Musician Category: Bassoon

Benny Aghassi

Benny Aghassi, born in Israel (1978), began his recorder studies with Bracha Kol. During his studies at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem he won several competitions, including the Woodwind Concerto Competition and the Early Music Competition. He received his Bachelor of Music degree at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, where he studied with Sébastien Marq (recorder) and Donna Agrell (baroque and classical bassoons), and completed his Masters degree (‘cum laude’) with Heiko ter Schegget at The Conservatory of Utrecht. He currently lives in The Hague and teaches historical bassoon at the Amsterdam conservatory.

Benny was chosen to play with the European Union Baroque Orchestra (Lars Ulrik Mortensen). He currently plays and record with orchestras such as Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra of the 18th century (Frans Brüggen), The Academy of Ancient Music (Richard Egarr), Al Ayre Español (Eduardo López Banzo), The Netherlands Bach Society (Jos van Veldhoven), Orchestre des Champs Elysées (Philippe Herreweghe), B’Rock, Orchestra Libera Classica (Hidemi Suzuki), Musica ad Rhenum (Jed Wentz), Holland Baroque Society, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra (Ton Koopman) and Les Musiciens du Prince (Cecilia Bartoli). In 2005 he won 2 first prizes in the ‘Aviv Competitions’ in Tel-Aviv for Old Music Instruments, and Best Performance of an Israeli Work. He has held a grant from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation between 1997-2005.

Carles Cristobal

Carles Cristóbal, born in Premia de Mar (Barcelona), began his musical studies as a recorder player and sometime later with the bassoon studying with Josep Borras at the Conservatorio Profesional de Badalona. In the year 2000, thanks to a grant by the Generalitat de Catalunya, he moves to Basel where he studies historical bassoon with Claude Wassmer and Donna Agrell, graduating in 2003.

In 2002 he takes part of the European Baroque Orchestra (Roy Goodman, Paul Goodwin, Fabio Biondi) as well as the Netherland´s Youth Orchestra (Philippe Herreweghe).

He has played with international renown orchestras such as Venice Baroque Orchestra, Freiburger Barrockorchester, La Petite Bande, Baltasar Neumann Ensemble, Kammerorchester Basel, Collegium Vocale Gent, Il Complesso Barocco, Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla, Le Talents Lyriques, Hesperion XXI, Le Concert de Nations, Al Ayre Español, Le Cercle de l’Harmonie to name a few and played in the most important halls of Europe, USA and Japan.

Since 2007 he is professor of historical bassoon at the Conservatorio Profesional “Isaac Albeniz” in Girona.

Philippe Miqueu

Après des études de basson moderne à Pau et à Versailles, Philippe Miqueu se spécialise en basson baroque et devient basson solo de l’Orchestre de l’Union Européenne. Il est depuis régulièrement demandé dans les orchestres de Christie, Haïm, Rohrer, Malgoire, Kuijken, Herreweghe ou Christophe Coin. Sa carrière le mène donc dans le monde entier au sein de ces prestigieux ensembles.