Matthias Lingenfelder
was born in 1959 and received his first violin lessons at the age of 7. After training with Klaus Eichholz, Max Rostal and Gerard Poulet, he founded the Auryn Quartet in 1981; further studies with the Guarneri and Amadeus Quartet followed.

In 1982 the quartet was successful at international competitions in Portsmouth and Munich. Since then, the Auryn Quartet has been one of the leading string quartets, with concerts all over the world, at all major festivals and with numerous CD recordings that have been awarded various prizes (including the diapason d'or and the Echo Klassik). In 2022, after 41 years of concert activity together without any personnel changes, the Auryn Quartet ended its career.

In addition to his work as a quartet leader, Matthias Lingenfelder has also performed as a soloist with various orchestras such as the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, where he was also concertmaster for several years. Further projects as a soloist and in various chamber music ensembles, including with Peter Orth, Niklas Schmidt, Herbert Schuch, Quirine Viersen and Benjamin Schmid, followed.

Since 2003, Matthias Lingenfelder has held a professorship for chamber music at the University of Music in Detmold.

Peter Orth
was born in Philadelphia, USA, and began playing the piano at the age of four. As a toddler, he begged to be lifted onto the piano bench. Finally - after playing by ear for several years and stubbornly refusing to learn to read music - he received official lessons.

On his 6th birthday, Peter Orth's parents took him to his first live concert, a recital by Arthur Rubinstein, and Peter Orth already knew during the intermission that he would become a pianist.

At the age of 15, he was winning piano competitions and was accepted into Adele Marcus' class at the Juilliard School on a full scholarship after graduating from high school in Reading, Pennsylvania.

At the invitation of Rudolf Serkin, Peter Orth took part in the Marlboro Music Festival in 1978. He stayed in Vermont to study with Serkin at his Institute for Young Performing Musicians in Guilford and finally won first prize in the 1979 International Naumburg Piano Competition, which was held in memory of the great American pianist William Kapell. This was followed by prizes from the Peabody Mason Foundation in Boston and the Shura Cherkassky Prize from the "92nd Street Y" in New York.

Apart from his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center and many other important events in the United States, he received orchestral engagements with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphonic Orchestra. After his orchestral debut at Carnegie Hall, the New York Times wrote: Peter Orth is an outstanding pianist.

In the 1980s he met two important mentors: Paul Doguereau and Sergiu Celibidache. As chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic, Maestro Celibidache gave master classes in which Peter Orth participated for two years.

In recent years, Peter Orth has regularly performed recitals in New York at Alice Tully Hall, Zankel Hall, Town Hall and the Metropolitan Museum. In 1991, Peter Orth settled in Germany to devote himself more to chamber music. He works regularly with the Auryn Quartet and teaches piano and chamber music as a professor at the Detmold University of Music.