Swiss of Jewish descendent, Violist Hana Gubenko lives and works in Switzerland since 2010. Born in Moscow she had her first Violin lessons with Galina Tourchaninova at the central music school in Moscow when she was five years old. She moved to Konstanz, Germany aged 12 and won the first prize at the "Jugend Musiziert" competition in February 2004.
Hana started her Viola studies with Prof. Wolfgang Klos at the University of Vienna, Austria in 2005. She made her Bachelor diploma at Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Switzerland in 2010. She finished her studies in 2014, receiving a diploma "Master specialized soloist" at Centro Superior de Eseñanza Musical Katarina Gurska in Madrid. Her professor there was Igor Sulyga with whom she worked since 2007.
Hana Gubenko is a laureate of numerous scholarships. Since 2009 she gives numerous recitals in Switzerland, Spain and Russia together with the Swiss pianist Timon Altwegg . Apart from the relatively small standard repertoire for Viola Solo, Hana Gubenko plays preferably rarely performed works for Viola and Piano like the sonatas by Philipp Scharwenka, Alexander Winker, Paul Juon and York Bowen. She premiered numerous Sonatas for Viola and Piano among them works by Frank Ezra Levy, Graham Waterhouse and Wolfgang Andreas Schultz.Frank Ezra Levy and Graham Waterhouse dedicated their Sonatas to Hana. She performs regularly with extended chamber music ensembles and is member of the ensembles "Triologique" and "Brises d'Orient."
The Swiss pianist Timon Altwegg began his career under Hubert Mahler. In 1989 he finished his studies with the diploma of the Swiss Association of Musical Education in Zurich. He then stayed for two years in London and studied with Alan Rowlands at the Royal College of Music. In 1992 his studies finished with the Piano Performing Diploma and he was appointed „Associate of the Royal College of Music".
Since 1992 Timon Altwegg lives in Kreuzlingen (Lake of Constance, Switzerland), the centre of his active pianist life. As chamber musician and soloist he is in great demand and has been invited to concerts in the United States, South-America and all over Europe. Altwegg excels in the solo interpretation of Spanish and Latin-American composers. Being an expert on British composers, he was asked to become musical advisor of the Swain-Alexander Trust in London.
Concerts with him were so far broadcast live on the Hungarian radio and television, the Austrian national television channel (ORF) as well as, in the course of his tour in South America in 2007, in Ecuador and worldwide on the Internet.
In May 2004 Timon Altwegg gave an outstanding, historic performance together with the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra in front of 1200 listeners in Iraq, being the first foreign soloist since 1990. During his stay in Baghdad Timon Altwegg also gave master classes at the Music and Ballet School, under the patronage of the Swiss Embassy in Baghdad, the Swiss Foreign Secretary and the cultural ministry of Iraq. Altwegg's journey also found its way into the literary work of Elisabeth Horem "Shrapnels – En marge de Bagdad", published in 2005.
Acknowledging the wide popularity of Timon Altwegg in foreign countries, the Centre de Compétence Culturelle des EDA (Foreign Ministry of Switzerland) supports the pianist regularly.
Because of his brilliant and highly acclaimed technique, numerous contemporary composers entrust Altwegg with the première of their works. Frank Levy, a Swiss composer living in the USA, dedicated his 2 piano sonatas and his 2nd. Piano concerto to Timon Altwegg.
For many years Timon Altwegg has been playing works by Hans Huber, and together with the Swiss Violinist Gilles Colliard has recorded a CD for Guild Music containing three Violinsonatas by Huber.
Altweggs CD for Guild Music, containing piano concertos by French composers played together with the Orchestre de Chambre de Toulouse conducted by Gilles Colliard has been critically acclaimed.
His latest recording, again published by Guild Music, and played together with Hana Gubenko is dedicated to Swiss composers of Jewish descendent.It´s called "Sonata Ebraica" and contains many first recordings.