During the Great War most composers enlisted in the service of their country, mobilised at the front or in the service of the population at home. Opposition or silence were the exception. Whether they were drafted (Hindemith and Schmitt), engaged as volunteers like Vaughan Williams, or civilian in a humanitarian organisation (Koechlin), all did their duty, all the while continuing to compose. Their language evolved with considerable liberty and spontaneity. All four gave the viola a sonorous and expressive range of tremendous richness, backed up by embracing and generous piano scores.

Vincent Roth (born in 1974) began studying the viola with Sabine Toutain, entering the Paris Conservatory in 1990 in the class of Pierre-Henri Xuereb, in which he obtained his diploma of advanced training with high honours (Premier Prix d’alto). He thereupon enrolled in the class of Vladimir Mendelssohn at the Folkwanghochschule of Essen and obtained there his concert diploma (Konzertexamen) in 1996. In addition he studied harmony and counterpoint with Bernard de Crépy and composition with Jacopo Baboni-Schilingi (co-founder along with Luciano Berio of the ‘Tempo Reale’ Pedagogy and Research Department in Florence).

He plays in chamber music and as a soloist with the Accroche Note, Stravinsky, In Extremis and Linea Ensembles, and with Les Percussions de Strasbourg as well as the Orchestre Philharmonique de Lorraine. He performs in various festivals: Musica (Strasbourg), Présences (Radio France), Ultraschall (Berlin), Musiques sacrées du monde (Fès, Morocco), Archipel (Geneva), Acanthes (Metz), etc.

Sébastien Beck (born in 1976) is a graduate of the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional in Metz, in the piano classes of Jean-Marc Bonn and Éric Vidonne. His course of study also included Clarinet, Orchestral Conducting and Theory.

In 1995 he enrolled in the piano class of Roger Muraro at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Lyon, where he obtained his Diplôme National Supérieur de Musique and his advanced studies degree, as well as the Certificate of Aptitude in piano. In 2002 he took part in the Erasmus exchange programme at the Musikhochschule of Lübeck in the class of Konstanze Heickhorst.

Sébastien Beck plays a Piano Érard 1879 which belonged to Gabriel Pierné.