Eva Saladin, Vera Schnider & Dirk Börner

Some of the most illustrious violin virtuosos were active in seventeenth-century Germany and Austria. While composers like Biber, Vialli and Westhoff juggled with variation techniques and exuberant ornamentation, performers added a golden edge with dazzling improvisations. Star violinist and festival favourite Eva Saladin seeks the interfaces between composition and fantasy, in music that cannot be captured in a single era.

Eva Saladin is a violinist. She studied with Kees Koelmans and Lucy van Dael at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and with Leila Schayegh and David Plantier at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, where in 2013 she was awarded her masters diploma in Baroque violin summa cum laude. Saladin studies and experiments with historical playing techniques and styles, as well as with ornamentation and improvisation. She leads Ensemble Odyssee, based in Amsterdam, and is co-leader of both the Baroque orchestra La Cetra in Basel and Gli Angeli Genève. She also performs with ensembles such as Il Profondo and Profeti della Quinta. In addition, she is involved with the collective Studio 31 which performs Early Baroque and contemporary repertoires. Saladin is artist in residence of the Utrecht Early Music Festival 2021.

After studying modern harp specialising in contemporary music, Vera Schnider immersed herself in historical performance practice at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. She works with orchestras such as the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, LaCetra Baroque Orchestra, Les Passions de L'âme, the Orchestra of Europe and Lucerne Symphony Orchestra. Her main focus is on chamber music repertoire in a variety of styles, with groups including Ensemble Proton Bern, Voces Suaves, La Morra, Café International, Collegium Novum Zurich, Ensemble Garage and ZARIN MOLL.

After studying piano at the Conservatoire National Régional in Strasbourg, Dirk Börner shifted his focus towards early music. At the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, he studied harpsichord and improvisation. He performs regularly with ensembles such as Stylus Phantasticus, The Rare Fruits Council and Aux Pieds du Roy. Together with recorder player Michael Form, he led a research project concerning the interaction between dance and music in French Baroque music. Dirk Börner teaches at the Hochschule der Künste Bern, Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon, and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.