Much to the delight of the ENSEMBLE ESPERANZA, the past few months have brought several prizes and awards for its members. At the announcement of the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) earlier this year, the expert jury named our bassoonist Matko Smolcic "Young Artist of the Year". Concertmaster Chouchane Siranossian received an ICMA award for her solo album "In Time - Mendelssohn Violin Concerto & Octet".

The former principal violist, Ting-Ru Lai, is currently attracting attention in an impressive manner. Since January of this year she plays for the renowned London Philharmonic Orchestra. Ting-Ru Lai was a member of ENSEMBLE ESPERANZA until the end of 2018, thus co-responsible for the ICMA-winning debut album "Nordic Suites" and the OPUS KLASSIK Prize for the follow-up album "Southern Tunes". We sincerely congratulate on this step into one of the most important orchestras worldwide and wish all the best!

A quick look back – The VP Bank Classic Festival in Bad Ragaz, Switzerland, held in February 2019 enjoyed a high number of visitors and attracted considerable interest from the international music press. The ENSEMBLE ESPERANZA took this opportunity and showed itself at its best during the performances at the festive opening and the final gala-concert. Bad Ragaz will always have a special meaning for our orchestra - as the success story started there in winter 2015.

Beginning of April this year, the Esperanzas Charlotte Spruit, Beata Antikainen and Jura Herceg embarked on a musical mission to the United States. As part of the Global Leadership Program, funded by the Ryuji Ueno Foundation, the young musicians traveled overseas for the purpose of an educational concert tour. In Washington, Liechtenstein's ambassador to the US, Kurt Jäger, gave the participants are warm welcome and enjoyed - together with numerous other music lovers - their first-class performances. A livestream gala concert on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center was the culmination of the program.