MUSICIAN BIOGRAPHIES

Biographies of the Principals

Martin Jopp, Violin

When Martin Jopp received his first violin lessons at the age of seven from Susanne Hecklinger in Tübingen, his goal was to be able to play Bach’s E major Violin Concerto. In fact, it was a few years later that he performed this work for the first time as a soloist with orchestra. Even in his school days he experimented with baroque playing techniques and bare gut strings.
Nevertheless, he first studied modern violin in Stuttgart and then baroque violin at the Musikhochschule in Würzburg with Prof. Gottfried von der Goltz, graduating with a master class diploma.
During his studies he also played in various orchestras, for example as concertmaster of the ensemble 1800 and the Freie Kammersinfonie, as a guest of the Freiburger Barockorchester and many others. In 1999 he joined the recently founded Main-Barockorchester, of which he is now artistic director and concertmaster.
Martin Jopp has headed Barucco as concertmaster since 2004. He has also been a member of the L’Orfeo Baroque Orchestra (Michi Gaigg) since 2000 and has played regularly with the Baroque Orchestra and the Hofkapelle Stuttgart (Frieder Bernius) since 2003. Since 2012 he has been concertmaster of the Stuttgart Baroque Orchestra ‚il Gusto Barocco‘ conducted by Jörg Halubek.
Martin Jopp can be heard as a chamber musician in the ensembles Echo du Danube and L’Arcadia.
Numerous CDs document his work, including violin concertos by Fasch, Hertel, Molter (AEOLUS) and Telemann (DHM) and chamber music by Bach (Hännsler), Finger (Accent) and Krieger (CPO).

Elisabeth Wiesbauer, Violin

Elisabeth Wiesbauer was born in Upper Austria. She studied with Jussuf Karajev at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. After a brief period studying composition, she specialized in the field of historically informed performance practice and studied Baroque violin for concert performance with Ulli Engel at today’s MUK (Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna). Master’s degree with distinction in 2008. Master classes with Gottfried van der Goltz, John Holloway, Gunar Letzbor, and Erich Höbarth. During her many years of cooperation with Michi Gaigg, she gained valuable inspiration in the fields of interpretation and sound design. 

Elisabeth is the section leader and second concertmaster of the orchestras Barucco and Capella Leopoldina Graz, and the guest section leader of the Wiener Akademie orchestra led by Martin Haselböck. Since 2009 she has been a regular member of the L’Orfeo Barockorchester. 

In May 2022, the renowned classical music label cpo released the debut CD of the Lombardini Quartet, of which she is the principal violinist, with a recording of the „Sei quartetti“ by the Venetian composer Laura Maddalena Lombardini Sirmen. 

As a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestra member, Elisabeth also performs with numerous other ensembles at prestigious festivals and in well-known concert series (Barocksolisten München, Accentus Austria, Concerto Stella Matutina, Ensemble Klingekunst, Open CHAMBER Berlin,). Numerous CD and radio recordings. 

She taught violin at the Freie Musikschule Wien from 2006 to 2017. Since March 2018 she has held a professorship in Baroque violin at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz, also teaching Ornamentation and Improvisation and leading the Euridice Barockorchester. At the beginning of 2022, she took over the direction of the ABPU’s Institute for Early Music and Historical Performance Practice. 

Fani Vovoni, Violin

Fani Vovoni was born in Athens in 1978. She studied violin with Helfried Fister at the Carinthian Conservatory in Klagenfurt and with Ernst Kovacic at the Music University in Vienna. Further studies of baroque violin include with Reinhard Goebel at the Mozarteum Salzburg. In orchestral playing she gained experience with the European Union Youth- and European Union Baroque Orchestra. She works as a freelance musician in the interplay between old and new music. Engagements and projects include with ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, Reconsil, Camerata Salzburg, Barucco, Il Pomo d´Oro, Cappella Leopoldina, Concerto Stella Matutina, Harmony of Nations Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Prisma Wien and others. She teaches violin at the freien Musikschule Wien.

Roswitha Dokalik, Violin

Roswitha Dokalik was born in Vienna and studied Violin at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and at the Conservatory of the City of Vienna with Eugenia Polatschek, as well as at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz with Alfred Staar and Josef Sabaini. Instrumental and pedagogical studies produced excellent results.
She studied baroque violin and historical performance practice with Michi Gaigg at the Anton Bruckner Private University and Enrico Gatti at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag, achieving diplomas with distinction.
Master classes included with Lynn Blakeslee, Andrew Manze, Catherine Mackintosh, Maggie Faultless and Sigiswald Kuijken.
During her studies she was a substitute in the Bruckner Orchestra Linz and a member of the European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO) in 2004 and 2006.
She is a founding member of the Harmony of Nations Baroque Orchestra and Jerwood Fellow of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Collaborations with renowned musicians and conductors include such names as Sir Simon Rattle, Giovanni Antonini, Ton Koopman, Alfredo Bernardini, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Jordi Savall, Andrew Manze and others. She has performed both as a soloist and in ensemble at renowned festivals throughout Europe.
CD recordings and tours have included together with Barucco (Heinz Ferlesch), L’Orfeo Barockorchester (Michi Gaigg), Ricercar Consort (Philippe Pierlot), Ensemble Aurora (Enrico Gatti), Ensemble Sirocco, Collegium Musicum Den Haag, Austrian Baroque Company, Pera Ensemble, Affinit, Neue Hofkapelle Graz, Capella Leopoldina and others.
Violin teacher in the music school association Allhartsberg-Kematen-Sonntagberg and in Vienna.

Peter Trefflinger, Cello

Born in Steyr, Peter Trefflinger studied cello with Jannis Chronopoulos and Michael Dallinger, as well as baroque cello with Jörg Zwicker and Claire Pottinger-Schmidt. Master classes brought the baroque cellist together with musical personalities such as Philippe Muller, Christopher Coin and Kurt Neuhauser. Engagements in various orchestras on original instruments, such as Barucco, L’Orfeo Baroque Orchestra Linz, Collegium Marianum Prague, Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble, Vienna Academy, Bach Consort Vienna and others, have taken him to many European countries, North and South America, Japan and to numerous festivals such as Salzburg Festival, Styriarte, Brucknerfest Linz, Haydn Festival Eisenstadt, Folle Journée Nantes, Händel Festival Halle etc.
In addition to his activities in the orchestra, chamber music is another focus of his work. He was a founding member of the Quadriga Consort and now collaborates with Ars Antiqua Austria and the Neue Hofkapelle Graz. Numerous CD recordings with Alpha, Gramola, CPO and ORF, among
others, document his activities.

Lucas Schurig-Breuß, Viola

Lucas Schurig-Breuß first attended the Musikgymnasium in his hometown Feldkirch, with the main subject viola at the Landeskonservatorium für Vorarlberg with Wolfgang Klos and Anita Mitterer. With her he also completed the subsequent study of instrumental pedagogy at the Mozarteum Salzburg, which he completed with an excellent teaching diploma. From the very beginning she also encouraged his early interest in historical performance practice, which he was able to deepen in the course of his studies in numerous courses with renowned experts.
Further studies led him to the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, where he obtained a master’s degree in instrumental pedagogy and viola with Christian Euler. Lucas Schurig-Breuß is a violist and baroque viola player and a member of various orchestras and chamber music formations with international concert and recording activities such as Barucco, L’Orfeo Baroque Orchestra, Concerto Stella Matutina, Bach Consort Vienna, Großes Orchester Graz – recreation and many others.

Anne Marie Dragosits, Harpsichord

Harpsichord studies with Wolfgang Glüxam at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and with Ton Koopman and Tini Mathot at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag. Basso continuo courses with Lars Ulrik Mortensen and Jesper Christensen.
She has performances and recorded as a soloist and as a sought-after continuo player on harpsichord and organ throughout Europe. She regularly plays with chamber music formations such as vivante, Barocksolisten München, les sentimens, l’Arcadia, musica alchemica or with orchestras such as Barucco, l’Orfeo Barockorchester, Capella Leopoldina or Camerata Salzburg.
The ensemble vivante won the first prize at the J.H.Schmelzer Competition of the International Baroque Days Stift Melk in May 2005. Since then vivante has played at the Resonanzen in the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Festival van Vlaanderen Brugge, the Utrecht Festival Oude Muziek, the Residenzwoche München, Rheinvokal, Osterfestival Tirol and Itinèraire baroque.
Dragosits regularly holds master classes for harpsichord, in 2013 in Warsaw, Varazdin and Ossiach, among others. She has taught at the Graz University of the Arts and at the Music and Art Private University of the City of Vienna (MUK) and currently at the Mozarteum Salzburg.
Her first solo CD with Italian harpsichord music from the seventeenth century on original instruments was released in July 2013 at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg.
www.dragosits.org

Herwig Neugebauer, Double Bass

Herwig Neugebauer played the piano and trumpet in his youth before turning to the double bass. His training took him first to Graz and finally to Vienna, where he completed his diploma studies with Andrew Ackerman with distinction. Due to his intensive interest in 17th century music, the bass’s little brother, the G violone, joined his instruments.
The focus of his work is on baroque continuo playing and chamber music of the 18th and 19th centuries, but he always enjoys excursions into all kinds of contemporary and improvised music.
He not only plays in numerous ensembles such as Hyperion, Barucco, Wiener Akademie, Clemencic Consort, Capella Leopoldina, New Classic Ensemble Vienna, but also with the Low Frequency Orchestra and in the crossover project Fusion.