PaganiniEnsemble Vienna

The Paganini Ensemble Vienna was founded in 2019 by Mario Hossen and is one of the first ensembles to focus primarily on the chamber music of Niccolò Paganini. It performs rarely heard repertoire for violin, guitar, viola and cello in historically informed performances.

For the Genoese label Dynamic the ensemble is recording Paganini’s complete chamber music. Five volumes had appeared by the end of 2025, most recently with the Quartets Nos. 3, 8 and 12. The series has been reviewed in The Strad and Fanfare, among others.

Concerts have taken the ensemble to the Vienna Musikverein and the Vienna Konzerthaus, to the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid and to Montreal, Ottawa, Santander, Burgos, Vilnius, Ghent, Warsaw, Udine, Varna, Sofia, Plovdiv, Lisbon, Goslar, Genoa and Collingwood. In December 2025 it appeared at the Teatro Liceo in Salamanca, and in May 2026 at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center.

The Paganini Ensemble Vienna is equally committed to contemporary music and has given the world premieres of numerous works written for it, among them compositions by Tomás Marco, Alessandro Solbiati, Rainer Bischof, Richard Dünser, Gabriele Proy, Tristan Schulze and Georgi Arnaoudov.

Its members work closely with the institutions devoted to the life and music of Paganini, among them the Paganini Society in Genoa and the Biblioteca Casanatense in Rome, where many of the composer’s original manuscripts are held. They are advised by the musicologists Maria Teresa Dellabora and Danilo Prefumo.

Since 2024 the ensemble has been an ambassador of the European Paganini Route, a Cultural Route of the Council of Europe. In November 2025 it played the opening concert of the newly founded Society of Friends of the Music of Niccolò Paganini at the Vienna Musikverein.

Paganini’s works offer not only technical virtuosity and great passion but also passages of tenderness and sheer delight in expression. That is where the key to this music lies. Paganini himself said: “One must feel strongly in order to make others feel.”

Mario Hossen, Violin

Mario Hossen is the founder of the Paganini Ensemble Vienna. He is a Bulgarian-Austrian concert violinist, considered as one of the leading interpreters of Paganini Music. He made his debut as a soloist with an orchestra at the age of eight. As a soloist of international acclaim, Mario Hossen has performed with renowned orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, the Bruckner Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra.

Hossen‘s musicological and artistic endeavors are focused among other things on source research on Niccolo Paganini. Mario Hossen performs on G.B. Guadagnini Violin (1749), which is placed at his disposal by the Austrian National Bank. He plays all concerts exclusively with his preferred strings, the Vision Titanium Solo strings manufactured by Viennese company Thomastik-Infeld.

Also see Mario Hossen’s full CV as a soloist.

Marta Potulska, Viola

Violist Marta Potulska is a dedicated chamber musician and co-founder of the Paganini Ensemble of Vienna. She also performs with other notable chamber music ensembles and as a member of the Burgtheater Ensemble in Vienna. Ms. Potulska is a laureate of several international competitions including first prize at the Johannes Brahms Competition in Austria (2007), at the International Bled Competition and Festival in Slovenia (2011), as well as second prize at the Michał Spisak International Viola Competition in Poland. She is also the recipient of a special award at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition on the Isle of Man, UK (2006). Mrs.

Potulska performs in prestigious concert halls throughout Europe such as the Musikverein, Wiener Konzerthaus, Auditorio Nacional de Madrid and many venues worldwide, including USA, Canada and Japan. She also enjoys performing in international music festivals, such as the Salzburg Festival, Strings Only in Zadar, Osor Music Evenings Festival in Osor, Croatia, Arsana Art Festival in Ptuj in Slovenia, Vares Classic Festival in Bosnia, Varna Summer Music Festival in Bulgaria and the Collingwood Music Festival in Ontario, Canada, among others.

Liliana Kehayova, Violoncello

Liliana Kehayova, a fourth-generation musician, received her master’s degree in cello performance at the Vienna Conservatory studying with Lilia Schulz-Bayrova. As a passionate solo and chamber music performer, Ms. Kehayova has participated in numerous music festivals & recitals throughout Europe. She performed as a soloist with orchestras such as Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Mitteleuropa Orchestra Udine, North Czech Philharmonic, Varna Philharmonic Orchestra, New Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Orphica among others. She has performed in venues such as Musikverein (AT), Athenaeum (RO), Rudolfinum – Dvořák Hall and Smetana Hall (CZ), Palau de la Musica Catalana (ES) & Bulgaria Hall (BG). In 2012, Liliana was honoured with the grand scholarship of the Austrian foundation „Alban Berg”

Alexander Swete, Guitar

Alexander Swete is one of the leading and internationally most sought-after guitarists in Austria. His expressive playing, sense of sound and virtuosic ease delight both critics and audiences. During his studies at the Conservatory in Bregenz with Georg Gaupp-Berghausen and at the Vienna Music Academy with Konrad Ragossnig he had already achieved great success in prestigious international guitar competitions (Havana / Cuba and ARD Munich). His international breakthrough started in 1991 after winning the 1st prize at the International Guitar Competition of Radio France in Paris, the world‘s most important competition for guitar. Alexander Swete is professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and is D‘Addario Artist, playing on D‘Addario Pro Arte Nylon strings.