The Vayla Quintet is an international woodwind quintet bringing together young musicians from Italy, Spain, and Germany. Jana Barenschee (flute), Emanuele Momo (oboe), Pablo López Ortega (clarinet), Daniele Falco (bassoon), and Benedikt Geiger (horn) founded the ensemble in the summer of 2025 after meeting at the Gustav Mahler Academy in Bolzano. The quintet takes its name from the Finnish word väylä, meaning “path” or “passage” – reflecting their shared journey as musicians and their desire to explore new paths in music.
The Vayla Quintet gave its debut concert on 9 January 2026 at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin. Since then, the ensemble has performed across Europe, with concerts in Spain and Italy including appearances at the GazteKlasika Festival in Vitoria-Gasteiz and the Bolzano Festival.
In August 2026, the quintet returned to the Gustav Mahler Academy for a European tour combining chamber music and orchestral repertoire. The tour took them to cities including Amsterdam, Hamburg, London, Vienna, Toblach, Linz, and Cologne. As part of the Academy’s historical performance project, the ensemble also performed on period instruments dating from the era when Gustav Mahler served as director of the Vienna Court Opera.
During their time at the Academy, the musicians worked with renowned artists including Chiara Tonelli of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Peter Dorfmayer of the Vienna Symphony, and Sylvester Preschler of the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra.
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August 8, 2025
On August 8, 2025, the quintet performed as part of the Bolzano Festival Bozen 2025, within the concert series Baltic Connections, organized by the Gustav Mahler Academy.
The programme featured Carl Nielsen’s Wind Quintet (1922), a landmark work in the repertoire written for a specific group of five woodwinds and conceived with a strong focus on individual instrumental roles. Each movement highlights the distinctive colour and personality of the five instruments, while the final movement is based on a set of variations on a Danish chorale.
The concert
The concert took place in the context of the Gustav Mahler Academy, an international platform dedicated to advanced musical training and performance. This performance marked the quintet’s first concert as a group, making it a particularly meaningful starting point for the ensemble.
About the festival
Here you can add further information about the festival, the programme and the musicians.
2025
In July 2025, the five members of Vayla Quintet participated in the Gustav Mahler Academy Orchestra, working under the direction of Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
The Gustav Mahler Academy is an international summer programme that brings together young musicians for intensive orchestral and chamber music projects. The programme offers participants the opportunity to work at the highest artistic level while gaining valuable experience in an international musical environment.
Orchestra concerts
During this project that the members of Vayla Quintet, coming from Italy, Germany and Spain, met working together within the orchestra and in chamber music settings. In the picture you can see all the ensemble members as orchestra musicians at a concert of the Gustav Mahler Academy Orchestra in Toblach on the __ of August in 2025.
This shared experience laid the foundation for the quintet’s musical collaboration and its future artistic projects.
January 6, 2026
On Friday, January 9th, 2026 at 7:00 PM, the Vayla Quintet presents a new chamber music programme at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, one of Berlin’s most iconic churches, located at Budapester Straße 48.
The programme features works by Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Maurice Ravel and György Ligeti.
The concert begins at 7:00 PM and lasts approximately one hour.
January 16, 2026
On Friday, January 9th, 2026, the Vayla Quintet had the great pleasure of coming to Berlin for a very special concert.
The concert took place at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, one of Berlin’s most famous and iconic churches.
programme
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Ouvertüre aus „Cosi fan tutte“ (arr. für Bläserquintett)
- Joseph Haydn – Divertimento in B-flat major (c. 1767)
- Maurice Ravel – Le Tombeau de Couperin (1914–1917)
- György Ligeti (1923-2006) – Sechs Bagatellen für Bläserquintett
– 10°C
Due to the cold weather, we experienced significant difficulties with our sensitive wooden wind instruments. We are therefore especially grateful that we were allowed to play our concert in the warmer main church.
We would like to thank Sebastian Heindl and Kathrin Oxen and the very kind churchwarden who helped us in this situation!