Profilbild Azahar Ensemble

Azahar Ensemble

Besides enjoying several successes in international chamber music competitions, the Azahar Ensemble was a prize-winner in the category “Wind Quintet” at the renowned ARD Competition in 2014. Since then, this quintet has developed a busy concert schedule, giving guest performances in Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, Canada and the Dominican Republic. After acclaimed concerts in Cologne (at West-German Radio, WDR) and in the Philharmonie in Berlin (with their debut on Deutschlandradio), Vienna (Musikverein), Baden-Baden, Salzburg, Innsbruck, the Philharmonie Essen, the Mozartfest Würzburg, the Rheingau Music Festival and elsewhere, this quintet continues to give guest performances throughout Europe. In 2022, it will premiere a new work by Gija Kancheli in Georgia.

Many concerts by the Azahar Ensemble have been recorded and broadcast by radio stations across Europe, including Bavarian Radio, South-West-German Radio, Deutschlandradio Kultur, Radio Clásica España, Swiss Radio, France Musique and Catalunya Música. The Ensemble’s debut CD, featuring works by Joaquín Turina, was recorded in a co-production with Deutschlandradio and released on the Hänssler label in 2018 to enthusiastic reviews in the international press.

The Azahar Ensemble was founded in 2010 by musicians of the Spanish National Youth Orchestra. Its five members were awarded a scholarship by the Fundación JONDE-BBVA that enabled them to study chamber music with the bassoonist Sergio Azzolini at the Basel Music Academy. All five are regularly invited to play in renowned orchestras, including the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Konzerthausorchester, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Liceu Barcelona, the Philharmonisches Orchester Lübeck, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Camerata Bern, the Kammerorchester Basel and the Swiss Orchestra.

Miquel Ramos Salvadó and Antonio Lagares Abeal are active as freelance musicians, André Cebrián Garea is principal flautist in the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, María José García Zamora is the principal bassoonist at the Komische Oper Berlin, and María Alba Carmona Tobella is an oboist in the Zurich Opera Orchestra; like Miquel Ramos Salvadó, she is also a member of the ensemble Spira Mirabilis.

André Cebrián Garea, flute
María Alba Carmona Tobella, oboe
Miquel Ramos Salvadó, clarinet
Antonio Lagares Abeal, horn
María José García Zamora, bassoon

Concerts