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With their charismatic, youthful image, the members of South Korea's Novus Quartet might be taken as Korean classical music's answer to the country's ubiquitous K-pop boy bands. Their musical approach, however, is traditional; Western-trained, the group has competed successfully in top European prize events and performed across continental Europe, in Britain, and in Japan as well as in its home country. The Novus Quartet was formed in 2007 in Seoul, where all its members had studied at South Korea's National University of the Arts. They immediately made an international splash, placing third in the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in Japan. Another third prize, at a chamber music competition in Lyon, France, strengthened the group's resolve to test itself in the difficult European scene, and they headed for Germany in 2011 to study at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich. Studying there with professors Christoph Poppen and Hariolf Schlichtig until 2014, they moved that year to the Hochschule für Musik in Lübeck for further work with former Artemis Quartett violinist Heime Müller. They have also been mentored by the Belcea String Quartet under that group's formal "Coaching Scheme." More prizes validated the group's entry into the European scene, including second prize at the ARD International Chamber Music Competition in Munich in 2012. The Novus Quartet began to find major bookings outside Korea, for example at Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Louvre in Paris, and Musikfest Berlin. During the 2016-2017 season, they made debuts at Wigmore Hall in London and at the Philharmonie in Cologne, winning bookings for return engagements at both. They added the Dresdner Frauenkirche and the new Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin to their résumé in 2017-2018. The quartet released its first album, confidently entitled Novus Quartet #1, in 2016 on the French label Aparte; it contained music by Beethoven, Webern, and Korean composer Isang Yun. A future release devoted to the music of Tchaikovsky was planned. ~ James Manheim

Cellist Ophélie Gaillard is a versatile player who is familiar in the worlds of Baroque music, traditional repertory, and contemporary works. She is the founder of two small historical performance ensembles and has been active as a teacher for many years.

Gaillard was born on June 13, 1974, in Paris. Her versatility as a cellist began to show itself during her education; she attended the Conservatoire de Paris, studying modern cello with Philippe Muller, chamber music with oboist Maurice Bourgue, and Baroque cello with Christophe Coin. She earned the conservatory's first prizes in all three fields. Gaillard also earned degrees in music teaching and musicology from the Sorbonne University. She has mostly been active as a chamber music player. In 1994, she founded Ensemble Amarillis with her sister, recorder player and oboist Héloïse Gaillard, and harpsichordist Violaine Cochard. Gaillard took third prize at the International Johann Sebastian Bach Cello Competition in Leipzig in 1998 and got a solo instrumentalist of the year nod at the Victoires de la musique classiques competition in France in 2003. In 2001, Gaillard made her recording debut on the Ambroisie label with an album of works by Britten. She performed with Baroque groups led by Christophe Rousset, Emmanuelle Haïm, and John Eliot Gardiner, and in 2005, she created the Pulcinella Ensemble, with which Gaillard remains associated. The group recorded the complete sonatas for cello and continuo of Vivaldi the following year on Ambroisie. Pulcinella Ensemble was renamed the Pulcinella Orchestra in 2013 and continues to perform.

Gaillard has performed and recorded an exceptionally wide variety of music that includes many Baroque chamber works, accordion-and-cello duo music (with accordionist Pascal Contet), Romantic repertory, and contemporary music. Most of her recordings have been of chamber music, but she recorded the cello-and-orchestra recital Dreams with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 2010. Gaillard uses different cellos for her work in Baroque music (a 1737 Francesco Goffriller that was stolen from Gaillard at knifepoint in 2018 but then anonymously returned) and later repertory (an 1855 Bernardel instrument). She often performs with dancers and mimes.

As a recitalist and chamber player, Gaillard has appeared in England, Morocco, the U.S., Japan, and Latin America. Since 2003, when she began teaching at the Conservatoire de Musique et de Danse à Rayonnement Départemental in Aulnay-sous-Bois, France, she has had an important career as an educator. She has been a guest faculty member annually at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, and in 2014, she joined the faculty of the Haute École de la Musique Genève in Switzerland. Gaillard has continued to record, by 2022 issuing some 30 albums on Ambroisie and later Aparte. That year, she led Pulcinella on the album A Night in London with soprano Sandrine Piau and mezzo-soprano Lucile Richardot. ~ James Manheim

Lise Berthaud is a French violist, noted for her performances of chamber music. She played the violin before switching instruments at age 5, and pursued viola studies with Pierre-Henry Xuereb and Gérard Caussé at the Paris Conservatory. In 2000, she was named a prize winner in the European Young Instrumentalists Competition, and in 2005, she participated in the Geneva International Competition, where she won the coveted Hindemith Prize. She has worked with important contemporary composers, including Henri Dutilleux, György Kurtág, and Guillaume Connesson. In 2013, she was selected for the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists Scheme, with an invitation to perform with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. She was also invited by Leonard Slatkin to record Berlioz's Harold in Italy for Naxos. She recorded an album of Romantic music for viola and piano with Adam Laloum on the Aparté label.