For this year’s edition of Brassweek, three more professors will be participating:
Gianluca Calise
Gianluca Calise began playing the trumpet at the age of nine and was taught by Anton Ludwig Wilhalm at the Upper Engadine Music School. In 2013 he began studying music at the Basel University of Music with Prof. Klaus Schuhwerk, graduating with honours in 2020.
He gained his first orchestral experience in various youth orchestras and was accepted into the Orchestra Academy at Zurich Opera House in 2016. In 2017 he played for a year with Oslo Philharmonic before becoming principal trumpet with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2018.
In addition to his work in the orchestra, he performs as a soloist and chamber musician.
Matthias Kowalczyk, Trompete
Matthias Kowalczyk, born in Bochum in 1988, received his first trumpet lessons at the age of 6 and was already a young student at the age of 15, first at the Robert Schumann-Hochschule in Düsseldorf, then he transferred to the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt in the class of Prof. Klaus Schuhwerk.
Since 2010 Matthias Kowalczyk has been engaged as principal trumpet in the “Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra” as well as in the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra. He regularly makes guest appearances with renowned orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Bavarian State Orchestra of the Munich State Opera, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester Hamburg, the Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin, the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln and the HR Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt.
As a soloist he has already performed with renowned German orchestras such as the “Rundfunkorchester München”, the “Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester”, as well as the “Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Mainz”, in which he was also a scholarship holder in the 2009/2010 season.
In 2023 he was appointed honorary professor at the Mainz University of Music.
Image: Bogdan Kisch
Louise Pollock, Trombone
Louise Pollock is Principal trombone with the Gothenburg Opera in Sweden and faculty member at the Gothenburg University Academy of Music and Drama. She has been awarded numerous prizes, such as the 1st Prize and Audience Prize at the International Aeolus Competition for Wind Instruments 2016 or the prestigious ”Stipendium des Deutschen Musikwettbewerbs” at the Deutscher Musikwettbewerb 2014.
She has performed as a soloist throughout Europe with orchestras such as the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Zürcher Kammerorchester, Opera Orchestra Gothenburg, Bjergsted Blåsensemble or the Duisburger Philharmoniker. Before her position in Gothenburg she played with the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker (Germany) for three years.
She is often invited to judge competitions, for example the ITA competition, and give masterclasses and has been featured as an artist at numerous festivals, for example at the Tourbon Brass Festival in Chile, Bjergsted Brass Festival Stavanger in Norway, Tromboholizm Poland or the International Trombone Festival.
Louise studied at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg i.Br., Germany, with Professor Branimir Slokar, where she received her Bachelor of Music with distinction. She then went on to study with Prof. Henning Wiegräbe at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart, Germany (Master of Music).
She is honored to be part of the Board of Advisors of the International Trombone Association.
Louise is a Conn Artist and performs exclusively on a Conn 88H that was built in the early 1950s.
