The teachers in 2019
Unison Strings Festival is proud to announce this year's great teachers
VIOLINIST - DENMARK
Peter Clemson Steensgaard
Peter is born in 1990 and raised by danish/english parents (both professional violinists). He has been taking violin classes at Aarhus Music School since the age of 3 - his teachers were Jan Matthiesen and later Kristoffer Dolatko. In 2009 Peter started his studies at The Royal Danish Academy of Music, where he studied under Johannes Søe Hansen og Serguei Azizian. In 2011 he went on exchange at the North Western University in Chicago, to study under the acclaimed violin teachers, Roland and Almita Vamos. Peter Steensgaard has been playing on many occasions in both Denmark, England, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Ukraine, China, the Faroe Islands and the United States, performing as soloist, in chamber music ensembles and in orchestra. He has participated in various masterclasses under Henning Kraggerud, Joseph Swensen, Felix Ayo, Gerhard Schulz, Piotr Janowski, Milan Vietek og Emerson String Quartet. Peter is now teaching at Aarhus Music School, and occasionally playing at Aarhus Symphony Orchestra.
VIOLINIST - DENMARK
Søren Steensgaard
Søren Steensgaard has a degree from the Royal Academy of Music in Aalborg, where he graduated in 1987. His teachers were concert masters Gunnar Tagmose and Svend Børge Jensen. He took a higher education in London, where he studied under professor Bela Katona for two years, and in Copenhagen, where he studied under professor Milan Vitek, also for two years. Later, he took the Suzuki education under Tove Detrekøy, and is certified with all 5 levels. Besides, he has participated in various courses, like Colour Strings, Paul Rollands method and conductor courses. As a violinist, he has been playing in Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Randers Chamber Orchestra, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, South Denmark Philharmonic,
various theatres and churches. Since 1990, he has been working as a violin teacher at Aarhus Musikskole, where he also conducts a children's string orchestra. He has been teaching at many Suzuki camps in both Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and has been participating as one of the teachers at Unison Strings Festival in 2015 and 2016.
VIOLIST - ICELAND / GERMANY
Fidel Atli Quintero Gasparson
Fidel Atli Quintero Gasparsson was born in 1996 in Freiburg, Germany. Like many players of the viola, Fidel first learned the violin. He began his studies 7 years old at the Suzuki school of Reykjavik with Þórdís Stross and later Ari Vilhjálmsson at the Reykjavik College of Music, changing to the viola in 2014 and becoming a pupil of Þórunn Ósk Marinósdóttir. He currently studies in the Dresden Conservatory of Music. Fidel is a member of the chamber orchestra Elja and a substitute player in the Symphony Orchestra of Iceland and recently played with the Icelandic Opera. He plays a viola built by Hans Johannsson.
VIOLIST - GREENLAND / VENEZUELA
SOfia Carolina Hernandez
Sofia Carolina Hernandez is from Guatire, Venezuela, where she started playing viola in the El Sistema Nacional de Orquestas when she was 14. She continued studying the viola at "Conservatorio de Música Simón Bolívar de El Paraíso", and later studied music at Universidad Experimental de las Artes where she graduated from as candidate specialized in music teaching. Sofia came to Uummannaq in 2014 to work as a teacher and conductor in the music project at the Uummannaq Children's Home. She is using her training from El Sistema as a part of the children's treatment. Sofia and her string orchestra from Uummannaq, has been participating in Unison Strings Festival since the beginning.
CELLIST - THE FAROE ISLANDS
Tóri Restorff Jacobsen
Faroese cello player, Tóri Restorff Jacobsen, started playing cello at the Faroese School of Music. When he was 17 years old, Tóri moved to Iceand to study under Gunnar Kvaran at the Reykjavík College of Music. Tóri has a Master degree from the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music and a BA from Det Fynske Musikkonservatorium. He is currently living in Denmark, where he is studying under professor Niels Ullner at the Danish National Academy of Music in Odense, where he finishes in June 2017. Tóri enjoys teaching and has been teaching at Tónskóli Eddu Borg, Tónlistarskóli Kópavogs in Iceland. He is currently teaching at Hillerød Musikskole and at the Music School of Bornholm in Danmark, as well as the faroese music schools. Besides teaching, Tóri is very active in the faroese music scene, where he is playing in the Faroese National Symphony Orchestra, and can also be heard on recordings with: Týr (Land; 2008), Teitur (Story Music; 2014) and HEIÐRIK (An Invisible Gun; 2007), to name a few. This is the first time that Tóri is participating in Unison Strings Festival.
DOUBLE BASS - DENMARK
POUL ERIK JØRGENSEN
Poul Erik Jørgensen got accepted into the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus in 1978 and graduated with a diploma exam in 1984. Later, in 1986, he finished the higher education in music pedagogy. At the conservatory, Poul Erik studied under Jens Holm and Bent Grosen, both bass players in Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, and later his long time colleagues. He has been participating in courses/masterclasses with various bass players, such as: Rodney Slatford, Ludwig Streicher, Jorma Katrama, Knut Guettler, Frantisek Posta and Thomas Martin. Besides his classical career, he is an experienced jazz musician and has participated in masterclasses with danish jazz legend Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen. After graduating at the conservatory, Poul Erik joined Aalborg Symphony Orchestra until 1990, where he got a seat in Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, where he has been working since. Poul Erik has been a part of Unison Strings Festival since the beginning in 2015.
PIANIST - THE FAROE ISLANDS
Birgitte Schnakenburg
Birgitte Schnakenburg has her degree from The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen where she studied under professor Arne Skjold Rasmussen. Later on, she studied under professor Tatiana Nikolaewa (Moscow). In 2005, Birgitte got employed at the Faroese School of Music in Tórshavn as pianist/accompanist. Since then, she has played hundreds of concerts with students at the music school, MGK (basic course for young music talents), the annual Associated Board exams, MGK exams, admission tests at conservatories and contests including Berlingske, Gade, Øresundssolist and Stella Polaris. Birgitte has in addition to her work at the music school, also been collaborating with colleagues from the Faroe Islands - Monika Stauss Joensen, violin and Ken Jones, trompet - among others, and both have recorded two CD's where Birgitte can be heard. Birgitte has also recorded a solo album with music composed by the danish-faroese composer, Kristian Blak. In the past few years, Birgitte has collaborated with the flutist, Toke Lund Christiansen. With Toke, as well as Monika and Ken, she has played music specially composed for them. Birgitte has been touring in both Denmark, London, New York, Arizona - and earlier this year in Nuuk with Ken Jones, where they were playing concerts as well as teaching.
PIANIST - DENMARK
Annemarie Kier Jørgensen
As a child, Annemarie Kier Jørgensen received piano lessons at the then-called Aarhus Folkemusikskole (now Aarhus Music School). Here she studied piano under Tove Stork and ear training by the Aarhus-legend Jette Tikjøb. In 1964 she got accepted into the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, where she studied under Ellen Gilberg. Source of great inspiration in those years, was also the composer Jens Wilhelm Pedersen - better known as Fuzzy (danish film composer).
Besides piano, Rie took classical percussion classes, where she was taught by Bent Lyloff. The percussion classes led to a collaboration between Rie and five other students who started a percussion group, which was widely used by contemporary modern classical composers. The group performed works by various composers, like: Ole Buch and Timme Ørvad. Annemarie graduated in 1972. The same year, she was employed at Aarhus Music School (and various other music schools), where she has been teaching until the summer 2016. Throughout the years she has had many tasks as accompanist, partly in music school, partly in professional context as performing musician. In 1981 she released Jonathan's Boogie Woogie Book, which has since been used diligently as educational material by piano teachers all around Denmark. Rie has accompanied the students and teachers at Unison Strings Festival both in 2015 and 2016.