The promising Thai cellist Ekachai Maskulrat received his first cello lessons at the age of 15. He soon received a scholarship from his middle school to study with the outstanding Thai cellist Apichai Liamthong. In 2001, Ekachai began his preliminary studies at Mahidol University. His teachers were Gudula Urban and Martin Grund. From 2005 to 2010, he received a full scholarship to study at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore, under Li-wie Qin and at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University under Amit Peled. In the summer of 2012, he successfully completed his Master of Arts in Specialized Musical Performance Soloist at the Basel Academy of Music under Thomas Demenga, followed in June 2017 by his second Master of Arts in Historical Performance Practice at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis under Christophe Coin and Petr Skalka. Ekachai has performed as a soloist with many orchestras, including Barrocade, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra, the Central Aichi Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Academy Basel, the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, and the Siam Philharmonic Orchestra. Ekachai is the founding cellist of various ensembles with a wide range of styles from early music to rock, such as Sonorità, Girandola Consort, Ensemble Quadrel, Van der Waals, and Cell of Hell, which have performed successfully throughout Europe and Asia. Since 2012, he has played regularly as solo cellist and tutti in the Basel Chamber Orchestra, the Gstaad Festival Orchestra, the Basel Festival Orchestra, the Basel Sinfonietta, the I Tempi Chamber Orchestra, the Geneva Camerata, and le Cercle de l'Harmonie.
Eva Saladin studied modern violin with Kees Koelmans and baroque violin with Lucy van Dael at the Amsterdam Conservatory, earning both a bachelor's and master's degree. She then studied baroque violin with Leila Schayegh and David Plantier at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, graduating with honors in 2013. She also studied historical improvisation intensively in Rudolf Lutz's class. Today she lives in Basel as a freelance musician. Her work consists of chamber music and orchestra projects as well as solo recitals with a repertoire ranging from early Baroque to early Romanticism. In addition to her work as director of the Ensemble Odyssee in Amsterdam, she is one of the concertmasters of La Cetra Barockorchester Basel (Andrea Marcon) and Gli Angeli Genève (Stephan MacLeod), and she regularly plays with ensembles such as Il Profondo (various repertoire and music theater productions), Profeti della Quinta, Ensemble Daimonion, Orchestra of the J.S. Bach Foundation St. Gallen, Il Gusto Barocco Capricornus Ensemble Stuttgart, and Ensemble Quadrel. She has performed in various international concert series and at festivals such as the Oude Muziek Festival Utrecht (Artist in Residence 2020/2021), Festtage Alte Musik Basel, Festival de Saintes, Barockfestspiele Bad Arolsen, Händelfestspiele Halle, Barockfestspiele Sanssouci, Thüringer Bachwochen, Festival de Verbier, York Early Music Festival, Internationaal Kamermuziekfestival Schiermonnikoog, La Follia Rougemont. She has recorded CDs for Resonando, Glossa, Panclassics, and BrilliantClassics, among others. She has given masterclasses at the Oude Muziek Festival Utrecht, PEMA Summercourses, and the Cologne University of Music and Dance, among others.
www.evasaladin.com
Katya Polin was born in Moscow in 1987 and immigrated to Israel in 1991. She began learning the recorder at the age of nine. She has also played the viola since the age of 14. Katya Polin graduated from Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts, the Giv'atayim Conservatory, and the Jerusalem Music Center. At the latter, she recorded various chamber orchestra productions for radio. In 1998, the musician received a scholarship from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation for both viola and recorder. At the age of 13, Katya Polin won first prize at the Maestro Competition. Other competitions she has successfully competed in include the Young Artist Competition, the Paul Ben-Haim Competition, the Jerusalem Music Academy Soloist Competition, the International Recorder Competition in Germany, and the First International Recorder Competition in Montreal. Katya Polin has performed at numerous festivals, including the Abu-Gosh Festival, the Kfar Blum Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Brezice Early Music Festival. As a soloist, she has worked with orchestras such as the Rudolstadt Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre du Conservatoire Paris, the Jerusalem Academy Chamber Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Katya Polin is a dedicated chamber musician. She is a member of the Ensemble Phoenix, the Israeli Contemporary Music String Quartet, Barrocade, the Israeli Bach Soloists, and the Basel Chamber Orchestra.
