EUCO Directors
HANS-PETER HOFMANN
Hans-Peter Hofmann began playing the violin at the age of four and studied first at the Musikhochschule in Saarbrücken with Heinz Stanske und Ulrike Dierick and then with Yfrah Neaman at the Guildhall School of Music in London. Already as a student, he began his wide-ranging and successful international career as concertmaster, chamber musician and soloist, touring in England, France Holland, Spain and Austria and performing in major halls such as the Vienna Musikverein and Vienna Konzerthaus, the Berlin Schauspielhaus and Cité de la Musique in Paris.
Hans-Peter has led the Bavarian Kammerphilharmonie and Bavarian Chamber Orchestra, the Berlin Chamber Orchestra and since 1998 the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra in Bregenz. As first violin of Kontraste Nürnberg and Ensemble Plus Bregenz, he made many Radio and TV broadcasts, for example on Berlin Radio, both Süddeutsche and Südwestfunk in Germany, the ORF in Austria and also Swiss Radio, and he made a series of CDs of repertoire ranging from Baroque to Jazz. In 2006 Hans-Peter joined the prestigious Ensemble Les Dissonances in Paris and in 2011 founded the Quatuor Les Dissonances, which made its debut live on France Musique from the Théatre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris and now performs regularly throughout France.
Hans-Peter became concert-master of the European Union Chamber Orchestra in 2007 with which he has since toured throughout Europe, South America and the UK, where several of his concerts have been broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. He is also a sought-after teacher, since 1998 at the Musikhochschule in Nürnberg and since 2011 as Professor at the Musikhochschule in Saarbrücken.
While studying and graduating as a pupil of Dorothy DeLay and Joel Smirnoff at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, PETRI AARNIO had a chance to play in the Juilliard Orchestra and to work with the New York Philharmonic and the orchestra of the New York Metropolitan under such conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Zubin Mehta and James Levine. On his return to his native Finland he was appointed to the temporary post of co-leader of the Finnish National Opera Orchestra. He has also been the leader of the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra and the Finnish Chamber Orchestra and is now leader of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. A member of the New Helsinki Quartet since 1990, he has been its first violinist since autumn 2000. With cellist Erkki Lahesmaa and pianist Naoko Shibayama-Aarnio he plays in the Ad Libitum Trio. He has appeared in solo and chamber recitals both in Finland and in various other parts of Europe, the United States, South America, Africa, China and Japan. Mr Aarnio has taught at the Sibelius Academy since 1997 and at the University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki and Tampere. 
The Dutch violinist Eva Stegeman has appeared as a soloist with orchestras such as Sinfonia Rotterdam, the Orfeo Orchester Budapest, the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss, the Bielefelder Symphoniker, the European Union Chamber Orchestra and Combattimento Consort Amsterdam. She Directed EUCO since 2003 and she makes regular guest appearances with orchestras such as the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn, the North Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Casco Phil (Belgische Kamerfilharmonie), the Radio Kamer Filharmonie, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss. As a chamber music player Stegeman is founding member of the Cristofori Piano Quartet with whom she recorded piano quartets by Schumann and Beethoven. Eva is founder and artistic director of the annual International Chamber Music Festival Den Haag. Under her direction the festival has established a reputation of high artistic quality, innovative programming and intimite festival-atmosphere. The festival celebrated its 10-year jubilee in September 2012.