Duo Ormaza

Brothers Jacob and Aarón were born into a musical family, the two youngest of five. They both started their musical education at an early age, Jacob on the violin and Aarón on the piano. They started to play together for variety recitals in different cities in Ecuador, and by 2013 they were organizing their first tour in Quito and Guayaquil. Since then, they have performed in venues around Ecuador, the Netherlands, and Germany. Due to their brotherly bond and in-depth knowledge of each other, they can work towards giving refined risk-taking performances, and challenging and pushing each other constantly towards new directions. They often construct their programmes around an idea, or a composer, having explored the repertoire of the French, Russian, and German tradition; in addition, they have an interest in performing the academic music of their home country. They are both part of a project created by their brothers and them called Clases Maestras Guayaquil, which aims to provide inspiration and access to knowledge and resources to young musicians in Ecuador. Jacob has been soloist of all the professional orchestras in Ecuador (Cuenca, Guayaquil, Loja, and Quito), having played concerti by Beethoven, Dvorak, Lalo, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Sibelius, and Vieuxtemps. Furthermore, he has won several first prizes in different competitions in his home country He obtained his Bachelor degree, earning a Magna cum laude distinction, from the Universidad de Especialidades Espíritu Santo, under teacher Iván Fabre, concertmaster of the Guayaquil Symphony Orchestra. He continued his studies at the Musikhochschule Lübeck with Prof. Maria Egelhof, and chamber music with Prof. Heime Müller (Artemis Quartett). He obtained his Masters Degree from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, where he studied with Prof. Lena Neudauer. During the last years, Jacob has been greatly influenced by Prof. Christoph Poppen. Additionally, he has been coached by Raphael Merlin (Quatour Ebene), Donald Weilerstein, Eckart Runge (Artemis Quatett), among others. Aarón has been in the Netherlands since 2016, currently pursuing his Masters degree in Piano Performance at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam under tutelage of Frank van de Laar. As part of his professional activities, he performs both as a soloist and as a collaborative pianist, having had the opportunity to perform in some of the most important venues in the Netherlands (TivoliVredenburg, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam and Eindhoven, Toonzaal Den Bosch, and others), and in Ecuador. He obtained his bachelor degree in 2016, from the Universidad de Especialidades Espíritu Santo in Ecuador, after which he successfully auditioned at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, entering the class of renowned pedagogue Jan Wijn. He obtained his second Bachelor Degree in 2020, being one of the last students of prof. Wijn at the Conservatorium.