About
Lestari Scholtes (1984) gave many concerts in the Netherlands and performed on five continents, both solo, in various chamber music companies and with her piano duo partner Gwylim Janssens. Lestari can be heard at many festivals, including the Festival of Bath, Amsterdam Canal Festival, TonLagen-Dresdner Festival of Zeitgenössischen Musik, Braunlage Maikonzerte, Basilica Festival of Flanders, Klevische Klaviersommer, the Tengiz Amirejibi International Music Festival, Almere Chamber Music Festival, the International Piano Duo Festival Poland and Festival Classique. Lestari has performed with orchestras such as the Israel Symphony Orchestra, Domestica Rotterdam, Sinfonia Rotterdam, the Holland Symfonie Orkest, the Residentie Orkest and the Brabants Orkest. In chamber music, she performed with Rosanne Philippens, Daniel Rowland, members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the New European Ensemble and her own piano trio, TRIO 258, among others.
Since 2003, Lestari has formed the Piano duo Scholtes & Janssens together with Gwylim Janssens. As a duo they studied at Silver & Garburg at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hanover. The duo won, among others, the International Chamber Music Competition Almere, the Vriendenkrans Competition, the San Marino International Piano Duo Competition ‘Allegro Vivo’ and the Musical de France Competition. In 2010 the duo was named Radio4 Talent of the Year. The duo performed in many European countries and in Israel, Georgia, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Zimbabwe, Ethopia, Mongolia, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Cambodia, Korea, Chile and Bolivia . "Superb teamwork - two as one - with excellent, turn-on-a-dime transitions between episodes" wrote the American press about their performance of Igor Stravinsky's Petrouchka (Carnegie Hall, 2012).
Lestari started taking piano lessons at the age of seven. From the age of 11 she studied with Ton Demmers at the Brabant Conservatory (young talent class) and completed both her bachelor's and master's exams with Jan Wijn at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. She is now a regular jury member at (inter) national competitions and has given many master classes worldwide. Together with Gwylim Janssens, she is the founder of the Pianoduo Festival Academy, where they coach young talented duos. Lestari is artistic and business leader of the Friends of Chamber Music series in Amsterdam, the Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam and the Chamber Music Festival Schoorl. Since 2018 she has been a programmer at the Grachtenfestival.