CONTACT

Lea Gabriela Heinzer was born in Zurich. Her most important teachers were Martin Sigrist, Rudolf Koelman, Michel Rouilly and the Carmina Quartet. She studied at the Zurich University of the Arts and received the teaching diploma (violin), the orchestra diploma with distinction (viola) and the ensemble diploma with the Estarellas Quartet (formerly García Abril Quartet). She has been awarded various scholarships, including from the Kiefer Hablitzel and Bruno Schuler Foundations. She has also attended master classes and chamber music courses, including with Boris Belkin, Denes Zsigmondy, Diemut Poppen, Vassily Lobanov, Dmitry Ferschtman and with the Estarellas Quartet at the Orpheus Quartet, with Antón García Abril, Nora Chastain and the Carmina Quartet.

She has performed as a soloist with orchestras, given recitals and chamber music concerts in various formations at home and abroad. She was a member of the Winterthur Piano Trio, with whom she made CD recordings with works by the Swiss composer Josef Peter Heinzer, and played chamber music with well-known musicians such as Raphael Wallfisch, Ulrich Koella, Rudolf Koelman, Michel Rouilly, Walter Grimmer, Hans-Jürg Strub and Stefan Goerner at renowned music festivals.

Since its founding in 2004, Lea Gabriela Heinzer has been a member of the Estarellas Quartet, with which she has been invited to concerts both in Switzerland and abroad, as well as to national and international festivals, and is a prizewinner of the ORPHEUS Swiss Chambers Music Competition and the Migros Culture Percentage Chamber Music Competition. With the quartet, she has premiered works by composers such as Gabriel Estarellas, R. Maldonado, R. Coinel, M. Porten, J. Hagen, J. P. Heinzer and all works for string quartet, piano quintet and voice & string quartet by Antón García Abril. As a member of the Estarellas Quartet, she is also active in teaching and supports the Thurgau Youth Orchestra, where she leads the viola group's register rehearsals.

Since 2004, Lea Gabriela Heinzer has been a permanent member of the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra and an accredited newcomer to the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra. She has also been teaching a viola class at the Kreuzlingen Music School since 2025.

Johannes Herzog received his first cello lessons at the age of 5. He completed the Thurgau gifted program and preparatory studies at the Winterthur Conservatory with Emanuel Rütsche. He completed his bachelor's and master's studies with Prof. Martina Schucan at the Zurich University of the Arts. In summer 2019, he completed his Master of Arts at the ZHdK with distinction.

He is co-founder of the Thurgau-based string collective (chamber orchestra) Camerata Aperta and is the solo cellist of the chamber orchestra of the Schaffhausen Music College as well as the Swiss Symphony Orchestra under Annedore Neufeld. In addition to the modern cello repertoire, he also plays with enthusiasm on the baroque cello (gut strings) in old tuning, with which he performs with the Schaffhausen Baroque Ensemble, among others. In the 24/25 season he will take over the lead role in the Wil Symphony Orchestra under Hugo Bollschweiler.

He is very concerned with promoting youth and bringing people of all ages to music and the cello as an instrument. He teaches two cello classes at the St. Gallen Music School and the Fürstenland Music School (Gossau SG).

Born in Palma de Mallorca, the violinist and orchestra conductor Gabriel Estarellas Pascual has performed during his violin career as a soloist with orchestras, guest concertmaster, recitals and chamber music concerts with different ensembles in Europe and the United States. In 2002 he traveled to Switzerland to continue his studies and in 2004 he founded the string quartet Estarellas Quartett, in which he is still the first violin. In 2007 he won the important Swiss competitions: ORPHEUS Swiss Chamber Music Competition and Kammermusikwettbewerb des Migros- Kulturprozent.

Gabriel Estarellas Pascual has conducted important orchestral ensembles such as the Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen (Switzerland), Polish Philharmonic Symphony Baltic (Poland), Rousse Philharmonic Orchestra (Bulgaria), Camerata Antonio Soler (Spain), among others. In 2008, he was appointed principal conductor and artistic director of the Jugendorchester Thurgau and in 2014 of the Orchesterverein Zürich in Switzerland. Thanks to his outstanding pedagogical and artistic activity together with the Jugendorchester Thurgau, he was awarded in 2013 with the Culture Prize of Sponsorship of Thurgau and in 2016 he was honored with the Culture Prize of the city of Amriswil.

Throughout his musical career as a violinist and conductor he has been invited to numerous international festivals and concert series and has performed in prestigious halls such as: Auditorio Nacional de España (Madrid), Salle Cortot in Paris, etc. He has also shared the stage with renowned musicians such as: Isabel Rey, Kurt Meier, Chiara Enderle, Ilker Arcayürek, Thomas Grossenbacher, etc.

Gabriel Estarellas Pascual studied music at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid and at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (Switzerland) with professors Victor Martín, Rudolf Koelman and the Carmina Quartett, being given the Superior Title of Violin and Master of Chamber Music in the specialization of String Quartet. After his instrumental apprenticeship, he began postgraduate studies in the specialty of Orchestra Conductor at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, achieving the Diploma in Orchestral Conducting with Highest Honors, and is regularly invited to international conducting courses by Prof. Jorma Panula, Prof. Atso Almila, etc.

Saskia Guler-van Ooijen grew up in Gachnang TG. She is married and the mother of an adult daughter.

After finishing school at the Frauenfeld Cantonal School, she entered professional life. Various positions ultimately led her into the accounting department of various companies. She rounded off her knowledge with training as a finance and accounting specialist with a federal professional certificate, which she successfully completed in 2021. Today she works for two companies in her home office and is responsible for finance and HR.

She discovered her passion for music at an early age and received her first recorder lessons at school. She tried out various instruments but remained loyal to the recorder family. Today she performs as a soloist and leads the Gachnang recorder group, which was founded by her father over 40 years ago.

Susanna Fröhlich-Baumann grew up in Mauren TG and attended the teacher training college in Kreuzlingen after compulsory schooling. After working as a primary school teacher in Zurich for a year, she studied violin with Andrej Lütschg at the Zurich Conservatory. Since graduating in 1992, she has worked with great joy and commitment as a violin teacher and ensemble leader, in Bischofszell until 2013 and at the Amriswil Youth Music School for more than 30 years. She has also had a teaching position at the Thurgau University of Teacher Education since 2006.

She plays in various orchestral and chamber music formations and has been a permanent member of Stradi's Orchestra since 1999.

Susanna Fröhlich-Baumann is a mother of five children and lives with her family in Leimbach TG.

Since 2021 she has been a parents' representative on the board of the Thurgau Youth Orchestra JOTG. It is very important to her to promote and support children and young people making music together.

Benjamin Bär (*1996) grew up in Eastern Switzerland and received his first trumpet lessons from Christoph Luchsinger in Amriswil. During his time at the Kreuzlingen Pedagogical Maturity School (PMS), he completed the school's art and sports program, through which he enjoyed lessons with André Meier at the Winterthur Conservatory, where he also attended the preparatory course. Benjamin spent most of his time studying in Zurich, where he studied his Bachelor of Arts and Master's in Music Education with a major in trumpet under Laurent Tinguely at the Zurich University of the Arts. During these 5 years, Benjamin studied jazz trumpet with Daniel Schenker, piccolo trumpet with Frits Damrow and baroque trumpet with Simon Lilly as a minor. He then studied the Master of Music Performance at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in the trumpet class of Immanuel Richter and Huw Morgan, which he successfully completed in summer 2023.
He received further musical inspiration from Prof. Malte Burba, Sergei Nakariakov, Matthias Höfs, David Bilger, Patrick Henrichs and Marco Pierobon, among others.

Benjamin gained his first orchestral experience in the Winterthur Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Thurgau Youth Orchestra. With the Winterthur Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Zurich Orchestra Association, he has performed as a soloist in Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Slovenia.

Benjamin is currently teaching trumpet and cornet at the Kreuzlingen Pedagogical Maturity School, the Kreuzlingen Cantonal School, the Thurgau University of Education, the Kreuzlingen Music School and the Waldkirch-Bernhardzell Music School. At the Kreuzlingen Pedagogical Maturity School, he also works as a supervisor for the musicians in the art and sports classes. Since November 2023 he has been playing in the Swiss Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Annedore Neufeld.

Freelance musician and music teacher

Benjamin Bär works as a trumpet teacher and freelance musician. His studies took him to Zurich and Lucerne.

benj.baer@bluewin.ch
+41 79 674 66 80

Daniel Hofer grew up in Kreuzlingen and Tägerwilen and attended the Kreuzlingen Cantonal School.

He first learned the violin and, thanks to and since joining the Oberthurgau Youth Orchestra with Martin Sigrist and Gabriel Estarellas, who sparked his enthusiasm for orchestral playing, he has fortunately even played the viola. Between 2006 and 2019 he was a member of the Thurgau Youth Orchestra with great joy and was able to experience wonderful tours to Tuscany, Alicante and Neubrandenburg. In between and since then he played in various other orchestras and is now a member of the Niederamt Symphony Orchestra.

Daniel Hofer studied civil engineering at ETH Zurich and works as a civil engineer at Rothpletz, Lienhard + Cie AG in Olten.

He is a member of the board of the Thurgau Youth Orchestra and is very happy when many more young people can make music together with dedication in the JOT, discover the beauty of classical music and have a wonderful time together.

Niklaus Moderlak received his first cello lessons at the age of five. As the son of a family of professional musicians, he was enthusiastic about making music together in an ensemble, string orchestra, and later in a symphony orchestra from the beginning. He has been a member of the Thurgau Youth Orchestra since 2019 and has been a youth representative in the orchestra since 2023. He is also a member of the MCS Schaffhausen Chamber Orchestra and regularly performs with other formations from the region.
Niklaus Moderlak is a student for secondary level 1 at the PH Zurich.

At the age of four, Valérie Weidmann discovered her love of music and especially the violin, which she has been taught by various music teachers for 21 years. She pursues the passion that has grown during this time in various formations. For 15 years, she has been a committed member of the Thurgau Youth Orchestra, where she has held the position of concertmaster for several years. She also finds great enthusiasm in chamber music, be it in duo, trio or quartet formations. Valérie Weidmann successfully completed her apprenticeship as a childcare specialist in the summer of 2019 and now runs a daycare center in Kreuzlingen.