LEONA KÖNIG presents "The Golden Note"

Born in 1981, Leona König grew up in Prague and studied economics at the Prague University of Economics and Business. She graduated with a degree in economics and speaks four languages (German, English, French and Czech).

In 2016, she founded the Association IMF - International Music Foundation for highly gifted children with the annual music award "The Golden Note", which supports musically gifted children in Austria. ORF has been a partner of "Goldene Note" since 2020 and Leona König has already hosted the show with Alfons Haider and Thomas Gottschalk. Since the end of 2020, she has also been the author and presenter of the ORF program "Stars und Talente", which brings young artists together with established stars and promotes their talents.

The young Austrian pianist and composer with concert improvisation Elias Keller is 16 years old
and began piano lessons at the age of 6 with Mag. Sokolov at the music school
Weißenstein.
Elias is currently studying piano, concert improvisation and composition with pianist Prof. Galina
Vracheva and in preliminary conducting studies with Martin Fuchsberger at the Gustav Mahler
Private university in Klagenfurt.
Elias has won several prizes at national and international competitions. He has been
2021 was named "LONDON YOUNG MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR 2020/2021" by the jury. In
Austria, Elias was the 2021 winner of the "GOLDEN NOTE" in the piano category. The final was broadcast on ORF and hosted by presenter Thomas Gottschalk and initiator Leona König.
Elias has national and international concert experience as a soloist, with chamber orchestra and
orchestra. Concert tours have already taken him to Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Japan,
USA, Italy, Slovenia, Czech Republic and Serbia.
In March 2024, Elias made his debut at the Mozarteum Foundation with "Reminiscences de Don Juan"
by Franz Liszt, a work that even great pianists approach with respect. He also made his debut with two Mozart concertos at the Vienna Konzerthaus.
In April and May 2024, Elias performed together with the Philharmonie Salzburg under chief conductor
Elisabeth Fuchs in the Salzburg University Auditorium and in the Grosses Festspielhaus Tchaikovsky's
world-famous Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor - a steep challenge for the exceptional talent,
with passion, virtuosity and bravura - to rapturous applause. (Review, Drehpunkt Kultur
and press release, 22.4.2024)

Samuel Neubauer was born in 2006 in Lower Austria and studies at the Music and Arts Private University of the City of Vienna with Prof. Reinhard Wieser as well as at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Christoph Zimper in the preparatory course. He received his first lessons from his father Stefan Neubauer. Samuel was able to gain additional impulses during a wind instrument vacation in Goisern with Matthias Schorn, Alexander Neubauer, Stefan Prommegger, Andreas Schablas and Bernhard Mitmesser, as well as at the Musikantenwochen in Hollenstein with Gregor Narrnhofer and Frédéric Alvarado-Dupuy, and in master classes with Johann Hindler, Rupert Fankhauser, Christoph Zimper and Manuel Gangl.

In addition to solo appearances, including with the Ensemble Interclarinet, the Big Island Orchestra and the JSO-Tulln, he is a member of the JSO-Niederösterreich and JSO-Tulln. His chamber music partners include Camilla Nylund-Saris, Matthias Schorn and Reinhard Wieser. Samuel also regularly makes music at home with his parents and siblings in various formations and styles.

He is a three-time national winner of the prima la musica competition (2017 & 2019 & 2021 & 2023 - clarinet solo) and also a prizewinner in the chamber music category (2021). He is also a finalist in "Die Goldene Note" and won the "Rudolf Jettel Special Prize" at the 2024 LBI competition. He has been a talent of the IMF "International Music Foundation" since 2022. Samuel is a substitute in the stage orchestra of the Vienna State Opera.

Aleksander Simic, who was born into a family of musicians in Austria in 2003, began playing the cello at the age of five together with his mother, principal cellist of the Carinthian Symphony Orchestra. Since then, he has won several national and international competitions and prestigious special prizes. Hungary's leading music journal Fidelio honored him as a "young musician with exceptional talent". Aleksander Simic is currently attending István Várdai's cello class at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

His performances include concerts at the Hungarian Presidential Palace, the Europapalast in Strasbourg (France), the Chamber Music Festival in Kaposvár (Hungary), the Cziffra Festival and InspirArt Festival in Budapest, the opening ceremony of Formula 1 in Budapest and the Concert Hall of the Hungarian Radio, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Warmbaderhof Villach, the BMC Music Center Budapest, the Hungarian Franz Liszt University, the Baden-Baden Concert Hall and many more.

The highlight of his musical life to date is the concert that took place on 25.02.2020 in New York's famous Carnegie Hall as part of the "Rising Stars" concert series. This also includes the China tour that took place in December 2023 and January 2024. A total of 10 concerts in China's most prestigious concert halls were on the program.

Aleksander Simic is the winner of the Classic Pure Vienna International Competition 2018 and special prize winner for the "Best Vienna Classics Presentation" (special prize for the best interpretation of Viennese classical music) as well as winner of the Golden Medal at the 4th Manhattan International Music Competition (New York, USA). He was awarded 1st prize at the international competition "Petar Konjovic" in Belgrade (Serbia), 3rd prize at the international competition "Antonio Janigro" in Porec (Croatia) and 1st prize at the national competition "Jugend musiziert" for Northern/Eastern Europe in Copenhagen (Denmark). He was awarded 1st prize four times in the solo and chamber music categories at the national competition "Prima La Musica" in Austria and was a finalist in the music competition and TV talent show "Virtuózok" in Hungary. Furthermore, in February, 2021 he was the winner of the 6th International Augustin Aponte Music Competition that took place in Spain.

Aleksander Simic, winner of the most prestigious special award of the Hungarian Radio and Television Association since 2017, has recently performed with the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, the Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Budapest String Orchestra, the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, the Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra, the Göttingen Symphony Orchestra, the KSO Orchestra, the Central European Orchestra and many others.

Lidia Baich is considered one of the most versatile violin soloists of our time; she fascinates audiences worldwide
listeners through intense musicality and interpretation.
The St. Petersburg-born Austrian received her first training at the age of four.
Violin lessons from her grandfather. She then studied with Prof. Boris Kuschnir in Vienna. With
eight years old, she won her first international competition, followed by numerous other first prizes.
followed. Her exceptional musical performance finally earned her a prize at the age of sixteen.
victory at the Grand Prix d'Eurovision and the "European Musician of the Year" award,
presented by Lord Yehudi Menuhin.
Lidia Baich performs worldwide with orchestra as well as with recitals in the most important concert halls.
concert halls. Numerous tours have taken them through Europe, Asia, South America and the USA,
South Africa, Russia and India. She has played under conductors such as Adam Fischer,
Philippe Jordan, Juri Temirkanov, Jukka- Pekka Saraste, Kristjan Järvi, Bertrand de Billy, Lorin
Maazel, Vladimir Fedoseyev or Cornelius Meister with the most important orchestras in the world such as
New York Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, NHK Orchestra,
Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre
Nationale de France, Orchestra Arturo Toscanini, Malaysia Philharmonic or recently with the
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.
As a passionate chamber musician, Baich plays with partners such as Helmut Deutsch, Nobuko
Imai, Alexander Knyazev, Lars Anders Tomter, Aleksey Igudesman, Donka Angatscheva, Hyung-Ki
Joo, Boris Giltburg, members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Brahms Trio and others.
Lidia Baich has performed at festivals such as the Wiener Festwochen, the Salzburg Festival, the
Dubrovnik Festival, the Moritzburg Festival, the Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival, or the
Johannesburg Mozart Festival. She also played at the tenth anniversary of "Pavarotti and
Friends" in Modena.
She demonstrates her musical and artistic versatility with regular performances such as
with the band "Deep Purple", Hubert von Goisern or at the Komische Oper Berlin in a
successful joint production with the Staatsballett Berlin.
Lidia Baich also performs repeatedly with opera singers, most recently with Piotr Beczala, Thomas
Hampson, Elina Garanca, Erwin Schrott or her husband Andreas Schager at the Berliner - and
Vienna State Opera and at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.
CDs by Lidia Baich have been released under the Deutsche Grammophon label.
Lidia Baich was a juror at renowned violin competitions such as the Menuhin - or the
Eurovision competition and holds a professorship at the University of Music and Arts Vienna
in charge. She is a founding member of the "Opera meets nature" association and is committed to its
reforestation projects and also supports various foundations for the promotion of young people.
musicians. Baich has been Artistic Director at Schloss Thalheim, Lower Austria, since 2022. In the same year
she was awarded the Golden Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria
excellent.
Lidia Baich plays on a violin by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume from 1860.