Wenzel Fuchs actually wanted to become a ski racer, but then he broke his foot and couldn’t train any more. As a clarinettist in a wind ensemble, the Innsbruck native had the opportunity to play for an oboist from the Vienna Philharmonic who was on holiday in the area just then. “I played for him in my parents’ sports shop, and he said I should come to Vienna. So I went there,” Wenzel Fuchs recalls. The principal clarinet of the Berliner Philharmoniker studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, where he initially played as a substitute with the Vienna Philharmonic.

When her mother asked Marlene Ito if she’d like to learn the violin, the four-year-old girl had no idea what it was, but from her first lesson, she was delighted with the instrument. After studying at the conservatory in Sydney with Goetz Richter, in 2003 Marlene Ito went to Germany, where she continued her training at the Lübeck Musikhochschule as well as at the Universität der Künste in Berlin with Nora Chastain.

While still a student, she became a member of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Karajan Academy (2006-2008). She also attended numerous masterclasses, including those of Pinchas Zukerman, Zakhar Bron, Walter Levin and the Artemis Quartet. In addition, she gathered orchestral experience as an intern with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the NDR Symphony Orchestra of Hamburg, and deputized in ensembles such as Berlin’s Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and Cologne’s Gürzenich Orchestra.

Her first permanent engagement was in 2009, when she became first concertmaster of Berlin’s Komische Oper. In September 2011, she moved to the Berliner Philharmoniker. Since March 2020, Marlene Ito has been 1st principal of her violin section. She has appeared as a soloist with orchestras such as the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the National Radio Orchestra of Ireland, the Berliner Symphoniker, the Hamburger Symphoniker and the Kammerakademie Potsdam, with conductors including Lorin Maazel, Ivan Fischer, Michael Sanderling, Georg Fritzsch and Richard Gill. Marlene Ito is also an active chamber musician. Her chamber music colleagues include Andras Schiff, Tabea Zimmermann, and Vineta Sareika. She is a member of the Strings Faculty at the University of the Arts Berlin as Assistant to Nora Chastain.

Sébastian Jacot comes from a family of musicians and studied at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique de Genève under Jacques Zoon. He began his orchestral career in 2006 as assistant principal flute with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Further stations in his career included principal positions at the Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto, Japan, and with the Ensemble Contrechamps in Geneva before joining the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig in November 2015. Sébastian Jacot, a winner of several international competitions, including the ARD Music Competition, is also a keen chamber musician and performs as a soloist with orchestras such as the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève and the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra.

Sebastian Krunnies was only four when he had his first viola lessons. After studying music and medicine in Freiburg, he continued his music studies at the Salzburg Mozarteum and Berlin’s Hanns Eisler Musikhochschule. Before coming to the Berliner Philharmoniker, he gained his first orchestral experience in the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, the European Union Youth Orchestra and in the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie. Sebastian Krunnies is a member of the string trio Echnaton.

Albrecht Mayer took piano, recorder and singing lessons before he began playing the oboe at the age of ten. His teachers were Gerhard Scheuer, Georg Meerwein, Maurice Bourgue and Ingo Goritzki. While still in his teens, he was invited to work with various orchestras, among them the European Community Youth Orchestra. The recipient of several awards and grants, Mayer became principal oboe of the Bamberger Symphoniker in 1990,  joining the Berliner Philharmoniker two years later in the same position.

As a child, Matthew McDonald was actually interested in playing only jazz and rock music. His parents gave him an electric bass for Christmas – but only under the condition that he would also learn to play the double bass. Matthew quickly fell in love with the big instrument’s dark, mellow sound. In 1996, he began his studies with Max McBride at the Canberra School of Music, later continuing with Kees Boersma in Sydney, where he completed his bachelor’s (BMus) degree in 2000. From 2000 to 2001 he was a member of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Orchestra Academy, and then was immediately engaged as deputy principal bass of the Danish National Orchestra.

He relinquished that position in order to prepare for his concert exam with Esko Laine at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin. Engagements followed as principal bass with the Ensemble Modern (2003-06) and with Berlin’s Rundfunk Sinfonie Orchester and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester before he came to the Berliner Philharmoniker. As a chamber player, Matthew McDonald is a regular visitor to the Open Chamber Music seminar at Prussia Cove in Cornwall. He devotes his free time to his family, first and foremost; he also enjoys reading and going to the cinema.

Stefan Schweigert is principal bassoon of the Berliner Philharmoniker since 1985. The musician, who was born in Kaiserslautern, also appears as a soloist, was a member of the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin for twelve years and performed regularly with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He also appeared several times at Gidon Kremer’s Lockenhaus Festival and at Lars Vogt’s chamber music festival “Spannungen” at Kraftwerk Heimbach. In addition to his work with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Stefan Schweigert also performs with András Schiff’s ensemble Cappella Andrea Barca and Sabine Meyer’s wind ensemble.

He found his way to the bassoon more or less by chance: “Actually, I have my music teacher to thank for that, because he needed a bassoon for our school orchestra.” When Schweigert began his studies with Klaus Thunemann at the University of Music in Hanover, he was already a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Germany. He has taught at the Karajan Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker since 1987 and is also a professor at the University of Music in Freiburg. Stefan Schweigert gives master classes in Germany, Spain, Japan and the US: “It’s normal for us to give each other something that inspires us. No one can achieve anything on their own without inspiration.”

Bertold Stecher grew up in South Tyrol, a region with a strong tradition of brass music, to which he felt connected from an early age. The bright sound of the trumpet fascinated him in particular, and so Bertold Stecher began to learn this instrument at the age of ten. Early successes at prestigious competitions encouraged him to study music. He received his training at the Vorarlberger Landeskonservatorium under Lothar Hilbrand and at the Mozarteum University under Hans Gensch. As a member of a number of youth orchestras, Bertold Stecher discovered how much fun it is to play in a symphony orchestra, and he decided: “I want to do this forever!”

Franz Schindlbeck has been drumming since he was five. At twelve he began regular percussion instruction and studied from 1983 to 1988 with Hermann Gschwendtner at the Trossingen Musikhochschule. Before becoming a member of the Berliner Philharmoniker, he gathered his first orchestral experience as principal percussionist between 1988 and 1992 at the Mannheim Nationaltheater.

Schindlbeck loves jazz as well as classical music. While still a student, he was already playing in a number of bands and as drummer in the youth big band of Baden-Württemberg state. In 1999, together with Philharmoniker colleagues, he founded the Berlin Philharmonic Jazz Group. Since 1994 he has taught in the Philharmonic’s Orchestra Academy.

Jesper Busk Sørensen’s first instrument was the euphonium, but he decided to take up the trombone, because he loved its warm, opulent tone and because he was so taken with its versatility as one of the most powerful yet also mellowest instruments of the orchestra. He studied with Niels-Ole Bo Johansen, Rolf Sandmark and Jesper Juul at the Royal Music Academy in Århus.

His first professional engagement was in 2002 as second trombone – later becoming first – of the Århus Symfoniorkester. In addition, he undertook further training with Chicago Symphony Orchestra trombonist Michael Mulcahy at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. As a chamber player, Sørensen is a member of the Danske Basunkvartet (Danish Trombone Quartet), which has given the world premiere of several contemporary works. The musician, a member of Berlin Philharmonic Brass, enjoys travel and also a special interest in architecture and design.

A friend of his older sister played the cello. Knut Weber, then exactly five years old, was especially taken with the low strings and knew at once: »That’s my instrument!« He’d already been searching for a suitable one and, in any event, wanted to learn an instrument where you didn’t have to stand while playing. The cello seemed absolutely ideal. He received his first musical training from the Slovenian cellist Milos Mlejnik. Later he studied in Cologne with the Alban Berg Quartet and Claus Kanngiesser as well as in Berlin with Wolfgang Boettcher, passing his concert exam there in 2002 with distinction. Further significant encouragement came from Heinrich Schiff, Frans Helmerson, David Geringas, Siegfried Palm and the Beaux Arts Trio.

“The horn is for boys”, Sarah Willis’s schoolteacher told her, and so he suggested that she learn the flute or the oboe. That remark served as a challenge to the US-born Brit, who grew up in Tokyo, Boston, Moscow and London and had her first horn lessons at the age of 14. After studying for three years on the Performer’s Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, Sarah continued her training with Fergus McWilliam in Berlin.

From 1991 to 2001 she was a member of the Staatskapelle Berlin and in 2001 became the first female brass player to be accepted into the ranks of the Berlin Philharmonic. Sarah Willis has performed with other leading orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, London Symphony and the Sydney Symphony Orchestras and has appeared as a soloist all over the world. She has recorded various acclaimed albums, her most recent of which, Mozart y Mambo, is a fusion of classical and Cuban rhythms.

Sarah is involved in many of the Berlin Philharmonic education projects and especially enjoys creating and presenting Family Concerts. She also interviews conductors and soloists for the Digital Concert Hall. Sarah is passionate about music education and makes full use of digital technology and social media to reach audiences world- wide. She is also a regular broadcaster and interviewer on TV and online and fronts the classical music programme Sarah´s Music for Deutsche Welle TV. Sarah’s contributions to classical music were recognised at the highest level in the UK when she was made an MBE – Member of the Order of the British Empire – by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in the Queen’s 2021 Birthday Honours List for services to charity and for the promotion of classical music.

Learn more at sarah-willis.com