Maurice Steger was born on May 15, 1971, in Wintertur, Switzerland. He began studying recorder and ancient music with Pedro Memelsdorff and Kees Boeke and then continued his studies in conducting with Marcus Creed, in Stuttgart. Steger, who specializes in Baroque repertoire, has become a coveted soloist with the leading period-instrument groups and has established himself as one of the leading interpreters in the field of early music. Neue Zürcher Zeitung called him the “Paganini of the recorder” and The Independent has proclaimed him “the world’s leading recorder virtuoso.”
Steger, who is a champion of music education, gives several masterclasses a year and serves as the Director of the Gstaad Baroque Academy at the Menuhin Festival Gstaad. He is also the creator of the programs Tino Flautino and Pinocchio and the recorder player, both residing in a fairytale world that engages young children with classical music. Recordings of the projects are available on Philips. Steger’s other recordings include Telemann’s recorder quartets, the Neapolitan concerti, and Vivaldi’s recorder concerti, as well as the albums Venezia 1625 and Una Follia di Napoli. In 2010 he recorded Corelli’s collection Opus 5 under the title Mr Corelli in London. His latest recording, Souvenirs d’Italie, presents works connected to the Austrian Count Harrach’s travels through Italy. Steger anticipates a duo album with Nuria Rial in the spring of 2018. In 2002 Steger received the coveted Karajan Prize and he was honoured in 2015 with the ECHO Classic Award "Instrumentalist of the Year." Maurice Steger now lives in Zurich.
Jarosław Thiel is a graduate of the Poznań School of Talents. He studied cello at both the Academy of Music in Poznań and the Academy of Music in Łódź, Poland. Since 1997, he has been focused on historical performance. He completed his post-graduate studies in Baroque cello at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, having worked with Phoebe Carrai and Markus a Möllenbeck. Thiel has participated in master classes run by Christine Kypranides at the Dresdner Akademie für Alte Musik and has collaborated with the most important Polish ensembles specialising in early music. Thiel has been the first cellist with the Dresdner Barockorchester and a member of the Festspiel Orchester Göttingen led by Laurence Cummings since 2000. He also works with leading German ensembles, such as Cantus Cölln, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and Lautten Compagney. He regularly performs as a soloist and chamber musician in connection with festivals of early music world-wide. He currently teaches Baroque cello at the Academy of Music in Poznań and the Summer Academy of Early Music in Lidzbark Warmiński, Poland. In 2006 he was appointed Artistic Director of the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra.