Viola Days

The “Viola Days” are taking place for the first time from 15 to 19 October 2025. They were initiated by Prof. Diemut Poppen, Viola, Freiburg University of Music. Advanced students and young professionals are offered a wide range of workshops and masterclasses. 

Participation is free of charge.

Content

The aim is to raise the level of awareness for the most important subjects for violists and to overcome limits:

• Effective practising. “Practice Prize Poppen-Baer” of € 1.000.
• Awareness of mental and physical tensions, stagefright. Solutions are offered in special workshops.
• Posture. Workshops and individual lessons for a healthy posture with the viola (the viola is the heaviest instrument to carry).
• Technique. Workshops for left and right hands.
• Interpretation. Masterclasses.
• Audition Training. Individual lessons of orchestra excerpts.
• Fictive Audition behind a curtain. Participants collect experiences as well on stage as in the jury.
• Viola d’Amore. An introduction.
• Contemporary music. New works for Viola.
• Clark. Special seminar about Rebecca Clark.
• Chamber music and viola ensemble.
• Performance possibilities. Internal and public concerts.
• New violas and bows. Violin makers will be present at the University.

The registration deadline for the “Viola Days” has expired. If you have any questions, please contact Prof. Diemut Poppen directly.

Welcome to the »Viola Days« in the beautiful city of Freiburg im Breisgau !
Diemut Poppen

Contributors

Prof. Diemut Poppen → Artistic director
Master class, technical workshops
www.diemutpoppen.com

Héctor Cámara Ruiz → Assistance 

Prof. Stephanie Baer (New York)
Vinciane Béranger (Lausanne)
Cecilia Bercovich (Madrid)
Corinne Contardo  (Lyon)
Prof. Diemut Poppen (Freiburg)
Luca Sanzò (Rom)

Rostislav Krimer, Ryo Yamanishi, Joachim Kist, Chiara Opalio → Piano
Falk Peters, Gonzalo Piaretti → Violin maker
Norbert Seifert → Bow maker

Program

Wednesday, 15 Oktober 2025

4 p.m.  |  Foyer of Freiburg University of Music
Get Together!

5 to 7 p.m.  |  Foyer
Presentation by Norbert Seifert (bow maker) and Falk Peters (violin maker)

7 p.m.  |  Chamber Music Hall  |  Opening concert
Viola Plus
Diemut Poppen and friends

Thursday, 16 October 2025

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Public workshops, master classes, seminars, one-to-one lessons, Rehearsals

11 a.m.  |  Chamber Music Hall
Luciano Berio and the Viola (Luca Sanzo)

5 p.m.  |  Chamber Music Hall
Clark
Seminar
Prof. Vinciane Béranger presents her research results on Rebekka Clark and teaches participants of the “Viola Days” with Clark’s Viola Sonata and other works.

Friday, 17 October 2025

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Public workshops, master classes, seminars, one-to-one lessons

10:30 a.m.  |  Chamber Music Hall
Fictive Audition
In this event, the participants of the “Viola Days” re-enact a typical audition. They take on both roles: that of the musician playing behind the screens and that of the members of the judging panel. 
For visitors, the fictitious audition is a concert exclusively for the ears. 

5 p.m.  |  Chamber Music Hall
An Introduction to Viola D’Amore
Cecilia Bercovich

Saturday, 18 October 2025

10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Public workshops, master classes, seminars, one-to-one lessons

7 p.m.  |  Chamber Music Hall  |  Concert
Viola My Love
Cecilia Bercovich and participants of the Viola Days

Sunday, 19 October 2025

4 p.m.  |  Chamber Music Hall  |  Final concert
Viola Encore
With the award of the »Practice Prize Poppen-Baer«
Lecturers and and participants of the Viola Days

Biographies

Stephanie Baer 

Stephanie Baer, Director of the String Department, Professor of Viola, and Professor of Chamber Music at NYU, has been an active member of the New York music scene for many years. As an experienced chamber musician, she has undertaken extensive tours in Europe, Asia, and Africa. She is currently a member of the »Metamorphosis« Piano Quartet. Ms. Baer has toured in the United States as a member of the Arioso Ensemble, was the principal violist and chamber music soloist at the Carmel Bach Festival, where she performed on both the Baroque and modern viola, and has played at the Mostly Mozart, Monadnock, and White Mountains Festivals. Stephanie Baer was formerly a member of »New Music Today« and has appeared as a guest artist with The Group for Contemporary Music, the Steve Reich Ensemble, and »Meet the Moderns.« She has recorded with artists such as Philip Glass, John Adams, Steve Reich, and the Modern Jazz Quartet. Currently, Ms. Baer is the principal violist for the Broadway show »The Phantom of the Opera«, a member of the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, and the New York Chamber Symphony. She was the former principal violist of the New Jersey Symphony and has performed with Orpheus, the New York City Ballet, the New York City Opera, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and many other ensembles in the New York area. Ms. Baer has taught at the faculties of Bard College, Vassar College, and the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College. She holds a B.M. and M.M. from Mannes College of Music, as well as a diploma from the Academia Chigiana in Siena, Italy. She is also the recipient of the prestigious C.B. Jackson Master’s Award for Musical Excellence from the Berkshire Music Festival, Tanglewood. Her teachers include William Primrose, Dorothy DeLay, Michael Tree, Bruno Giuranna, Joyce Robbins, Karen Tuttle, and Karen Ritscher. She has led chamber music with members of the Juilliard and Guarneri Quartets as well as with Felix Galimir.
The seminar is aimed at artists preparing for auditions, as well as those who suffer from performance anxiety. Ms. Baer will address effective practice techniques and strategies for dealing with the psychological and physical aspects of stage fright. Participants should bring a well-prepared piece or excerpt they wish to perform.

Vinciane Béranger

The exceptional finesse of Vinciane Béranger's hypersensitive, ethereal, and always precise bowing technique… A significant contribution to the discography. (Répertoire)
Vinciane Béranger's years as a member of the Manfred Quartet and her intense activity as a chamber musician have led to invitations to perform on the world's leading stages. She is also a favored interpreter of contemporary composers.
Her latest recording, »Rebecca Clarke, Works for Viola,« has received highly positive reviews. Vinciane Béranger is conducting a research project on Rebecca Clarke's manuscripts, supported by HEMU.
As a sought-after teacher, Vinciane Béranger teaches at HEMU-Vaud and CRR Paris and is a regular lecturer at CNSMDP.
At the age of 16, Vinciane Béranger was admitted to CNSMDP, studied with Kim Kashkashian, and completed her studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
She has won prizes in competitions in Washington, Bucchi, Bern, and Illzach, as well as the Fondation Natexis.

Cecilia Bercovich

Born in Madrid, Cecilia Bercovich is a versatile musician who specializes in violin, viola, and viola d'amore. Throughout her dynamic musical career, she has performed as concertmaster and section leader under renowned conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Chailly, Matthias Pintscher, Heinz Holliger, and Krzysztof Penderecki – at prestigious festivals like Lucerne, Salzburg, and the Bayreuth Festival. Chamber music and improvisation are at the core of her artistic work; she has shared the stage with outstanding musicians such as Maria João Pires, Sabine Meyer, Cristina Montes, and Lucy Shelton.
As a dedicated advocate of contemporary music, she creates imaginative concert programs that often include world premieres and her own arrangements. Cecilia studied with Victor Bercovich and graduated with top honors from Musikene (Basque Country). She received further artistic input from prominent figures such as Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Ilya Grubert, and Nobuko Imai. Her recordings, which include both solo and chamber music works, have been released by labels such as Naxos, Deutsche Grammophon, and IBS. She is currently a full-time professor at the Conservatorio Superior de Música in Murcia and is heavily involved in educational orchestral projects. At the end of 2025, she will conduct »Don Gil de Alcalá« at the Teatro Villamarta in Jerez and perform works by Dieter Ammann at the Lucerne Festival. In addition to two upcoming recording projects, Cecilia plays with the Utopia Orchestra under Teodor Currentzis in halls such as the Berlin Philharmonie and the Megaron in Athens.

Corinne Contardo

Corinne Contardo was born in 1966 in Lyon. As the first generation of violists in France, she quickly distinguished herself with her skills, giving her first solo concert at the age of 13. During her studies at the conservatories of Lyon and Paris, she joined the Orchestre de l'Opéra de Lyon under the direction of Gardiner and later became a member of the Orchestre de Chambre d'Europe at the age of 19, with which she played for many years before becoming a violist in the Orchestre National de Lyon. She also studied with Yuri Bachmet and Karen Tuttle.
Her career has led her to collaborate with major artists such as Sandor Vegh, Sir Georg Solti, Sacha Schneider, Lorin Maazel, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Rostropovich, and Claudio Abbado, with whom she played for more than thirty years. At the same time, Corinne Contardo participated in numerous chamber music festivals and worked with musicians such as Gidon Kremer, Raphaël Oleg, Alexander Rabinowitz, Leonidas Kavakos, and many others, while also performing the major works of the repertoire as a soloist.
Passionately dedicated to pedagogy, she became an assistant at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Lyon at the age of 23 and later taught at the Detmold Hochschule für Musik and the Haute École de Musique de Sion. There, she worked with Diemut Poppen and held numerous masterclasses in Finland, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and France. With her specific approach to pedagogy, which includes both psychological and physical understanding of instrumental technique, she has successfully prepared her students for careers as professors, soloists, orchestral musicians, or chamber musicians in the largest orchestras and concert halls.
Corinne Contardo offers private lessons with a repertoire of your choice. She will primarily work on the well-being of playing the viola. This means carefully checking and optimizing posture, reducing tension, being aware of the whole body and breathing, working on the sensitivity of both hands, etc. She has many years of experience in this type of work with students and professional musicians, and violists love it.

Diemut Poppen

Diemut Poppen is one of the most outstanding violists of her generation. Born into a well-known musical family in Germany she started playing the violin at the age of seven and later studied in Düsseldorf, Aachen, Cologne, Berlin, Bloomington (USA) and Paris. Amongst her teachers were the finest violists of our time: Y. Bashmet, K. Kashkashian,
B. Giuranna, H. Schlichtig, P. Schidlof from theAmadeus-Quartet. Nowadays Diemut Poppen is one of the most sought after violists, she has been playing concerts worldwide. As a soloist and chamber musician she has appeared in the most important music centres around the world. Well-known musicians have invited Diemut Poppen to participate in their festivals – amongst others – C. Abbado, A. Schiff, G. Kremer, T. Mork, L.Kavakos, N. Gutman,
A. Chaushian. In Lisbon Diemut Poppen has appeared as a soloistwith the orchestras of the CCB, Gulbenkian, São Carlos and she has performed numerous chamber music concerts in all the important halls including Queluz, Sintra and Caiscais. She founded the festival Cantabile together with the Goethe Institut and is until today the artistic director.
Diemut Poppen performed as a soloist under the baton of conductors such as Heinz Holliger, Lorin Maazel and Claudio Abbado (debut Carnegie Hall, New York), in Lisbon she has premiered the viola concerto dedicated to her by Antonio Pinho Vargas with José Eduardo Gomes. She has been awarded the European Music Prize. Parallel to her concerts she persues a pedagogic career. Currently she holds professorships in Freiburg MH, Zurich zhdk and Madrid, Escuela de Musica Reina Sofia. The Spanish queen awarded her with the silver medal for music. Diemut Poppen was Artistic Director of several International chamber music festivals, currently besides Cantabile Festival Lisbon she is the director of Rigi Musiktage/Switzerland and Violadays Freiburg/ Germany.
Diemut Poppen was co-principal in Lucerne Festival Orchestra under the direction of Claudio Abbado and principal viola and a founding member of The Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Poppen’s repertory is exceptionally wide. It spans from the classical viola concertos to all combinations of chamber music as well as contemporary music. Several composers have written new pieces for her, solo as well as concertos, sonatas and chamber music. Diemut Poppen has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, BIS, Capriccio, Live classics, EMI, Tudor, Ondine, amongst others.

Luca Sanzò

Luca Sanzò, a student of Bruno Giuranna, has performed as a soloist and in collaboration with renowned musicians in many of the world's greatest concert halls. He is a permanent member of the group FREON, which specializes in 19th-century music, and a founding member of the Quartetto Michelangelo, with which he has toured Europe, North, and South America. He has been the principal violist/soloist in various opera, symphony, and chamber orchestras, such as the opera houses of Rome and Cagliari and the Concerto Italiano, with which he has explored the philological performance of Baroque music on original instruments, alongside some of the best instrumentalists in this field.
For Ricordi, he has published a revision of Campagnoli's »41 Caprices for Solo Viola« and is a professor of viola at the »Santa Cecilia« Conservatory in Rome. As a respected performer of contemporary music, he is particularly attentive to its production and dissemination. Many Italian composers have chosen him as their reference point and dedicated their compositions to him. Among his recordings is Goffredo Petrassi’s »VIOLASOLA.«  In 2004, he made his debut at the Staatsoper Forum Neues Musiktheater in Stuttgart as a soloist in Lucia Ronchetti's opera »Last Desire.« He has participated in various electroacoustic music festivals, such as Synthèse in Bourges (France) in 2006, EMUFEST (Rome 2008), and the MUSICACOUSTICA Festival (Beijing 2009), and recorded for Nuova Era, BMG Ricordi, Opus 111, Tactus, Edi Pan, Stradivarius, Naïve, Chandos, and Naxos. Luca Sanzò plays a viola by Igino Sderci from 1956 and a viola by Pietro Gaggini from 1977, which previously belonged to Luciano Vicari.

Rostislav Krimer

Rostislav Krimer is an outstanding musician and sought-after, dedicated musical partner. He regularly collaborates with other renowned musicians, either as a chamber music partner or as a soloist. He conducts the East-West Chamber Orchestra, which he founded, and regularly enriches the cultural landscape with extraordinary concert experiences. His long-time artistic partners include Gidon Kremer, Maxim Vengerov, Sergey Krylov, Viktor Tretyakov, Fazil Say, and Julian Rachlin. Additionally, he has worked with renowned orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Moscow Soloists, and Kremerata Baltica.

Ryo Yamanishi

Ryo Yamanishi, born in Japan, studied in his home country before moving to the Freiburg Music Academy to attend the masterclass of Gilead Mishory.
In 2019, he won first prize at the International Lake Constance Music Competition in Überlingen, and in 2022, he was awarded third prize at the »International Interpretation Competition of Banned Music« in Schwerin in the »Piano Solo« category. He is currently a full-time lecturer and repetiteur at the Freiburg Music Academy.

Joachim Kist

Joachim Kist began his musical education with studies in piano and church music at the Stuttgart Music Academy. He then deepened his knowledge in organ studies with Daniel Roth. He was appointed as a lecturer at the Stuttgart Music Academy and has been a full-time repetiteur for the string departments at the Freiburg University of Music since 1993. In addition, he is involved in numerous studio recordings and concert broadcasts for various radio stations. Joachim Kist has been awarded multiple times at international competitions, including the prestigious ARD Competition.

Chiara Opalio

Chiara Opalio was born in Vittorio Veneto (Italy) and began playing the piano at the age of three, giving her first performance a year later. She completed her studies at the Conservatorio di Musica Giuseppe Tartini in Trieste and continued them at the Accademia Pianistica »Incontri col Maestro« in Imola. In 2013, she finished her Master in Music Performance at the Basel Music Academy and is currently pursuing a Master in Solo Performance there with Claudio Martínez Mehner. Opalio is a prizewinner in several competitions, including first prize at the »Padova International Competition« in 2012 and second prize at the »Friuli Venezia Giulia International Piano Competition«.

Norbert Seifert

Norbert Seifert, bow and violin maker, has been crafting high-quality bows for violin, viola, and cello for decades. The focus is on individual consultation, finely tuned new creations, as well as professional hairing and repairs. Selected materials such as pernambuco wood and the finest horsehair are used. Whether modern playing bows or historical restorations, each piece is created with great dedication and technical finesse. An offering for musicians who value quality, sound, and craftsmanship.

Falk Peters

Falk Peters is part of the elite group of German violin makers. For his instruments, he draws on the sound research of physicist Heinrich Dünnwald, with whom he worked for several years. He is convinced that the qualities of the old Italian violins can be replicated today.

Gonzalo Piarrette

At the age of 30, Gonzalo Piarrette discovered his interest in violin making. After studying at the violin making school in Bilbao, he had the great opportunity to work for three years alongside Philipp Augustin – an experience that profoundly shaped his understanding of the craft. Since 2020, he has been working as a freelancer, focusing on the creation of new instruments with the goal of producing works with a unique personality. He completed various internships at the workshops of Frédéric Becker in Montpellier, Christof Erichson in Hannover, and Peter Körner in Mainz. Immediately after his studies, he moved to Mainz to work with Peter Körner, where he had the opportunity to work with historical instruments and learn many details about the restoration of old instruments. However, his passion lies in the creation of new instruments.