Lendvay Ensemble is an exciting international ensemble at home in a wide variety of musical genres.
The ensemble takes its name from its founder, József Lendvay, the internationally renowned and virtuosic Hungarian violinist.
The core of the ensemble consists of the following musicians:
József Lendvay – Violin
Noa Eyl – Violin
Julia Dinerstein – Viola
Katja Dirven-Didychenko – Cello
Chemistry and Passion
The chemistry, warmth, and excitement of their playing have garnered acclaim from audiences throughout the Netherlands and abroad. Flexibility and passion are the keys to their success; accordingly, the ensemble’s formation can vary from an intimate duo to a small orchestra. The Lendvay Ensemble perform as a passionate ensemble with a compelling repertoire of well-known masterpieces and challenging arrangements, in which all members also perform as soloist. Their programmes embrace an expansive range of classical music, enriched with a distinctive Hungarian spice.
József Lendvay (violin) is regarded as one of the most outstanding contemporary violinists. Renowned for his virtuosic technique, expressive artistry, and magnetic stage presence, he has earned international acclaim and captivated audiences across the globe. Born in Budapest in 1974, Lendvay began playing the violin at the age of five, initially studying under his father, József Lendvay Sr. His talent became evident early on, winning First Prize in a national competition for young violinists in Hungary. At the age of eight, he was accepted into the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, joining the violin class of Professor Miklós Szenthelyi. He later continued his education under the guidance of legendary violinists including Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Ida Haendel, Igor Oistrakh, Ruggiero Ricci, Jaap van Zweden, Sándor Végh and Dorothy DeLay.
Lendvay is a laureate of numerous prestigious international competitions, including the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition in Sion, Switzerland. In 1997, his exceptional achievements were recognised with the Gold Cross of Merit awarded by the President of the Republic of Hungary.
His repertoire is vast and diverse, encompassing solo works, chamber music, and his own arrangements. He has collaborated with leading soloists and conductors such as Yuri Bashmet, Vadim Repin, Andrea Bocelli, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Yehudi Menuhin and Professor Krzysztof Penderecki.
Lendvay has performed in many of the world’s most celebrated concert venues, including Carnegie Hall (New York), Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), Shanghai Concert Hall, Royal Albert Hall (London), Mariinsky Theatre (St Petersburg), Linder Auditorium (Johannesburg), Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), and Teatro Municipal (Rio de Janeiro). He has enjoyed a long-standing collaboration with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer, resulting in a recording of Brahms’s Hungarian Dances (orchestrated by Fischer), released by Philips.
He has also performed with leading orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonic of the Nations, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. He has given private performances for distinguished figures including Pope John Paul II—who awarded him a Medal for Cultural Contribution—as well as Mikhail Gorbachev, Angela Merkel, George H. W. Bush, and Helmut Kohl.
Lendvay is a regular guest at major European festivals such as Schleswig-Holstein and MDR Musiksommer (Germany), Salzburger Festspiele and Feldkirch Festival (Austria), Brescia and Bergamo Festival (Italy), the Edinburgh International Festival, and BBC Proms (UK). In 2009, he was appointed lead soloist at the Musiclandschaft Westfalen festival in Germany, returning again in 2012 under the baton of Krzysztof Penderecki.
Noa Eyl (violin)
Noa began playing the violin at the age of 5. Under the guidance of the well-known Dutch violin pedagogue Coosje Wijzenbeek, he developed into a versatile musician. At a young age he successfully participated in various national and international competitions. He won the National Princess Christina Competition twice and received a prize at the international Charles Hennen Chamber Music Competition.
As a result, he performed concerts both in the Netherlands and abroad, one of the highlights being a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York. He studied classical violin at the Conservatory of The Hague and followed a jazz programme at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. Outside his studies, Noa also immersed himself in theatre-making and collaborated with various dance companies.
Together with an actor and a director he created the children’s production The Violin and the Bow, which toured throughout the Netherlands.
In the process he mastered the art of improvisation. Noa is also a specialist in folklore and gypsy music and has worked with multi-instrumentalist Tcha Limberger. He currently collaborates with NITE (National Interdisciplinary Theatre Ensemble), which is presenting the production Nachtwacht (nominated for the Amsterdam Theatre Festival) and will stage Spinoza next season. In addition, Noa is musical director of PRA Music Theatre, which focuses on social and community projects, and he performs with his trio “Trio Bachtaloh”, presenting his own arrangements of well-known and lesser-known folk music from Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
Julia Dinerstein (viola) participated as a soloist and chamber music player in International Festivals in Europe, America, and Far East. She played chamber music with musicians like Dmitri Sitkovetsky, Daniel Rowland, Priya Mitchell, Niek de Groot, Maria Milstein, Michael Kugel, and the Utrecht String Quartet. Julia has played numerous concerts as a member of the The Hague String Trio, and the Zemtsov Viola Quartet. She is regularly performing on TV and Radio and she has participated in CD recordings for the labels Challenge, Cobra, Navis.
Beside chamber music Julia has worked as a guest principal violist at the Limburg Symphony Orchestra, Holland Symphonia (Holland), Flamish Philharmonic, Brussels Philharmonic, and De Munt Orchestra (Belgium) amongst others.
Julia Dinerstein is also one of the most prominent viola and violin teachers in the Netherlands. She works at the Rotterdam Conservatory Codarts, ARTEZ Conservatory in Zwolle, Maastricht Conservatory, and the Hellendaal Music Institute (Rotterdam). She also has been teaching at the Academy for Musical Talent (Utrecht) and Musica Mundi School in Waterloo, Belgium, being a colleague of Maxim Vengerov and Ivry Gitlis. Julia regularly gives summer masterclasses in France, Spain, US, China, Italy, and South America. A great number of Julia’s pupils and students have become winners of National and International Competitions. Julia is regularly invited as member of jury in the International Competitions. Julia herself is the 2nd Prize winner at the Beethoven International viola competition.
Julia has started violin lessons with her father Boris Dinerstein in Minsk (Bielorussia), then she continued at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory with Elizabetha Gilels and Andrei Korsakov. Later she studied viola with Michael Kugel at the Maastricht Conservatory where she received a Soloist master’s degree with Distinction.
Katja Dirven-Didychenko (cello) was born in Ukraine and graduated cum laude from the prestigious Kyiv Conservatory, where she studied under Professor Е. Chervova. She received a prize at the International Lysenko Music Competition and continued her master’s studies at the Rotterdam Conservatory, working with Marien van Staalen, Dmitri Ferschtman and Herre-Jan Stegenga.
From an early age, Katja performed as a soloist, in ensembles, and in orchestras. During her studies in Ukraine, she regularly collaborated with professional ensembles, including the Lyatoshinsky Ensemble and the Kyiv Soloists. Her performances span both national and international stages, where she appears frequently as a soloist as well as an orchestral musician. Katja has performed with leading orchestras such as Philharmonie Zuid-Nederland, Sinfonia Rotterdam, Camerata Amsterdam, and the Chamber Orchestra of Limburg. She is also a regular guest at the Musiklandschaft Westfalen festival in Germany and often serves as principal cellist in various orchestras.
Chamber music plays a vital role in her musical life. Katja regularly performs with internationally acclaimed artists including József Lendvay, Mikhail Zemtsov, Igor and Vesna Gruppman, Anna Fedorova, Letizia Maula, John van Lierop, Tomi Shimon, and Julia Dinerstein. She is a founding member and the cellist of The Lendvay Ensemble, a distinguished international collective of top musicians.
In 2020, the Beethoven anniversary year, she recorded the complete cello sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven together with pianist Roderigo Robles de Medina. Alongside her performing career, Katja is also active as a pedagogue. Since 2016, she has served as the artistic director of the Hellendaal Music Institute in Rotterdam and coaches young cello talents at the Dordrecht Cello Festival.
Katja is a versatile musician who is not confined to the classical genre; she has also contributed to performances and recordings with Edison Award-winning artist Wende Snijders.
As co-founder and the cellist of The Lendvay Ensemble, Katja performs regularly throughout the Netherlands and abroad.
