orquesta Almaclara, Concerto Barocco, Camerata Rotterdam, Nederlands Jeugd Orkest, Philharmonia Amsterdam, Het Promenade Orkest and Barokensemble Eik & Linde.
Within the field of chamber music, we can highlight her experience in Hombra String Quartet, with whom she won the First Prize of De Toonzaal Kamermuziekwedstrijd in 2014. From 2019 she plays in the jazz project Chamber9, who have recently published their first recording.
Ángela Moya currently works as violin teacher at the music schools Het Wilde Westen in Utrecht and De Kom Kunstencentrum in Nieuwegein, as well as a freelance performer. She plays a violin built in 2017 by Daniël Royé in Amsterdam.
Kardelen Buruk
Viola - Turkey
Kardelen Buruk began playing the violin at the age of 8, switching to viola at 12. She completed her Bachelor of Music at The Royal Conservatoire of the Netherlands in 2018 under Asdis Valdimorsdottir with a Minor in Education. In June of 2020 she completed her Master of Music with Mikhail Zemtsov and received 9,5/10 with a distinction for her professional attitude and perseverance.
She worked with illustrious artists such as Valery Gergiev, Jac van Steen, Nobuko Imai, Gilles Apap, Gilad Karni, Mikhail Kugel, Garth Knox and many more.
At the International Viola Congress 2018, she premiered her original musical theater production “Moonwalk” in Hofplein Theater, Rotterdam. With her viola duo Black Büyü she won the first prize at De Grote Kamermuziek Prijs 2019.
She was selected for the Global Leaders Program as one of the Cohort members in 2019, when she traveled extensively throughout Chile and Jamaica, working to increase access and the impact of music in disadvantaged communities. Kardelen Buruk founded an iniciative to present concerts for undeserved communities called Music Bridge and has been presenting concerts for the Turkish Community in Den Haag since May 2019.
Kardelen Buruk is currently freelancing with ensembles and orchestras in the Netherlands and abroad. She plays on a modern instrument made by Andrew Finnigan and Pia Klaembt and bow by Andreas Grütter on loan to her from NMF (National Musical Instruments Fund Foundation of the Netherlands).
Cèlia Torres Ruiz
Cello - Spain
Cèlia Torres began playing the cello at age 7 at the Conservatory of Badalona, with Ana Moreira. Afterwards, she studied in Barcelona with Michel Poulet, Quartet Casals (Superior School of Music of Catalonia - ESMUC) and with Amparo Lacruz (Liceu Conservatory, Barcelona).
She got her bachelor diploma at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (The Netherlands), where she studied with Michel Strauss and Jan-Ype Nota. She subsequently obtained a master's degree in music education according to the Kodály concept.
Cèlia Torres is a versatile musician who has played in numerous ensembles of classical and contemporary music, jazz, pop fusion and improvisation, having the chance to work with masters like Enrico Onofri (Orquestra de Cambra del Penedès) and recording several albums with renown musicians such as Lee Konitz (Quadrant Records).
She has played in concert halls and festivals all around the world, such as Palau de la Música and Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Spain; Het Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw (Cello Biennale 2018) in The Netherlands; Neukoellner Oper (With the new creation “go, ÆNEAS, go!”, awarded with the Berliner Opernpreis 2014) in Germany; Festival de Inverno of Campos do Jordão, in Brasil; Jazz in Albania International Festival, Albania; Aspendos and Aya Irini, Turkey, among many others.
Cèlia Torres is currently freelancing with different ensembles in The Netherlands and Spain and she is cello and chamber music teacher at the Strijkdomein in The Hague. She plays a cello built in 2021 by Paul Collins in Chadenac, France.
