Endri Nini
a widely acclaimed artist both as a soloist and chamber musician, has won many awards in competitions such as the International piano competition of Ile de-France in Paris, the Premio Trio di Trieste, and the Kiejstut Bacewicz International Chamber Music Competition in Łódź. Born in Albania, Nini studied with Sontraud Speidel, Kevin Kenner, and Bernd Goetzke. In addition, he received important musical inspiration from Stephen Kovacevich, Aldo Ciccolini, and András Schiff. He went on to complete his chamber music training in Hanover with Markus Becker and Oliver Wille.

As a chamber musician, he has performed with leading musicians such as Albrecht Mayer, Sabine Meyer, Daniel Rowland, Gustav Rivinius, Elsbeth Moser, and Wolfgang Güttler. From 2012 to 2018, Nini was a founding member of the Flex Ensemble, with which he won several awards in prestigious international chamber music competitions, such as the first prize at the international Robert Schumann chamber music competition in Frankfurt and the first prize at the Gianni Bergamo Classic Music Award in Lugano.

In addition to two CD albums with the Flex Ensemble, The Arrival of Night and Au Suivant!, he has also released broadcast recordings for SWR, NDR, and Radio 4 Amsterdam. As a soloist he has performed with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra, Albanian Radio Television Symphony Orchestra, Karlsruhe Chamber Orchestra, and Tirana Chamber Orchestra.

He has also appeared in numerous concert halls such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Alte Oper Frankfurt, National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, and Meistersingerhalle Nuremberg as well as at the Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker, Heidelberger Frühling, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Annecy Festival, Prussia Cove, Goslar International Music Festival, and PODIUM Festival Esslingen.

Endri Nini teaches chamber music at the music universities in Rostock and Weimar and is artistic director of the Himara International Music Festival.

Fiederike Starkloff
With her multifaceted and virtuoso violin playing, Friederike Starkloff is known as one of the most interesting musicians of her generation. Born in Chemnitz in 1990, she received violin lessons at the age of five from Wolfgang Marschner and Ariane Mathäus at the Pflüger Foundation in Freiburg. She later studied with Rainer Kussmaul in Freiburg and with Antje Weithaas at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin, where she taught as her assistant from 2017 to 2022.

Friederike Starkloff has won prizes at numerous internationally renowned competitions, including the seventh Leopold Mozart International Violin Competition in Augsburg, where she was awarded second place in 2009. This laid the foundation for her debut CD album with José Gallardo featuring Mozart’s Violin Sonatas.

In 2010 she won third prize at the VII. International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition Leipzig, in 2014 third prize (the Jacques Thibaud Grand Prize) at the Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition in Paris, and in 2015 third prize at the Jean Sibelius Competition in Helsinki. Her second CD recording of violin duos featuring works by Eugène Ysaÿe and Wolfgang Marschner followed in 2017 with violinist Myvanwy Ella Penny as her duo partner.

At the age of twenty-four, Friederike Starkloff was the youngest concertmaster of a German radio orchestra when she was appointed First Concertmaster of the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover. Since the 23/24 season she has served as First Concertmaster of the Sinfonieorchester Basel. In addition, she appears as a sought-after soloist and can be heard as a frequent chamber music performer with Markus Becker, Jan Vogler, Leonid Gorokhov, Daniel Schnyder, and Gerrit Zitterbart in numerous concerts and productions. Friederike Starkloff plays a violin by Meike Finckh from 2021.