Strings of Hope Chamber Music Mentoring Program 2023 – Jury

Adele Bitter was a student at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main. She obtained her Concert Exam with distinction from Josef Schwab at the Hanns Eisler University of Music in Berlin.
She completed additional studies with Lee Fiser (LaSalle Quartet) in Cincinnati / USA and received the diploma of the Markneukirchen International Music Competition. As a member of the ›Ensemble Modern‹, she worked among others at the renowned festivals of Edinburgh and Lucerne.
She was also a member of the Orchestra Academy of the State Opera Unter den Linden Berlin and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. Since 2001 Adele Bitter has been the auditor in the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin. She played solo concerts with the Berliner Sinfoniker, the orchestra of the Mainz State Theater and the Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe.
Adele Bitter is involved in Early Music as a Continuo specialist, among others with Ton Koopman. She recently completed her additional studies in historical performance practice / Baroque violoncello at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Christophe Coin. She founded the Adamello Quartet with members of the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin to express her love for Chamber Music.

Zeina Saleh Kayali is the author of ten books on music in Lebanon. She is the founder and director of the collection "Figures musicales du Liban" published by Geuthner (Paris). She is also co-founder of the Lebanese Musical Heritage Center (CPML) at the ND College of Jamhour (Lebanon), of the "Musicales du Liban" festival in Paris and of "Beit Tabaris", a musical residence in Beirut which hosts masterclasses for the benefit of young Lebanese musicians. She is also a music columnist for l'Orient le Jour and l'Agenda culturel.

Clemens Linder, born in Vorarlberg, studied with Maria Kikel, Klara Flieder and Ernst Kovacic in Vienna. In 1991 he won the first prize in the national competition Jugend musiziert, in 1994 the sponsorship prize of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and in 2000 he received the honorary award from the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. He has performed in solo and chamber music programs with musicians such as Ernst Kovacic, Thomas Larcher, Valentin Erben, Jörg Widmann and the Hartog Quartet. Since 2002 he has been a member of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin as a leader in the second violin section. In addition to his orchestral work, he has been a lecturer at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin since 2004.

Holger Groschopp studied piano with Georg Sava, composition with Isang Yun and song interpretation with Aribert Reimann and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. He received numerous awards, for example at the Brahms Competition in Hamburg. His concert activities have taken him as soloist and chamber musician to most European countries, to the Near and Far East as well as North and Central America. He has performed at important European festivals and has taken part in many premieres, including those of Hans-Werner Henze, Wolfgang Rihm and Aribert Reimann. Nine CDs with transcriptions and original works by Ferruccio Busoni and one CD with works by Isang Yun have been released by Capriccio and have achieved high international recognition.

Walid Moussallem is a Lebanese pianist and conductor. He has been a professor of philosophy at the Lebanese University since 1991. He served as president of the National Higher Conservatory of Music in Lebanon from 2014 to 2018 and from 2020 to 2022. He has been decorated with the title of Knight of Arts and Letters by the French State and Commander of the Order of Civil Merit of the King of Spain.

Born in Beirut. Conductor and Composer of mostly chamber works that have been performed in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. At Yerevan State Conservatory, he studied Composition with Ashautte Zohrabian from 2001 – 2006 and Symphonic & Opera Conducting with Aram Gharabekyan from 2003 – 2007 and earned a Master’s Degree in both professions.
His Honors include Third Prize in Lazarus Saryan Composition Competition in Yerevan 2004, for “Three Kuchak Hayren”. He received the First & Grand Prize Winner of 14th Danube International Conducting Masterclass and Competition in Budapest – Hungary in 2018.

Throughout 2022 – 2023 Avessian conducted the premiere of First Lebanese Arabic Oratorio from “Supper to Resurrection” and appeared in concerts with various orchestras in Hungary, Romania, Armenia, Damascus and Sibiu.

Lebanese-Danish musicologist born in Beirut, 1957. Maître en conférences from Copenhagen University. He taught musicology and film music at the Kaslik University Lebanon. Held the position of Chairperson of Music Theory and History from (1990-2000), and Opera department (2000-2010) at the Lebanese National Higher Conservatory. Collaborated in many International Seminars and Colloquiums concerning modern composed music like the Lerchenborg Muiskdage in Denmark, or traditional music from Europe and Middle East within ECUME and MEDIMUSES projects of the EU . He has written many textbooks for various institutions. He is the author and editor of various music theory and history books of the Middle East. He is published in many musicology, ethno- musicology journals and is member of the board of an cultural journal linked to the Bahrain National Museum.

His primary concern besides research is music performances. In many Mediterranean and European cities, he has led many groups of prominent singers and musicians from Morocco, the Middle East and Greece in concerts. His input in music “rescuing” through research and study of the “folkloric” and the “classical” both old and new heritage of the Arab world, and his participation in European festivals of classical and modern art music, remain his primary concern.

Born in Lebanon in 1967.Known as a composer of symphonies and other large-scale works, Houtaf Khoury has written 6 symphonies and 17 concerti for various instruments, as well chamber, solo and vocal works. His second Symphony (Reminicenza) received its premiere and recording with the Prestigious Bamberger Bamberg Symphony Orchestra in 2012. The situation in his native country gave him the opportunity to work abroad which allowed him to be recognized as a musical voice, leading to excellent festivals, commissions and increasingly frequent performances in Europe, Asia and America.
In recent seasons, world premieres of specially commissioned works have taken place.
Houtaf Khoury's works have been performed in 55 countries. He studied composition in Ukraine with Prof. Yuri Ishenko at the National Music Academy of Ukraine in Kyiv – (1988-97), where he earned his MMus with distinction in 1993 and his PhD in 1997 with Prof. Ivan Kotlyarevsky. Houtaf Khoury is an Artist for the Labels “Grand Piano/Naxos”, Nimbus, Toccata classics as well Paladino records.