2nd violin

Lyrico Sonnleitner-Nakajima was born in Tokyo.

Her music teachers were Prof. Kazuki Sawa, Prof. Kiyoshi Okayama, Prof. Hakuro Mouri and Szimon Goldberg. She studied at the Toho Gakuen Music University with Prof. Shizuko Ishii. While still a student she took part in concert tours to France and the USA. In 1993 she came to Austria where she studied with Prof. Günter Pichler at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna on a scholarship from the Alban Berg Foundation.

The violinist has already performed at several festivals including Les Rencontres Musicales d’Évian (1991), the Tanglewood Music Festival (1993 and 1994), the Festival d’Ambronay (1995), the Saito Kinen Festival (1998) and the Festival Omaggio a Palladio every year from 2004 to 2011.

She is interested in chamber music from the Baroque to the modern as well as music with expanded tonality. Nowadays she can be found most often in Switzerland, Austria or Japan.

She received the Bösendorfer and Iiyama Emiko awards from the Austro-Japanese Culture Society.

Lyrico Sonnleitner-Nakajima works as a lecturer in master classes in Japan.
Since 1996, she has been principal second violin in the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The violinist Marianna Oczkowska was born in Warsaw in 1983 and studied at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, graduating with distinction.

She is an internationally active and much sought-after performer of new music. She is a founder member of the Platypus ensemble for new music that, besides frequent concert engagements, has also made several recordings and held numerous workshops. In addition to this, she also plays with the ensemble “die reihe”, ensemble xx. jahrhundert, Ensemble Kontrapunkte, the ensemble Wiener Collage, the Schallfeld Ensemble and Studio Dan. She is a regular collaborator with composers, who have dedicated several works to her. She performs at prestigious international festivals of new music as a soloist and chamber musician (e.g. Festival Wien Modern, Festival Klangspuren in Schwaz, Meridian Festival in Bucharest). She is a member of the Hans Rott Quartett and an instructor for the Wiener Jeunesse Orchester and at Camp Styria, the international orchestra camp for 9- to 16-year-olds.

A winner of numerous prizes and scholarships (including the honorary prize of Vienna Music University, Ossiach orchestra academy) she has also been a member of leading youth orchestras (such as the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra).

She has been principal second violin with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra since 2011.

Aileen Dullaghan was born in Ireland in 1969. She started taking violin lessons in 1975. From 1986 to 1991 she studied with Brian McNamara at Trinity College of Music in Dublin, graduating with distinction. She was also the recipient of a medal for “Excellence in performance”. She then began studying concert violin with Prof. Ernst Kovacic at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, graduating in 1998, again with distinction.

During her days as a student in Ireland she was leader of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, made her debut with the RTE Concert Orchestra and was a member of the Irish Chamber Orchestra. In 1991 she played with the European Community Youth Orchestra and that same year performed in the television show Music of the Night produced by the Irish broadcaster RTE. While studying in Vienna she was a member of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the Klangforum Wien. In 1994, Aileen Dullaghan performed in the ORF television show Meister von Morgen and was a soloist with the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. Since 1999 she has regularly performed as a soloist with the Vienna Mozart Orchestra.

She has been a member of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra since 2002.

Steven Mohler was born in Corvallis, USA in 1958.

He started playing the violin at the age of nine and took his bachelor’s degree with Prof. John Ferrell at the University of Arizona, graduating in 1979. He followed that by studying with Prof. Eudice Shapiro at the University of Southern California until 1981. In Vienna he studied with Prof. Klaus Maetzl and Prof. Günter Pichler from 1985.

From 1982 to 1985 he was employed as principal violin in the Philharmonisches Orchester Heidelberg and from 1989 to 1993 was a member of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra.

Since 1994, Steven Mohler has been assistant principal in the second violin section of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Eirina Belomazova was born in Bulgaria in 1985. From 1990 she lived in Thessaloniki, Greece where she studied in her mother’s class at the Synchrono Conservatory. From 2004 she studied violin in Prof. Michael Frischenschlager’s class at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, graduating in 2012. At the same time she studied chamber music with Prof. Johannes Meissl and attended master classes given by Ginka Gichkova, Vanya Milanova, Marianne Piketty, Mincho Minchev and Y. Neamann, among others. During her time at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna she twice received a scholarship.

Eirina Belomazova has been a member of the Yehudi Menuhin LMN Organisation since 2005. She has performed as a violinist in Austria, Greece, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Germany, Hungary and Liechtenstein with the Trio Prestige and the IMSK-Quartett in collaboration with Alvaro Pierri. As an orchestra musician she has played with the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Wiener Jeunesse Orchester and the Schubert Akademie (the orchestra of the Vienna Boys’ Choir).

She has won prizes at national competitions in Bulgaria and Greece, at the 18th International Chamber Music Competition in Thessaloniki, the Windisch Chamber Music Competition in Vienna and “Gradus ad Parnassum”.

She has been part of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra since 2014.

Barbara Chomča was born in Vienna in 1970.

She began taking violin lessons in Linz at the age of seven. She studied concert performance and trained as a teacher at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz with Prof. Bohumil Semik, continuing her concert performance studies with Prof. Michael Schnitzler at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. She supplemented her studies with master classes given by Lynn Blakeslee and Ivry Gitlis.

She has been a member of various orchestras and ensembles including the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and the ensemble actuell under Franz Welser-Möst.

From 1996 to 1997 she stood in for a colleague on maternity leave in the Bruckner Orchestra in Linz. In 1998 Barbara Chomča was accepted into the Vienna RSO orchestra academy, and since 2002 she has been a permanent member of the second violin section.

Rudolf Mayrhofer was born in 1958 and studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Prof. Günter Pichler.

He has been a member of numerous ensembles and has played with the Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra, the Strauss Festival Orchestra the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Arco Quartett, the Weana Gmüat Schrammeln, at the Vienna Volksoper and the Vienna State Opera.

He has been a member of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra since 1986.

Boris Pavlovsky was born in Russia and completed his studies first at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory (Prof. Eduard Grach) and subsequently at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (Prof. Klaus Mätzel and Prof. Gerald Schubert), graduating from both with distinction.
Performing as both a soloist and a chamber musician is of great importance to the violinist who has already recorded several CDs including the six violin concerti by Ysay.

Because he very much enjoys playing contemporary music he feels particularly at home in the Vienna RSO.

He has been a member of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra since 2013.

Johannes Pflegerl was born in Carinthia, Austria in 1976.

Following his first studies at the University Mozarteum Salzburg he moved to the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. He also studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

He has played the second violin with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra since 2006.

Tongtong Sun was born in China in 1991.

At the tender age of 10, she began violin lessons with Prof. Binyou Zhou at a music school affiliated with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. At the age of 15, she took chamber music lessons with Prof. Jensen Horn-Sin Lam. Since 2012, she has been studying at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna under Prof. Jan Pospichal. In 2020 she graduated with distinction.

She has performed as a chamber musician and soloist in Canada, Singapore, China as well as Europe. She has participated in numerous competitions and won prizes. Among others, she was a finalist in the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition in 2006 and received 2nd prize in the International Violin Competition Kloster Schöntal in 2007.

From 2008 to 2012, she played in the Simply Quartet, which won 1st prize in the Shanghai Chamber Music Competition in 2009 and received the special prize as "the most promising young string quartet" in the Beijing International Music Competition in 2011. Furthermore, she was a member of the ensemble xx. jahrhundert Wien.

Since 2018 Tongtong Sun is a member of the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna.

Sibylle Wurzinger-Gund was born in Bad Ischl, Austria in 1962 where she also grew up. She is a granddaughter of Robert Gund, composer of late Romantic lieder.

She took lessons with Fritz Scharlach in Salzburg, Karl Schatz in Linz and Thomas Kakuska in Vienna. Following completion of her diploma programme she passed the examination qualifying her as a teacher with distinction.
From 1984 to 1986 she was a substitute principal violinist with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Vienna Haydn-Sinfonietta.

From 1988 to 2010 she was a member of the ensemble Plus Ultra which focuses on Baroque chamber music. Since 2005 the musician has appeared regularly with the Währinger Streichquartett.

Sibylle Wurzinger-Gund has been a member of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra since 1987.

Iva Yablanska was born in Pleven, Bulgaria in 1988. She received her first violin lessons at the age of five.

She graduated from high school at the National School for Music in Sofia in the class taught by Blagorodna Taneva and Mincho Minchev. From 2007 she studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Prof. Jela Spitkova and Prof. Josef Hell. In 2015 she completed a degree course at the Academy of Performing Arts in Banska Bystrica.

Besides her work with the RSO Vienna, the musician is also a member of the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra in Japan and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester.

Iva Yablanska has attended master classes given by Prof. Shlomo Minz, Prof. Michael Frischenschlager, Prof. Vladimir Spivakov, Prof. Mincho Minchev, Prof. Oleh Krysa, Prof. Patrick Koehn, Prof. Sergey Kravchenko, Prof. Svetlin Roussev and Prof. David Chan.

She has won prizes in numerous competitions: in 2000 she won second prize in the Paul Konstantinesku international violin competition in Romania, in 2001 the Grand Prix in the national violin competition for German and Austrian music, and in 2002 first prize in the P. Vladigerov national violin competition in Bulgaria, first prize in the Peter Toschkov international violin competition in Serbia and first prize in the Dobrin Petkov violin competition in Bulgaria. In 2005 she won first prize in the international Young Virtuoso competition in Bulgaria and in 2007 second prize.

In 2010 Iva Yablanska obtained a position at the academy of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and has been a permanent member since 2011.