Born in Seoul, South Korea, she initially studied in Seoul with Professor Hae-Guen Kang, then with Julius Berger at the Saarland School of Music and the Mainz School of Music, and with Thomas Demenga at the Basel School of Music. Since 1991, she has been an assistant to Professor Julius Berger, first in Saarbrücken, then in Mainz, and since 2001 at the Augsburg School of Music.

She has received prestigious national and international awards, including the 1993 “Gieseking” Prize (Saarland School of Music), the Prize of the Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg, the Prize of the University of Mainz in 1995, first prize at the Trapani International Chamber Music Competition, and the “Premio Stampa” together with pianist José Gallardo. In 1996, she received the DAAD Prize. She is a soloist with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Korean Symphony Orchestra, Festival Strings Lucerne, Basel Symphony Orchestra, Bern Philharmonic Academy, Kremerata Baltica, and the Southwest German Chamber Orchestra.

In 1995, she made her debut in Mainz under Lothar Zagrosek. In 1998, she performed in Israel with the Halle Orchestra. Numerous chamber music concerts have taken her to Moscow (Tschaikovsky Conservatory), Appen (invited by Sofia Gubaidulina), the Salzburg Festspiele, the Lockenhaus Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Eckelshausen Music Festival, and the Kronberg Cello Festival. Together with her husband, Julius Berger, she has recorded several CDs for the EBS label, featuring works by Boccherini, which are considered benchmarks by music magazines. As artistic director of Asiagofestival Korea, she cultivates close ties and artistic projects with her homeland.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, José Gallardo began taking piano lessons at the age of five. After studying at the Buenos Aires Conservatory, he continued his studies with Prof. Poldi Mildner at the Music Department of the University of Mainz, graduating in 1997. During this time he discovered his passion for chamber music. He owes his musical inspiration to artists such as Menahem Pressler, Alfonso Montecino, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, Eberhard Feltz, Sergiu Celibidache, Rosalyn Tureck and Bernard Greenhouse.

José Gallardo has won numerous national and international awards and performs in concerts all over the world at prestigious venues such as the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Philharmonie in Berlin, Wigmore Hall in London, and Teatro della Pergola in Florence. He has been invited to play at renowned festivals such as the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival, Verbier Festival, Lucerne Festival, Ludwigsburg Schlossfestspiele, Schwetzinger Festspiele, Music Days Hitzacker, Kaposfest Ungarn, Cello Festival Kronberg, and Chopin Festival Warsaw.

José Gallardo’s chamber music activities and collaborations in Europe, Asia, Israel, Oceania, and South America have brought him into contact with artists such as Vilde Frang, Barnabás Kelemen, Gidon Kremer, Linus Roth, Benjamin Schmid, Nils Mönkemeyer, Tomoko Akasaka, Andreas Ottensamer, Nicolas Altstaedt, Julius Berger, Maximilian Hornung, Benedict Klöckner, Miklós Perényi, and others.

He is a sought-after pianist for studio productions. Over 20 CDs have been released by Warner, Deutsche Grammophon, Challenge Records Int., Genuin, NEON, Oehms Classics, and Naxos, as well as television and radio productions by BR, SWR, MDR, BBC, RAI, and others.

From 1998 to 2008 he was a lecturer at the Department of Music at the University of Mainz, and since the fall of 2008 he has been teaching at the Leopold Mozart Center at the University of Augsburg. Since 2013 he has been, together with Andreas Ottensamer, artistic director of the Bürgenstock Festivals chamber music festival in Lucerne.

At the age of 28 he became a professor at the “Musikhochschule Wiirzburg,” thus being the youngest professor in Germany. He then taught in Saarbriicken, Mainz and since 2000 at the “Musikhochschule Augsburg and Nurnberg.” An open and gay smile, a most refined sensibility, a stately courtesy that is never formal. A “prophet” speaking his very personal sonic language, capable of ecstatic raptures and prodigious virtuosity. This is how Julius Berger is known in Asiago, which he has frequented for years with great affection and passion as much toward Asiagofestival, of which he is artistic director, as toward the whole Plateau. He, who dedicates his free time from his artistic commitments to his family and to the search for silence in contemplation of the Alpine world, has been truly at home in Asiago ever since, in the early 1980s, fascinated by Fiorella Benetti Brazzale’s personality during a concert she gave as part of one of her frequent tours in Germany, he began giving concerts on the plateau.

From the very beginning Julius Berger formed a fraternal friendship and artistic understanding with Roberto Brazzale, Fiorella’s son and her heir in the organization of the festival, thanks to which they were able to realize numerous artistic projects in Italy and abroad. It was inevitable that, following Fiorella Benetti’s untimely death, Roerto Brazzale asked Julius Berger to join him by taking over the artistic direction of the festival, a position he has held since 1993. It is surprising to see how this partnership has now reached the third generation, considering that Alberto, Roberto’s eldest son, is himself a cellist, a member of the group “Cello Passionato,” and since this year the organizational manager of the event, within which he often likes to get help from Berger’s eldest son, Julius Jr. But the “familiarity” of the people of Asiaga with this extraordinary musician, who goes out of his way to make their festival happen, should not make us forget that he is one of the most acclaimed and profound artists of our time, as his resume summarized below testifies.

Born in 1954 in Augsburg, he studied at the “Musikhochschule Miinchen” with Walter Reichhard and Fritz Kiskalt, then at the “Mozarteum” in Salzburg with Antonio Janigro (from 1979 to 1982 he worked as his assistant). He continued his studies with Zara Nelsova (Cincinnati/USA) and also participated in a master class with Mstislav Rostropovitsch.

He is currently Professor of Cello and Chamber Music at the Leopold Mozart Center of the University of Augsburg. Since 1992, he has regularly taught master classes at the International Summer Academy of the Mozarteums in Salzburg.
His recordings of J.S. Bach’s six suites have been acclaimed by critics and audiences, along with previously unreleased concertos by Luigi Boccherini. He has recorded the world premieres of works by M. Bruch, L. Boccherini, R. Strass, M. Wolpe, M. Dupré, G. Tartini, and L. Leo for the Ebs, Orfeo, Wergo, Cpo, and Organ labels.
A sensitive and inspired contemporary performer, he has deep relationships with some of the most important composers of our time, such as Olivier Messiaen, Sofia Gubaidulina,Wolfgang Rihm, Toshio Hosokawa , Wilhelm Killmeyer, Bertold Kummel, Viktor Suslin, and Adriana Holsky, who dedicate many works he premiered to him.
He participated in numerous concerts and tours together with such distinguished colleagues as Leonhard Bemstein (who called Berger “brilliant”), Eugen Jochum, Gidon Kremer, Jiirg Demus, Norman Shetler, Piene-Laurent Aimard, Bemd Glemser, Stefan Hussong, Eduard Brunner, and Wolfagang Meyer.
He is president of the international “Leopold Mozart” competition and a jury member of numerous awards in Salzburg, Kronberg, Munich, and Warsaw, as well as artistic director of the Ekelshausener Musiktage and the “Mozart 2006” celebration program of the city of Augsburg.
He is the author of poems and essays such as “Irritationskraft” (Hindemith Jahrbuch 1992), “Einheit in der Vielfalt – Vielfalt in der Einheit” (Forschungsmin der Universitàt Mainz, 1998), “Zeit und Ewigkeit” (preface by Card.Karl Kardinal Lehmann, 2001). He has been a member of the “Zentralkomitees der deutschen Katholiken” since 1997, and is a member of the music commission of the ‘Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes’. He has been a member of the prestigious ‘Akademie der Wissenschaften und Literatur in Mainz’ since 2009.
In July 2010, following the success of his performance of Schumann’s concerto for cello and orchestra in the prestigious and futuristic “Disney Concert Hall” in Los Angeles, designed by Franck Gehry, critic Mark Swed of the “Los Angeles Times” wrote of him : “Berger gave a remarkably rhapsodic performance. He lost himself in the music, almost embarrassingly so. He even conducted with his bow and, with gaping wide mouth, silently san along with the strings. He went in for interpretive extremes.”