Bridges Kammerorchester

The composing orchestra

Johanna-Leonore Dahlhoff is a flautist, has been artistic director of Bridges - Musik verbindet in Frankfurt since 2016 and founded the Bridges Kammerorchester together with Anke Karen Meyer in 2019. On her concert tours as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician to numerous countries around the world, she is always keen to familiarise herself with the musical traditions of the respective host country. Since 2015, she has also been active as a composer and arranger, including for the Bridges Kammerorchester.

Damian Yordanov is a kaval player, winner of numerous competitions and conductor specialising in folklore, a graduate of the National School of Arts in Varna and the Music Academy in Plovdiv. As a musician and conductor, he works across genres and styles with symphony/chamber orchestras, ensembles and (rock/jazz) bands. In addition to his diverse musical projects and concert tours, Damian Yordanov has been teaching at the National School of Folkore Arts Shiroka laka in Shiroka Laka, the Anton Strashimirov Primary School and the National School of Arts in Varna.

Shelly Ezra studied in Lübeck, London, Weimar, Frankfurt am Main and Trossingen. She is a prize winner at the ARD International Music Competition, the International Clarinet Competition Freiburg, the Braunschweig Classix Festival Competition and the International Max Reger Chamber Music Competition, Karlsruhe. As a soloist, she has performed with renowned orchestras, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Nuremberg State Philharmonic, the Collegium Musicum Basel and the Jena Philharmonic. Shelly Ezra has been a Buffet Crampon Artist since 2024.

Peter Klohmann is a saxophonist, composer and multi-instrumentalist. He founded the concert series ‘Junge Szene Frankfurt’ and opened the 45th German Jazz Festival in Frankfurt in 2014. Peter Klohmann is in demand as a guest musician with the hr-Bigband, among others, and has performed in Brazil, the USA, South Africa, South Korea, Russia, Romania, Poland, India, Italy and the Balkans. He has composed numerous works for the Bridges Kammerorchester. His composition Identigration? gives its name to the orchestra’s debut album. Peter Klohmann is a member of the Bridges Ensemble Noor Jazz Ensemble.

Carmen Zarco studied horn in Granada and Valencia and is currently based in Frankfurt. She has been a member of numerous orchestras, including the JOSG (Jugendorchester Granada) and the OUGR (Universitätsorchester Granada), and has performed at the Valencia Youth Wind Ensemble Festival, among others. In addition to her studies, she is involved in various music projects, including the musical Cabaret at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, performs as a guest musician and teaches horn.

Andrés Rosales studied jazz guitar and composition in Colombia and the USA. He is a guitarist and tiple player in the Bridges Kammerorchester, composer and winner of the Young Composers’ Competition of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia. In addition to his international concert and composition activities, Andrés Rosales writes arrangements and compositions for the NDR and the Bridges Kammerorchester, among others. As a composer, he has worked with the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia and orchestras from Buenos Aires and has performed on stage with major representatives of the Latin American scene. His compositions La Suite and Sendero – Camino en viento salvaje have appeared on the albums of the Bridges Kammerorchester Identigration and Complementarity.

Salim Salari has been playing the Azerbaijani long-necked lute Tar since the age of thirteen and was a member of various ensembles and orchestras in Tabriz, the capital of East Azerbaijan in Iran, including the Radio Chamber Orchestra. He has lived in Germany since 2016 and plays in the Bridges Kammerorchester, for which he also composes, as well as in the Bridges ensembles Turnalar Quartet and Meyjana Trio. Salim Salari also completed a bachelor’s and master’s degree in civil engineering.

Hadil Mirkhan received her musical training at renowned music institutes in Damascus. She has won prizes in numerous oud competitions and is a member of several ensembles and orchestras. In addition to her artistic career, she completed a degree in dentistry in Heidelberg and also works as a dentist.

Dennis Merz studied guitar in Frankfurt and San Sebastian and is a founding member, guitarist, composer and arranger in the Bridges Kammerorchester. He deals with folkloric music from all over the world and incorporates sounds from flamenco, tango, bossa nova, Arabic and Indian music into his works. The world premiere of his composition Arroyo with the Bridges Kammerorchester in the hr-Sendesaal in 2019 will be particularly memorable. Dennis Merz is also a member of the Bridges ensemble Balkan Fuego Trio. He also teaches at music schools in the Rhine-Main area and performs with his band Nomadenpuls and the Trio Aroha.

Samira Memarzadeh studied harp in Frankfurt am Main and London, as well as Islamic studies and ethnology at the University of Freiburg. Since then, she has continuously expanded the expressive possibilities of her instrument – from minimal music to transcultural soundscapes. With a čang (angle harp) built especially for her, Samira Memarzadeh is one of the few musicians worldwide who keep the centuries-old tradition of West Asian harps alive. In addition to her intensive concert activities, she has been working as a dramaturge and music educator at the Tonhalle Düsseldorf since 2021. She also develops transcultural music education approaches for renowned players in the music scene (Heidelberger Frühling, Bridges Kammerorchester, Netzwerk Junge Ohren). Samira Memarzadeh is a founding member of the Bridges Kammerorchester, harpist in the Grupo Maloka and Perismon ensembles, and has been teaching transcultural ensemble playing at the University of Cologne since 2024.

Sarah Luisa Wurmer shapes contemporary zither music with her artistic versatility and interdisciplinary concert formats. On the treble, alto and bass zither and the Mongolian arched board zither yatga, she explores connections between old and new music and develops a contemporary aesthetic for the zither. She is currently studying at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, supplemented by stays at the Mongolian State Conservatory in Ulaanbaatar and the mdw Vienna. The Fanny Mendelssohn Award winner is supported by scholarships from the Max Weber Programme of the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts and the music scholarship of the City of Munich, among others, and released her debut album intimacy in September 2025 on the ES-DUR label.

Ramin Rahmi began his musical career at the age of four with the Persian percussion instruments tombak and daf, before studying the Persian long-necked lute tar and musicology at the Tehran Conservatory of Music. He continued his training at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and also studied with highly respected masters of traditional Persian music such as Mohamadreza Lotfi and Hosein Alizadeh. Ramin Rahmi has performed in Iran, Italy, Germany, Sweden, France and Russia. He is a founding member of the Bridges Kammerorchester and also a member of various Bridges Ensembles. 

Hagit Halaf completed her violin studies in Tel Aviv and Vienna. She has performed worldwide with renowned orchestras, including the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Solistes Europeéns Luxembourg and the Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, and has played under top conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta and Daniel Barenboim in internationally renowned music centers such as Carnegie Hall and the Musikverein Wien. She also devotes herself intensively to chamber music of all styles, from classical to world music and contemporary music. Hagit Halaf is also a violinist in the Bridges Ensemble Perismon.

Walid Khatba studied violin in Damascus and is trained in classical European as well as traditional and classical Arabic music. He was a member of the Syrian National Orchestra, the Syrian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra of Syrian Musicians (England), among others. He has also played with internationally renowned ensembles such as the band Gorillaz and as a soloist with the WDR Funkhausorchester and composed the music for the documentary Exodus, which tells the story of migrants fleeing across the Aegean Sea. Walid Khatba has been an active member of Bridges – Musik verbindet since 2016 and composes and arranges works for the Bridges Kammerorchester as well as for several ensembles. He has recorded two of his orchestral arrangements of famous Arabic classics for the Bridges Kammerorchester on CD. 

Vladislav Belopuchov studied violin in St. Petersburg, Oslo, Mannheim and Würzburg. He has performed in various quartets and string trios since his student days. As part of his international concert activities, he has performed as a soloist and in chamber music concerts in Russia, Europe and South America, including under the patronage of Princess Kira of Prussia and the Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation. Vladislav Belopuchov is also a member of the Kammerphilharmonie Frankfurt and the international string ensemble L’Orchestra I Sedici, specializing in a wide range of musical genres from baroque to contemporary music. He is also a violinist and narrator in the successful co-production Coulours of Democracy between the Bridges Kammerorchester and the Volksbühne Frankfurt.

Michael Makarov studied violin in Odessa and Würzburg and has been a member of the Bridges Kammerorchester since 2019. His orchestral activities have included playing in the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie under famous conductors such as Gary Bertini and Rudolf Barschai, the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra, the Camerata Würzburg, the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, the La Isedici Orchestra, the Capitol Orchestra and the Deutsche Philharmonie Merck. Michael Makarov is also active in the field of chamber music, having already dedicated himself to new music at a young age in the Ensemble Frescos of the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra and also discovered jazz, funk, art rock and pop for himself. He is a member of the Dialog String Quartet, Arco String Quartet, Violincello Quartet (known as Russian Quattro), Ultimate Duo and the Tony Osanah & Michael Makarov Project.

Zolo Klingen studied violin in Frankfurt and Leipzig. During her studies, she played in the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, the Baltic Youth Philharmonics and the Sinfonietta Frankfurt. She took part in numerous masterclasses, including with Thomas Brandis, Yvonne Smeulers and Christian Tetzlaff, and has performed worldwide under Lothar Zagrosek, Christophe Rousset, Kristjan Järvi, David Afgam, Jonathan Nott, Stefan Asbury, Ivor Bolton and Kurt Masur. Zolo Klingen is also active in the field of classical crossover and creates and publishes his own productions.

Alireza Meghrazi Solouklou first began playing the violin, also learned the kamanche and studied harmony, composition and solfège. He has appeared on radio and television and has played in renowned Iranian orchestras, among others. Alireza Meghrazi Solouklou was awarded Best Kamanche Player at the Tehran Music Festival and Best Composer at the Folk Music Festival. He has also released several music albums, including Aghaie Sama, Zarchon baharan, Norouznamak and Shooride.

Christoph Emmanuel Langheim studied viola in Frankfurt am Main, Tel Aviv, Vienna and Maastricht and is currently a music teacher at the Waldorf School in Frankfurt and a lecturer in the Hessen State Youth Symphony Orchestra. He also works as a freelance editor for Ut-Orpheus Edizioni. He was principal violist in the orchestra LaVerdi Milano under Riccardo Chailly and played in cooperation projects with La Scala Milan and the Frankfurt Opera, as guest principal violist in the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Ensemble Midt Vest. Christoph Emmanuel Langheim also works as an arranger for the Bridges Kammerorchester.

Rabie Azar studied viola in Damascus and is trained in classical European, traditional and classical Arabic music as well as contemporary pop music. He was a member of the Syrian National Orchestra, the National Syrian Orchestra of Arabic Music and the Mediterranean Orchestra, among others. International tours have taken him to Spain, Italy, Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Lebanon and the Arab Emirates. Rabie Azar has also taught violin and viola at Al Baath University in Homs and the Sulhi al Wadi Institute for Music in Damascus. He is a founding member, composer and arranger of the Bridges Kammerorchester and a member of the Bridges ensembles Meyjana Trio and Lel.

Gabriel Mientka first learned to play the violoncello from his father and studied cello in the USA and Frankfurt. He is a founding member of the Bridges Kammerorchester, for which he also composes and arranges. His compositions Istanbul and Constantinople were premiered by the Bridges Kammerorchester and released on the Bridges Kammerorchester albums Identigration and Complementarity. Gabriel Mientka plays as solo cellist in the Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt and is an internationally sought-after chamber musician, for example in the Lupu-Mientka Duo together with his wife, the concert pianist Anca Lupu, as well as in the multi-style cello ensemble cellharmonics.

Maria Carolina Pardo Reyes is a cellist and specialist in historical performance practice. As part of her orchestral work, she has played with the Göttingen Baroque Orchestra, the Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt, the Aschaffenburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Bridges Kammerorchester, among others. She is also a member of the Las Marías duo and the Artaria String Quartet and teaches cello in Germany and Argentina.

Nicola Pacha Vock is a freelance double bass player and cultural manager. She is a member of the Bridges Kammerorchester, has been head of its education and community departments since 2024, and is a member of the Bridges Ensemble Tanava and the Ugarit Band. She is also project manager for the community project Eine Straße geht ins Konzert run by the Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft Frankfurt. From 2018 to 2024, she was managing director and artistic co-director of the Kammerphilharmonie Frankfurt.

Nicola Pacha Vock studied orchestral music at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt and business administration at the FernUniversität Hagen. She was a member of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, an intern in the orchestra of the Staatstheater Darmstadt, and played in the Opern- und Museumsorchester Frankfurt on a temporary contract.

Eduardo Sabella is in demand as an electric and double bass player in numerous jazz clubs in Germany, Europe and China. Other appearances have taken him to the state theatres in Mainz and Wiesbaden and to numerous festivals, such as the Burghausen International Jazz Week, Palatia Jazz and Apéro’s Jazz in Luxembourg. Eduardo Sabella has also contributed to various pop and jazz albums, such as Red Messiah by Jan Felix May, Jetzt und Heute by Ima Kyo and the film music for the ORF/ARD film production Bergfried. Eduardo Sabella is a founding member of the Bridges Kammerorchester and a member of the Bridges Ensemble Noor Jazz Ensemble.