Lecturers
of the International Summer Academy Bad Leonfelden 2026
Thomas Riebl was born in Vienna. He studied with Siegfried Führlinger, Peter Schidlof, and Sandor Végh. He made his debut at the Vienna Konzerthaus at the age of 16; since then, he has performed on the most important stages in Europe and the USA (including the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and Carnegie Hall, NY), with many orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, under conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Horst Stein, Edo de Waart, Sir Andrew Davies, and Sylvain Cambreling. He has been a guest at many renowned international music festivals (e.g., Salzburg Festival) and has performed with Jessye Norman, Brigitte Fassbaender, Aurèle Nicolet, Gidon Kremer, Benjamin Schmid, Joshua Bell, Isabelle Faust, Tabea Zimmermann, Natalia Gutman, Boris Pergamenschikow, Steven Isserlis, Sabine Meyer, András Schiff, Oleg Maisenberg, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Lars Vogt, and the Juilliard String Quartet.
Thomas Riebl won 3rd prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 1976 and 1st prize at the Naumburg International Viola Competition in New York in 1982.
From 1972 to 1979, he was the violist of the Vienna Franz Schubert Quartet (1st prize at the European Broadcasting Union competition in Stockholm in 1974); from 1979 to 2004, he was a member of the Vienna String Sextet. Since 1983, he has been a professor at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and has given countless master classes at the most prestigious international music academies. Many of his students have won international competitions and have become professors at music academies as well as members of leading orchestras and string quartets.
He is the artistic director of the International Summer Academy Bad Leonfelden, Austria, and has recorded numerous CDs for EMI, RCA, pan classics, and Hyperion Records. In 2010, together with master luthier Bernd Hiller, he developed a five-string tenor viola, on which he performs works such as the Arpeggione Sonata by F. Schubert, J.S. Bach’s lute version of his 5th Cello Suite, his 6th Cello Suite, Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto (in the original version for basset clarinet), as well as works newly written for the instrument, including „Toccata for Thomas“ by Garth Knox.
"The immediacy of access, the consistently tension-filled music-making, the logic of phrasing, the rhythmic stability, and the astonishing precision of intonation characterized all of Diyang Mei's performances."
"He is centered within himself, yet emotionally highly present. Like the voice of a wandering soul, the viola solo carves its path out of nothingness."
“Mei produced a reading [of Bartók’s Viola Concerto at the 2018 ARD competition] that was clear-sighted, outgoing and thoroughly enjoyable [...] the listener had the impression of a player who might just have that intangible quality of an influential voice, perhaps even a new advocate for the viola.”
Since his brilliant success at the 2018 ARD International Music Competition—where he won first prize in the viola category, the Audience Prize, and several special awards—violist Diyang Mei has steadily advanced his international career. Since 2022, he has served as the 1st Principal Viola of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
He has appeared as a soloist with leading orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, SWR Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. In 2023, he performed a concert tour of China as a soloist with the Berlin Baroque Soloists, with whom he also recorded a concerto album for Sony Classical to be released in 2025.
Alongside his solo engagements, Diyang Mei is a dedicated chamber musician who regularly collaborates with artists such as Sir András Schiff, Frans Helmerson, Emmanuel Pahud, Albrecht Mayer, Sabine Meyer, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Kian Soltani, and ensembles including the Belcea Quartet. He has performed at renowned festivals such as Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schwetzingen, Schwarzwald Musikfestival, and the Mozartfest Würzburg. Before joining the Berliner Philharmoniker, he was Principal Viola of the Munich Philharmonic from 2019 to 2022.
Diyang Mei has received numerous top awards, including first prizes at the International Instrumental Competition for Viola in Markneukirchen (2017), the Max Rostal Competition in Berlin (2015), the Kulturkreis Gasteig Musikpreis in Munich (2015), and the IVC Young Artist Competition in Rochester (2012), among others.
He studied with Shaowu Wang in Beijing, Hariolf Schlichtig in Munich, and Nobuko Imai at the Kronberg Academy. A fellowship winner of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust, he plays a viola made by Antonio Mariani (c. 1646), generously loaned to him by a member of the Stretton Society.
Upcoming highlights for the 2025/26 season: Diyang Mei will make his solo debut with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Symphoniker Hamburg, as well as perform in season-closing concerts with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the China Philharmonic Orchestra.
Marko Milenković has been the principal violist of the WDR Symphony Orchestra since 2024, having previously become the principal violist of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra at the age of 22. Starting in the winter semester of 2025, he will take up a professorship for viola at the Cologne University of Music and Dance.
As a guest principal violist, Marko has worked with renowned ensembles such as Camerata Bern, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Casa da Música Symphony Orchestra (Portugal), the Liechtenstein Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss am Rhein, and the Salzburg Chamber Soloists. He is also a regular guest with Camerata Salzburg and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
As a passionate chamber musician, Marko was a member of the Adelphi Quartet Salzburg, with whom he celebrated international success—including 1st prize at the Irene Steels-Wilsing Foundation Competition (Heidelberger Frühling), 2nd prize at the Wigmore Hall String Quartet Competition in London, as well as several awards at the Premio Paolo Borciani International Competition in Reggio Emilia. Previous chamber music stations led him to the Testore Quartet (Austria) and the Amar Quartet (Switzerland).
He has performed at major festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, and the Rheingau Music Festival, where he appeared with artists such as Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Valentin Erben, Sergio Azzolini, and Ilya Gringolts. As a soloist, he has performed with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and the Bosch String Soloists and has taught at the Haliaeti Masterclasses in Slovenia and at the Royal Conservatoire Birmingham.
Born in Ćuprija (Serbia), Marko began his musical education on the violin at the age of six before switching to the viola at fourteen and becoming a student of Prof. Tomislav Milošević. He continued his studies with Thomas Riebl and Lawrence Power.
He plays a viola by Hiroshi Iizuka from 1996.
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