Ekaterina Vostrikova
Born in 1996 in Saint Petersburg, Russia and raised in Norway. She started her musical lessons with the piano at the age of 6, and when she was 14, she started to study the trumpet. In 2012 she was accepted in the pre-university program as a young student at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo where she studied with Professors Jan Fredrik Kristiansen, Anthony Plog and Jonas Haltia. In 2015 she went abroad from Norway to Germany and studied one year with Markus Klein in Stuttgart. In 2016 she was accepted for studies at the Folkwang University of Arts in Essen with Professor Laura Vukobratović with whom she finished her bachelor studies. Besides her studies of the modern trumpet, she also studied baroque trumpet with professor Hannes Rux. In addition to her studies, she participated in several international seminars and masterclasses with professors and performers Reinhold Friedrich, Fritz Damrow, Kristian Steenstrup, Klaus Schuhwerk and Timur Martynov.
Throughout her career, she held a position as 1st trumpet in the Baltic Sea Philharmonic. Additionally, she has collaborated with symphony orchestras, such as Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Dortmund Philharmoniker, Duisburg Philharmoniker, etc.
Kalliopi Rigou
Kalliopi Rigou was born in Athens in 2003. She begun violin lessons with Dimitris Semsis at the age of six. She acquired her diploma in June 2022 with unanimous distinction and the first prize, performing, among other pieces, in first pan-Hellenic run, Apostolos Darla's composition "Circe" (op.105).
A consistent presence in the Camerata Junior - Friends of Music Youth Orchestra from 2010 to 2021, Kalliopi actively contributed as a regular member and showcased her prowess as a soloist. To refine her craft, she participated in courses led by renowned musicians Thibault Vieux and Nicolas Dupont, and further honed her skills through masterclasses with Daniel Blumenthal and Ariadne Daskalakis.
Kalliopi holds an unanimously distinguished specialist’s degree in Harmony. As a piano graduate student under the guidance of D. Manzouratou at the Orfeo Conservatory, she concurrently engages in counterpoint lessons with V. Gravanis.
She is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in the Department of History and Archaeology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Greece (order of successful entry in the Department: 27th among 212).