Hunters and the Hunted

Anne Mentzen was born in Braunschweig in 1981, where she received her first piano lessons at the age of five. At the age of nine she began horn lessons and from 1998 was trained by Theodor Wiemes, principal horn of the Radiophilharmonie Hannover. After graduating from high school, she began studying horn in the fall of 2000 in the class of Marie-Luise Neunecker at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main. From 2003 she studied with Thomas Hauschild at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig, where she graduated with honors. Anne Mentzen won several federal prizes at “Jugend musiziert” as well as prizes at other competitions, both with the horn and on the piano. In 1999, in addition to the first national prize, she was awarded a special prize by the Hanover Artists’ Association and in 2000 she was also awarded the Lower Saxony Prize for “outstanding achievements in the cultural field”. She has also received scholarships from the Volkswagen Bank (1999), the Richard Wagner Association (2000), and the Gustav Mahler Academy (2002, 2005). The hornist gained orchestral experience in the state and national youth orchestras, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, and was invited several times to the International Orchestra Academy of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. After an internship with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and a temporary position with the Staatsorchester Kassel, she went to the Deutsche Oper Berlin as an intern in 2005. Since 2006 Anne Mentzen has been a horn player with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. Here she plays in various chamber music formations, such as the ensemble “Samtblech”.

Kosuke Yoshikawa was born in Tokyo in 1984 into a musical family and received his first violin lessons at the age of three. He later continued his education at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo with Toshiya Eto. From 2003 to 2010 he studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Josef Hell and passed with distinction. Later, he studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich with Ana Chumachenco and also graduated with honors in 2013 with a master’s degree. His further extensive training was provided by private lessons with Rainer Honeck, concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic. He was a member of the Orchestra Academy of the Bavarian State Opera from 2010 to 2011, and in 2011 he obtained a permanent position in the first violins in the Munich Chamber Orchestra. Since 2017, he has been first violinist in the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. He plays as a substitute with orchestras such as the Munich Philharmonic, the Bavarian State Opera, the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. His solo successes include prizes at the Stefanie Hohl Competition in Vienna and the International Violin Competition in Sion-Vallais. As a soloist, Kosuke Yoshikawa has performed with members of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Philharmonic Orchestra, Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra and Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. He has a great passion for chamber music and plays with several ensembles as well as with various violin duos, a piano trio and string quartets.

Hans-Jakob Eschenburg received his first cello lessons at the Rostock Conservatory. After studying with Josef Schwab at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin, he was principal cellist of the Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1984 to 1988.

With the renowned Petersen Quartet, of which he was a founding member until 2000, he won several international competitions (Prague, Evian, Florence, Munich) and appeared on the major concert stages and at numerous festivals in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia. Several of the Petersen Quartet’s numerous CD recordings have won international awards.

Since 1999 Hans-Jakob Eschenburg has been principal cellist of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. He held the same position in the chamber orchestra “Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach”. He frequently appears as a soloist and chamber musician, including as a member of various chamber ensembles such as the Gideon Klein Trio. Hans-Jakob Eschenburg teaches as an honorary professor at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin. He is also involved as a mentor of the Orchestra Academy of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.