He was born in Portugal, into a family of musicians. Experimentalist, improviser and pedagogue. Over the years he has developed a very personal methodology for musical experience and study in fusion with concepts coming from other areas of knowledge.

Their methods are mirrored in the project The Open Game / Musical Gymnastics that involves design of games, performative events, thematic workshops. He attended the Conservatory of Music of Aveiro and the Percussion Course of the Vocational School of Music of Espinho. But it was self-taught that he developed most of his pedagogical-musical experiences. It started a new path of creative exploration, promoting events and contexts for informal learning through play.

In Águeda, his hometown, he founded with his brothers the Orfeu Cultural Association, he created AparqA! – Alta Vila Creative Center (2008-2011). Coordinator of several inter-associative productions and fomenting the fusion between disciplines through experimentalism and creativity. He lectured at the Instituto Piaget de Viseu, collaborated as a monitor at the beginning of Tocá Rufar, with the educational service of Casa da Música in Oporto and with the CCB Arts Factory.

Charlotte Westhauser studied music in Mannheim and Paris as well as mathematics for the teaching profession at grammar schools. After eight years of violin lessons in childhood and adolescence, she switched to violoncello at the age of 14, which she finally studied as a major. In addition to training in piano and classical singing, she also studied conducting, which led to the practical examination of the 1st State Examination in Choir and Orchestra Conducting. She gained experience as an ensemble leader in the Bammentaler Sinfonieorchester, the Collegium Musicum Mannheim and the Heidelberger Musikfreunde, where she is currently the first solo cellist to lead the cello vocal group. In addition to her freelance work as a cello teacher, Charlotte Westhauser has also been conducting one of the school choirs of the St. Raphael Gymnasium in Heidelberg since 2018. Concert tours have taken her to Sweden, France, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the USA.

Charlotte Westhauser has been attending the international music camp in Oberwesel every year since 2002: first as a participant, later as a tutor and since 2014 as a lecturer of the Rocking Strings Orchestra. She experienced and witnessed for herself the motivation and joy of making music together during the summer holidays in the children, until the young strings form a formed and harmonious body of sound after a week in camp. The musically as well as personally valuable work with the young artists has not only strengthened and accompanied the career aspirations of the music teacher in her, but also shows each year anew which boundaries are crossed in ensemble playing and which (musical) friendships can be made.

Barbara Marsch plays and teaches cello with passion. She works with students of all ages – from 4 to 84. In addition to her teaching at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory in Mainz and at the Music School in Bergen-Enkheim/Frankfurt, she has been active for many years in string classes at primary and secondary schools – in other words: making music together from the very beginning!

After the first beginnings in the string class or in individual lessons, the motto is: get into the orchestra – develop and experience literature together. She dedicates herself to this project-related orchestral work in workshops at the music school and with great pleasure at the IMC Oberwesel. She knows how to motivate her students again and again and to inspire them for music.

In recent years she has placed a special emphasis on her training as a Suzuki teacher, a method which, in addition to individual lessons with games and fun in group lessons, is already aimed at the youngest. In this context she has gained experience and insights at international workshops in Germany and England.

Since 2009 she is a member of the Carl-Maria-von-Weber-Trio with whom she performs regularly.

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Tobias Holzmann studied viola, chamber music and cultural management in Frankfurt am Main, Mannheim, Brisbane (Australia) and Toulouse (France). After numerous stations in German cultural orchestras as an orchestral musician (including Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Staatsorchester Darmstadt, Museumsorchester Frankfurt) and as a teacher at German music schools, he now lives with his wife and three children in Toulouse, where he works as a teacher and chamber musician in the Quatuor Alizé, is active as an orchestral musician (Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre National de Montpellier, Orchestre de Chambre de Toulouse) and as a cultural manager (Toulouse International Organ Festival, Toulouse Symphony Orchestra).

His favourite activity is music education for young and old and for those who are not used to it or are no longer able to attend classical music concerts. Tobias Holzmann has been a member of the IMC Oberwesel team for over ten years now. In the program selection for the chamber orchestra, he places great value on the mixture of known and unknown repertoire, be it new music or works that have fallen into oblivion.

He enjoys coaching chamber music ensembles from duo to sextet or octet. With expert advice and great experience he helps the participants of the IMC to rehearse chamber music compositions in such a way that they delight every listener in the final concerts.

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Hello, I am Sonja Fischer and in “normal” life I am a violin teacher. I teach violin and viola at various music schools and give string lessons at various primary and secondary schools.

I enjoy making music with students of all characters and ages and I also like the mixture of individual and group lessons very much in my everyday life. I also find it exciting that I get around in so many different schools and work in teams with so many different colleagues. I find it particularly exciting to find the right pedagogy for each child and, when working with groups, to always look for ways in which, despite all the heterogeneity, I can largely do justice to everyone and challenge and encourage everyone according to their possibilities.

If then something arises together that fascinates everyone because it is ultimately greater than the sum of its parts, I find that very enriching for me as well. I like the challenge of getting even those who don’t even know that they can enjoy making music together or who are firmly convinced that they are not musical.

My conviction is that a good relationship with the teacher, joy in doing and pride in the newly acquired learning steps are the best motivation for successful learning – according to the motto “the way is the goal”. I have been a member of the string camp team for many years and every year it gives me unbelievable pleasure to work so intensively with music-loving children for a week in the inspiring atmosphere of the camp.

Jon Diven is solo bassist of the Deutsche Philharmonie Merck in Darmstadt and comes from Texas. He has lived in Germany since 1989. He teaches double bass, cello and electric bass at the Carl-Bosch-Gymnasium in Ludwigshafen and at the music school Badische Bergstrasse in Weinheim.

He has been a lecturer at the IMC String Camp since 2001 and founded the “Rockestra” with Frauke Preisler in 2007, for which he also writes the arrangements. He is a lecturer at the Akadamie for Music Pedagogy in Wiesbaden and at the Rheinische Orchester Akadamie Mainz (ROAM).

In his spare time he plays electric bass in the hard rock band “Days of Thunder” and plays keyboard, bass and guitar in the cover band “The Footprint”. From 1994-2002 he worked for Stella-Musicals in Stuttgart and Berlin and was also tour bassist for Helmut Lotti. He received a “Grammy Nomination” in the category “Best Orchestral Performance” in 2011.