Duo Schwalbe Yang

Elena Luisa Schwalbe (13.11.99 in Hamburg) has been playing the violin and piano since her fourth birthday and received violin lessons from Prof. Anna Netschiporouk-Bron in Lübeck since 2007 until starting her Bachelor studies in 2017 at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg with Prof. Herwig Zack. She took part in masterclasses from Heime Müller, Roland Daugareil, Hellen Weiß, Natalia Prishepenko and Benjamin Schmid. She won several prizes and scholarships, for instance first prize at the Carl Bechstein Duo competition(2015), first prize at the national competition „Jugend musiziert“ in the category violin solo (2016) and a sponsorship prize from the Bruno Frey foundation (2019). From September 2021, Elena will attend an academy position at the Radio Symphonie Orchestra Berlin (RSB).

Xiaowei Yang (31.7.98 in Hangzhou, China)) began playing and receiving piano lessons at the age of four, from 2016 he was taught at the precollege of HMDK Stuttgart by Prof. Bernhard Epstein and 2017 he started his Bachelor studies at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg with Prof. Ana Mirabela Dina. In 2015 he was awarded 3rd prize at the international youth piano competition in Singapore and in the same year, he won the Steinway piano competition of Zhejiang province. He received further musical impulses from Jacob Leuschner, Christian A. Pohl and in masterclasses from Wolfgang Mainz, Christopher Hinterhuber and Alexander Schimpf.

The two have been an existing duo since 2018 and received chamber music lessons from Prof. Denise Benda, Prof. Jewgeni Schuk and Prof. Wolfgang Nüßlein and received further musical suggestions in a masterclass with Prof. Marta Gulyas.