JONATHAN MORTON
is a musician equally at home in old and new music, who enjoys collaborating with musicians and artists from different traditions. He is Artistic Director at Scottish Ensemble, where his eclectic and engaging programming has been enthusiastically praised by audiences internationally, offering fresh perspectives on familiar repertoire and championing new works. Under his leadership Scottish Ensemble has been collaborating increasingly with other art forms such as dance, visual arts and theatre. Recent critically-acclaimed projects include 20th Century Perspectives with artist Toby Paterson, Goldberg Variations – ternary patterns for insomnia with Andersson Dance, and Anno with Anna Meredith and Eleanor Meredith. J. Morton is also Principal First Violin at London Sinfonietta, where he has been given the opportunity to work closely with many of today’s leading composers and performers, including Steve Reich, Harrison Birtwhistle, Mica Levi, Oliver Knussen, Marius Nesset, Jonny Greenwood, Louis Andriessen, Thurston Moore, John Woolrich, Martin Suckling and Tyondai Braxton. J. Morton has been invited as a guest leader with groups such as BIT20 in Bergen, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia and Musikkollegium Winterhur. He is committed to sharing ideas with the next generation of string players and has directed projects at the Royal Northern College of Music, the Royal College of Music, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and the University of Auckland. J. Morton regularly contributes to film and TV soundtracks at Abbey Road Studios and Air Lyndhurst Studios, where he leads studio orchestras for film composers including Dario Marianelli, Rael Jones, Patrick Doyle. Alex Heffes, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Christian Henson, Craig Armstrong, Joby Talbot and Laurent Eyquem. J. Morton also plays with the Colin Currie Group in Europe and Japan.

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Frøydis de Damas
grew up near Bergen into a musical family and began to play the violin already at the age of 3. Ten years later she moved across to the viola, the instrument that has become her livelihood. She studied for eight years with a Russian teacher in Bergen before starting her main studies at NTNU University of Trondheim with viola players Torodd Wigum and Björn Sjøgren as her main teachers. Almost immediately after graduating she was engaged as one of the Trondheim Soloists and Trondheim Symphony Orchestra´s combination musicians and has since toured extensively in Europe and Asia with many of the world´s leading soloists. She has also performed on a series of recordings with both the Trondheim Soloists and the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, that have received critical
acclaim at home and abroad in recent years, including several Grammy nominations. F. Damas has also studied choral conducting at NTNU and has conducted the chamber choir Aurum for 2 years, leading them to victory in several competitions.

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EMANUEL WEHSE

grew up in Mainz, Germany, were he was first taught by his father at the age of 6. He studied with Young-Chang Cho at Folkwang University Essen, were he was the cofounder of the Morgenstern Trio in 2005. With the trio he has been awarded most prestigious prizes such as 2nd prize and audience prize at the ARD competition in Munich, 2nd prize at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition and 1st Prize at the international Haydn Competition Vienna. The Morgenstern Trio performs on most important stages and festivals including Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Concertgebouw, Musikverein, Berlin Philharmonie, Kuhmo, Prades among many others. Emanuel Wehse teaches Cello and Chamber Music at the “Louis Spohr” Academy of Music in Kassel, Germany.