Violin

Sarah Bayens (°2000) started playing the violin when she was 5 years old. She studied with Koen Rens in Turnhout until she started her professional studies in 2017 at the ‘Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles’ with Shirly Laub, where she still studies now.

Sarah is a very versatile musician, who wants to delve in as many aspects of classical music (solo, chamber music and orchestra). In 2019, Sarah won the Young Belgian Talent competition. Sarah Bayens played as a soloist with the ORFEO chamber orchestra, and would have played with the LUCA chamber orchestra and the ‘Leuvens Universitair Symphonisch Orkest’, but it was cancelled due to COVID-19. She played masterclasses with Hilary Hahn, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Lorenzo Gatto, Andreas Janke, Alan Brind, Benjamin Gilmore,… and has been invited to play at music festivals like Midis Minimes, Zomer van Sint-Pieter, Musicorum, Festival en Poitou,…

She also played in many chamber music ensembles, including the Aleydis Quartet, with which she had masterclasses of great musicians like Guy Danel, the Prazak Quartet, Jeremy Menuhin, Valeriy Sokolov, Wen-Sinn Yang, etc. From time to time Sarah Bayens also plays concerts with the Belgium-based Alfama Quartet. She also does collaborations with other groups like Trio Fénix. At the moment she forms a piano trio with Mikko Pablo and Markiyan Popil, and a string trio with Maxime De Petter and Karin Broekchove.

Sarah Bayens also has orchestra experiences. She played in the Euregio Youth Orchestra and currently plays in the string orchestra ‘Young Belgian Strings’. She was concertmaster for a period of 2 years of the Youth Orchestra Flanders where she played with conductors like Stéphane Denève, Edwin Outwater, etc. She also sometimes plays with Brussels Philharmonic, and has recently won the Orchestra Academy of the ‘Orchestre de la Monnaie’ and the Belgian National Orchestra.

Piano

Markiyan Popil was born in Lviv,Ukraine in 1995.

He began his professional studies at the music school in Tomaszow Lubelski (Poland) with Olena Popil, and specialised music school in Lviv by Lidia Krych and Oksana Rapita, with whom he continued his studies at Lviv National Academy of Music. Since 2015 he is studying in Antwerp Royal Conservatory in the class of Sergei Edelmann.

Markiyan is a prize winner of many competitions for youth in Ukraine and Poland. In 2016 he won the first prize in Andre Dumortier International Piano Competition in Leuze-en-Hainaut (Belgium) and in 2020 he won a scholarship competition in Antwerp by Yamaha. In 2020 Markiyan became an assistant of Sergei Edelmann at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp.

Markiyan has taken active part in many masterclasses, piano forums, festivals, performed as a soloist and chamber musician in Belgium, Netherlands, France, Germany, Portugal, Ukraine, Poland and other East European countries.

Cello

Mikko Pablo (Los Angeles 1992) began playing the cello in the Philippines at the age of 16 under the mentorship of Amador Tamayo. Two years later, he received a full scholarship to study with Bongshin Ko and Daniel Rothmuller of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Since 2016, he studies with Justus Grimm at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp in Belgium.

Due to his versatility, it can be a challenge to define his musical career. However, if there is a word that suits Mikko best, it would probably be ‘collaborator.’ He works closely with various musicians, dancers, and visual artists. As a chamber musician, he has performed alongside artists such as Lorenzo Gatto, Tatiana Samouil and Razvan Popovici, among many others. Ensembles he plays with include the C/O Chamber Orchestra, Le Concert Olympique and Ensemble Silakbo, with whom he performed as a soloist with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra for the 2019 SoundMine Festival.

Driven by curiosity, Mikko frequently explores creative possibilities for the cello. This has resulted in fruitful collaborations with several composers and collectives. In 2019, he was coached by Sofia Gubaidulina to perform her work “In Croce” for cello and bayan for a concert with the composer in attendance.

He has participated in masterclasses for musicians such as Pieter Wispelwey, Nathaniel Rosen, Young-Chang Cho, Gustav Rivinius and Alexander Rudin, among others. Festivals he has performed include the Thy Chamber Music Festival in Denmark, the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival, the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Italy, the Summit Music Festival in New York and the 1000 Cellist Festival in Hiroshima, Japan.

Core to Mikko’s identity as a performer is the belief that being open and vulnerable invites others to do the same. Through his cello, he strives for that type of connection. This state of mind manifests itself in his life both onstage and offstage.