CELLIST
ADYA KHANNA-FONTENLA
Cellist
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The cellist Adya Khanna-Fontenla was born in Vigo (Spain). She has specialised in the classical as well as in the contemporary repertoire. She focuses on solo, chamber music and ensemble playing.
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The performance of works by living composers such as Francisco Coll, José María Sánchez-Verdú and Kaija Saariaho plays an important part in her artistic development. This enables Adya to communicate with contemporary artists, which she considers a very exciting and enriching experience.
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Adya is a member of notabu.ensemble, a contemporary music ensemble based in Düsseldorf. She collaborates also with other several contemporary music ensembles such as United Instruments of Lucilin (Luxembourg), Ensemble MusikFabrik (Cologne), Ensemble E-MEX (Essen, Germany), and Vertixe Sonora Ensemble (Galicia, Spain).
She has participated in several chamber and contemporary music festivals, such as Forum Neuer Musik and Acht Brücken (Cologne, Germany), Na hör’n Sie mal... (Düsseldorf, Germany) and 11.11 neue musik in delmenhorst (Germany).
In 2020 Adya was accepted by the Lucerne Festival Academy under the artistic direction of Wolfgang Rihm, taking part in the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra in 2021. This gave her the opportunity to play in concert halls such as the Berliner Philharmonie and the KKL Luzern with works by I. Xenakis, R. Saunders or M. Illés among others.
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Adya Khanna-Fontenla completed her Bachelor of Music studies in cello at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Aragón under Prof. Fernando Arias (cello) and Cuarteto Quiroga (chamber music). This was followed by a Master of Music Violoncello-Solo in the class of Hans-Christian Schweiker and a Master of Music Interpretation Neue Musik in the class of David Smeyers. Both Masters were done at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln with the highest marks. At the moment she is receiving further tuition by cellist Gabriel Schwabe.
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Adya is interented in the arts, as well as in literature and philosophy, which inspired her to take a university degree in the History of Art at the University of Santiago de Compostela, for which she received two excellency awards.
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Adya plays a cello made in 2021 by Frank Lemke (Cologne).
