Rahel Maria Rilling | Violin
Rahel was born in Stuttgart into a family of musicians and received her first violin lessons at the age of four. Later she studied with Wolf-Dieter Streicher in Stuttgart, with Yair Kless in Tel Aviv, with Michael Mücke in Berlin and with Nora Chastain in Zurich/Winterthur. She was a principal in the NDR Symphony Orchestra (now the Elbphilharmonie Orchestra) in Hamburg for three years and plays regularly in orchestras such as the Bach Collegium Stuttgart, the Kammersymphonie Berlin, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Komische Oper Berlin.
She has performed as a soloist in Germany and abroad with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Elbphilharmonieorchester Hamburg, the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz and the Orquesta Sinfonica Simon Bolivar in Caracas/ Venezuela, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. She regularly gives master classes in Venezuela and is a frequent guest at various music festivals in the USA, South America, Europe and Asia.
Rahel's passion is chamber music. In 2006 she founded her own annual chamber music festival in Hohenstaufen and has performed with Simon Rattle, Magdalena Kozena, Jörg Widmann, Amihai Grosz, Daishin Kashimoto, Guy Braunstein and Jacques Ammon, among others. Together with her sister Sara Rilling and her husband David Adorján, she recorded the music of her Jewish great-grandfather Robert Kahn. Rahel is co-founder of the series "Prelude Concerts" in Berlin, dedicated to chamber music for and with children(s), and she is a coach for Iinternational Youth Orchestras. With the string quartet "Die Nixen" she plays her own arrangements of classical, jazz and pop music.
Mara Kochendörfer | Cello
Mara won numerous competitions such as Jugend Musiziert and performed as a soloist with various orchestras at an early age.
Mara completed her classical studies at the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar with Prof Marie-Luise Leihenseder-Ewald and Sebastian Keen and at the Conservatoire National Supérior de Musique in Lyon with Prof Yvan Chiffoleau and Patrick Gabard. She attended masterclasses with renowned cellists such as Michael Sanderling, Francis Gouton and Daniel Geiss. Mara also studied jazz improvisation at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz with Susanne Paul, Peter Herbert, Andreas Schreiber and Christoph Cech. She attended masterclasses for jazz cello with Stephan Braun and broadened her musical horizons with cellists such as Tina Guo and Yaniel Matos. Mara received her vocal training from Amy Leverenz and Maren Kips.
Mara has played in orchestras such as the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Hessisches Staatsorchester Wiesbaden and the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra. She also performs as a singer-songwriter cellist with her own songs. In addition to her musical activities, Mara is involved in social projects, for example as a coach for the GRAND JAM music project organised by Eintracht-Stadion Frankfurt and for the Celloorchester NRW in Heek.