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Anaïs Benoit was eight when she began studying piano and flute.
After a degree in musicology at the Sorbonne, she joined the CNSM in Paris and obtained the price “mention très bien ” (class of Pierre-Yves Artaud) three years later.
Member of the French Youth Orchestra in 2003 and 2004, she was from 2004 to 2006 second flute and piccolo at the National Orchestra of Belgium.
Since 2006, she is piccolo solo at Orchestre de Paris conducted by Christoph Eschenbach.
Since 2012, Anaïs Benoit has been professor of piccolo at the CRR in Boulogne Billancourt as well as at the Paris-Boulogne Center.
In parallel with the orchestra, she regularly performs as a soloist and chamber musician.
Anaïs Benoit plays a Burkart Elite piccolo.
Marta Rossi is Piccolo and Flute player at the Rome Opera House.
Former First Flute of the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana and Orchestra Regionale del Lazio, cooperated with many orchestras, such as Teatro Lirico di Cagliari and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
She regularly performs in recital or chamber music concerts as well as soloist (including the whole Vivaldi Concerts for Piccolo and the italian premiere of the Liebermann’s Concerto).
She is invited as guest piccolo player at international Festivals and as jury member at International Competitions.
Marta, born in Rome, gradueted with the highest honors at Music Conservatory “S.Cecilia”, studied with Mario Ancillotti, Angelo Persichilli, Nicola Mazzanti, Raimond Guiot (Premier Prix à l’unanimitè) and with Wolfgang Schulz in Vienna.
In 2006 she obtained the Bachelor of Arts from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” with highest honors.
She teaches Piccolo at the Accademia Italiana del Flauto in Rome and she is a member of the International Piccolo Flute Academy.
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The Tokyo-born piccolo and flute player Natalie Schwaabe grew up in Hong Kong. She started her musical training there and was a member of the Hong Kong Junior Academy of Performing Arts.
After completing her secondary education at the Purcell School in London, she obtained her artistic diploma with honours and a master degree whilst studying with Professor Paul Meisen at the “Hochschule für Musik und Theater” in Munich.
At the age of 21 she became principal flute of the Munich Symphony Orchestra and two years later joined the Munich Radio Orchestra. In 1996 she fulfilled a dream in becoming a member of the prestigious Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio.
In 1996 she received the special prize of the jury at the Prague Spring International Music Competition and was a prizewinner at the 1st International Carl Nielsen Flute Competition in 1998 in Odense, Denmark.
In addition to orchestral playing Natalie Schwaabe performs as a soloist, having been accompanied by the Nürnberger Symphoniker and the Stuttgarter Chamber Orchestra. A great joy for her is to play chamber music with her wind quintet and pianist Jan Philip Schulze.
She is a passionate teacher, giving many piccolo masterclasses worldwide and has the piccolo teaching position at the “Hochschule für Musik und Theater” in Munich. She plays a Jochen Mehnert piccolo and lives in Munich with her husband, the violinist and composer Winfried Grabe and their 3 children.
The American Flutist Thaddeus Watson, piccolist of many years with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, studied with Walfrid Kujala in Chicago, Aurèle Nicolet in Freiburg im Breisgau and James Galway in Luzern.
In addition he visited master classes with Marcel Moyse in Boswil.
Watson has been active as soloist and chamber musician with concerts throughout the world, and has been espescially active in music oft the avante-garde.
He has performed as soloist in the Zabgreb Triennial and the Budapest Spring festivals.
He is a member of the „World Orchestra for Peace“ (Sir Georg Solti founder – Valery Gergeiev conductor), the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, and as piccolist has a long year relationship with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. CD Recordings for Neos, Mode Records and Da Camera Magna.
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