Francien Schatborn & Julija Hartig

Violin

Julija Hartig was born in Yugoslavia and received her first violin lessons at the age of five. As a young talent she won several prizes. Julija studied violin at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad (Yugoslavia). After completing this course, she was appointed assistant to her former teacher EA Chugaeva at the same conservatory. Julija has lived in the Netherlands since 1994. She further studied at the Rotterdam Conservatory with Ilya Grubert and at the Utrecht Conservatory with K. Wataya, where she graduated cum laude. Julija regularly solos with various orchestras, such as the Radio Chamber Philharmonic, Belgrade Radio Symphony Orchestra and St. Georges Strings. Julija is a first violinist with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and is a member of several chamber music ensembles such as the Duo Hartig-Broekhans, The Hungry Gods, ROctet and Ensemble Rei. She is one of the musicians of SPLENDOR and co-initiator of the LUDWIG collective. Julija Hartig plays a violin by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, which was made available to her by the National Musical Instruments Fund.

Maggini viola

Francien Schatborn studied viola with Jürgen Kussmaul at the Amsterdam Conservatory, where she graduated cum laude in 1995. In 1994 she received the Friends' Wreath from the Royal Concertgebouw together with pianist Jeannette Koekkoek, with whom she formed a permanent duo and released two successful duo CDs. Francien Schatborn has been principal soloist of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra since 1995. She is also a much sought-after and active chamber musician, who is part of Roctet and the Hermitage Quartet. She was invited as a soloist with various orchestras, including the Radio Chamber Orchestra, the North Holland Philharmonic, Holland Symfonia, the Netherlands Student Orchestra and her own orchestra, the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2013, Francien has been a principal subject teacher of viola at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. She plays a Maggini viola from 1610.