Ad
© Patrícia Andrade
The Portuguese conductor Pedro Carneiro, born in the capital of Lisbon in 1975, has pursued a double career in music. On the one hand, he is an internationally celebrated percussionist who performs at all the major concert halls between the USA, Japan and Australia. More than 100 world premieres demonstrate his special position as a member of the musical avant-garde, as do his collaborations with the Arditti Quartet, the Tokyo String Quartet and the Chilingirian Quartet. The percussionist has a special love for improvisation, often in combination with live electronics or other innovative technologies. On the other hand, Carneiro has launched a successful career as a conductor. The Portuguese Chamber Orchestra (Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa) wasfounded at his initiative and has its own concert series at the Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisbon. Not least, the Portuguese multi-talent composes orchestral and chamber music, is interested in interactive projects with theatre, film or dance, and develops percussion accessories such as mallets and pedals.
© privat
The 21-year-old Portuguese musician Eva Aguilar pursues several artistic career paths simultaneously. She plays cello, studies voice and is also training as a composer. In this area, she is interested mainly in multi-disciplinary forms of composition, incorporating improvisation and installation, choreography, video and electronics. During recent years, Eva Aguilar has been invited by various ensembles to create commissioned works, in her Portuguese homeland as well as in Spain, France, Belgium and Great Britain. Her works have been played at renowned festivals for contemporary art, such as the Dialogues Festival (Edinburgh), Festival Rondò 22 (Milan) as well as the DME Festival, Música Viva Festival and COMPOTA in Portugal. In 2023, Aguilar was the Composer in Residence at the Victor Córdon Studios / National Theatre São Carlos; this year, she is Composer in Residence of the Portuguese National Youth Orchestra JOP, also writing a new work which will have its world premiere at Young Euro Classic.
“Poème Symphonique” (1962)
New Work (World Premiere) 🏆
Symphony No. 9 in E-Minor Op. 95 “From the New World” (1893)
Ad
© private
The personal and artistic biography of Cem Mansur could hardly be more cosmopolitan: the British and Turkish citizen was born in Istanbul in 1957 into a multi-national and multi-lingual family. He studied first in London and then with Leonard Bernstein at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. As the conductor of the Istanbul State Opera from 1981 to 1989 he acquired an impressive opera repertoire. The successful performance of Edward Elgar’s unfinished opera The Spanish Lady in London in 1986 was followed by internationally renowned orchestras and opera houses in Europe and the USA as well as Israel and South Africa. In 2009 Mansur conducted the European premiere of Arvo Pärt’s Symphony No. 4 in Helsinki, followed by the world premiere of his composition Veni Creator in Poland in 2010. As chief conductor of the National Youth Philharmonic of Turkey he has conducted guest appearances at Young Euro Classic and led several bi-national projects, including the Young Euro Classic Festival Orchestra Turkey-Germany and the Armenian-Turkish Youth Orchestra. From 1998 to 2011 he was also chief conductor and artistic director of the Akbank Chamber Orchestra.
© Volkan Kovancısoy
The Turkish pianist Cem Babacan is one of the most renowned soloists in his homeland. Born in 1988, he studied at the National Conservatory of the Hacettepe University and was then admitted as an advanced student at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where he graduated with the highest honours. In the meantime, Babacan has appeared with all the important orchestras and at all the major music festivals in Turkey, as well as London’s Steinway Hall and the Tonhalle in Zurich. He was also invited for several performances with the Brandenburg State Orchestra in Frankfurt an der Oder. In 2018, the pianist gave the world premiere and made the first recording of Cem Oslu’s Piano Concerto with the Izmir Festival Orchestra and of the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Ateş Pars with the Hacettepe Symphony Orchestra.
© Ali Güler
A native of Istanbul, Ege Gür studied double bass and piano performance at the Ankara Academy of the Arts. Later, he took up composition studies at the State Conservatory of the Hacettepe University and is currently enrolled in its master’s degree programme. Gür has written a multitude of very different compositions: his orchestral works include As if (2019), In cold water, of silence (2020) and Effaced Fingers (both 2021). In the chamber music field, he has composed works for different formations, ranging from wind quintets to a trio for double bass, accordion and piccolo entitled A liquid pearl. Piano works and film scores round out the work of the 26-year-old. In his compositions, he combines the sound colour of 20th-century music with the rich sonic and rhythmic traditions of Turkish music.
Excerpts from “Roméo et Juliette” (1839)
Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini a-Minor for Piano and Orchestra Op. 43 (1934)
“the image of that which is invisible” (2023/24, German Premiere) 🏆
“Romeo and Julia”, suites I and II (1938, Excerpts)
Ad
©
Born into a family of musicians, Alberto Rincón received his first violin lessons from his father at the early age of four, continuing his education at the Elementary School Elila Mena. Later, he continued his music education at the National Conservatory of Music in Santo Domingo, completing his studies with Yolanda Yankar. In 2010 Rincón initiated a great musical development programme in his Dominican homeland, which culminated in the founding of the youth symphony orchestra “Appassionato filarmónico” and the children’s orchestra “Appassionato juvenil”. From 2016 to 2022, the conductor was also director of the National Youth Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic, which he conducted in 2019 at Young Euro Classic. In 2021, he was the director of the EU-supported first opera festival in the Caribbean, which featured singers from the Caribbean, Europe and the USA. For more than 30 years, Rincón has been developing choral programmes for adults and young people in the Dominican Republic.
©
At the early age of four, Rebeca Masalles received her first violin lessons; later she became the leader of the second violins in the National Youth Orchestra of the Dominican Republic. In 2018 the violinist made her debut at the Main Auditorium of the National Theatre. In 2022 she won the first prize at the John Leatherwood Competition and performed as a soloist with the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra. In addition, Rebeca Masalles is passionate about chamber music, whether with her string quartet “Red Hills” or as a member of a piano trio.
© Stephen Urquizo
Born in the capital of Santo Domingo as the son of the conductor Alberto Rincón, Ariel Rincón pursued a musical career as a cellist for many years. He played both in the Filarmónica Appassionato Juvenil and in the National Youth Orchestra of the Dominican Republic, performing at Young Euro Classic in 2019. Recently, Ariel Rincón has been pursuing the development of his baritone voice; to this end, he has participated in vocal classes with Kamal Khan, Enrique Pina and Sibele Márquez.
Overture to “Fidelio” in E-major Op. 72 (1814)
Aria “Hai già vinta la causa / Vedrò mentre io sospiro” from the Opera “Le nozze de Figaro” (1786)
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D-major Op. 35 (1878) – First Movement: Allegro moderato
Danzón No. 2 (1994)
“Suite de las Américas” (arr. Caonex Peguero)
“Por Amor” (1968)
“Nostalgia” from the “Suite Macorix” (1990)
“Mangulina de Concierto” (arr. Caonex Peguero)
“Merengue” Overture (arr. Caonex Peguero)
“Caña Brava” (1925)
“La Bilirrubina” (1990)
Ad
© Luidmila Jermies
© Lars Gundersen
Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider is one of those rare musicians who has “transitioned uncommonly well to the podium, bringing his violinist’s insight and profound musicality” (cleveland.com). The 2023/24 season marks his fourth as Music Director of the Orchestre National de Lyon. Szeps-Znaider regularly features as guest conductor with some of the world’s leading orchestras, e.g. the Cleveland Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie, Bamberg Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Being a violin virtuoso, Szeps-Znaider maintains his reputation as one of the world’s leading exponents of the instrument. This season, he makes appearances with the Danish National Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic as well as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Singapore Symphony Orchestra, where he will combine both his playing and conducting abilities. He will also be making his highly anticipated return to London’s Wigmore Hall, performing with pianist and long-time collaborator Saleem Ashkar. Szeps-Znaider plays the “Kreisler” Guarnerius del Gesù of 1741 on extended loan to him by The Royal Danish Theatre through the generosity of the VELUX Foundations, the Villum Fonden and the Knud Højgaard Foundation.
“nocturnal whispers” (2024)
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D-major Op. 61 (1806)
Symphony No. 3 in A-minor “Scottish” Op. 56 (1829-1831)
Ad
© privat
Mark Armstrong studied at Oxford University and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. He writes and arranges music for all sorts of groups, from jazz and commercial recordings to choirs. He has been involved in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra since playing trumpet in the band 25 years ago. Today, he is its Music Director.
As a composer and arranger, Mark Armstrong has written extensively for big band and is a former winner of the BBC Big Band Competition arranging prize. Additionally, he composes and arranges for a variety of forces from small jazz ensemble to full orchestra and many of his works have been recorded by NYJO. As a performer, he performs regularly with the Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra and in small groups. Mark Armstrong is Jazz Professor at the Royal College of Music in London and works as a moderator, trainer and examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM).
British Jazz from the 1930s till 1960s
Ad
© Marco Borggreve
As chief conductor of the German String Philharmonic, Wolfgang Hentrich draws upon his many years of experience as an orchestral violinist. For almost three decades, the 58-year-old has held the position of first concertmaster of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra; before he was appointed to the same position at the Robert Schumann Philharmonic Orchestra in Chemnitz at the age of only 21. Following the model of the legendary Viennese concertmaster Willi Boskovsky, Hentrich conducted numerous New Year’s Concert with both orchestras since 1999. He also leads the Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra Dresden, holds an honorary professorship at the Dresden Music Academy and dedicates himself with particular enthusiasm to special programmes for children. Among his CD recordings, orchestral works by Johann Strauß, Mozart’s Violin Sonatas and the Violin Concerto by Kurt Schwaen and Ruth Zechlin stand out. In August 2013, Hentrich became Michael Sanderling’s successor as chief conductor of the German String Philharmonic.
© Robin Clewley
She was the first saxophone player ever to reach the final round of the competition BBC Young Musicians. She was also the youngest soloist ever to perform at the legendary Last Night of the Proms in London. Today, Jess Gillam is still only 25 and already presents her own weekly show on BBC’s Radio 3, “This Classical Life”, which has won several awards. In the words of The Times of London, she is “not just one of Britain’s most virtuosic instrumentalists, but also an unstuffy, inspiring personality”. Jess Gillam has long had an exclusive recording deal with the venerable label Decca Classics: in 2019, her first album Rise was released, followed by Time (2020). In general, the energy and adventurous spirit of the saxophone player with the striking ponytail seem to know no bounds: during the corona lockdowns, she formed her “Virtual Scratch Orchestra”, assembling 2,000 musicians of all ages from more than 30 countries via the internet.
Partita for Strings (1944)
“Furious” (2023) and other works for string orchestra
Concerto for Saxophone and String Orchestra in E-flat-major Op. 109 (1934)
Chorale for Strings (2005)
Serenade for String Orchestra in C-Major Op. 48 (1880)
Ad
© Marco Borggreve
Much of the career of the Dutch conductor Antony Hermus has taken place in Germany. During his six years as General Music Director at the Anhaltisches Theater in Dessau (2009-15) he called attention to the opera house not only by producing a complete Wagner Ring, but also by open-air and Twitter concerts. Guest engagements have taken the 50-year-old to the most important symphony orchestras of the Netherlands, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra London, to Melbourne and Seoul. Since the 2022/23 season, Hermus has been chief conductor of the Belgian National Orchestra in Brussels; he has also conducted all the important Dutch symphony orchestras, including the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Residentie Orkest and the Rotterdam Philharmonic. His discography also reflects his artistic curiosity. After recording works by August Klughardt with the Anhaltinische Philharmonie Dessau, Hermus recorded compositions by the late romantics Alphons Diepenbrock and Siegmund von Hausegger with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. 2019 also saw the release of a CD of Violin Concerti by Eduard Lassen, Rued Langgaard and Philipp Scharwenka.
© Sasha Gusov
While still living in the Soviet Union, the young Boris Giltburg received his first piano lessons from his mother, later continuing his education in Israel. Today, the 40-year-old is one of the most sought-after pianists of his generation and has performed with renowned conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Neeme Järvi, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Leif Segerstam and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. As a soloist, Giltburg has repeatedly chosen focuses for his work: for the 2020 Beethoven Year, he recorded all 32 Piano Sonatas on audio and video; he also played all five Piano Concerti with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under Vasily Petrenko. From 2021 to 2023, Giltburg dedicated himself to Maurice Ravel’s complete solo piano works, which he performed at Bozar in Brussels, at the Muziekgebouw Amsterdam and at London’s Wigmore Hall. In 2023, he also dedicated a large part of his time to Sergei Rachmaninov’s piano works, on the occasion of the composer’s 150th birthday. Boris Giltburg also writes a blog called “Classical music for all” and contributes articles to British and German music journals.
© Friso Keuris
The Dutch composer Joey Roukens, born in 1982, has developed into one of the most interesting composers in the Netherlands after completing his studies at the University of Leiden in 2006. Almost all the important ensembles in the Netherlands have performed his works; apart from the large-scale cantata Rising Phenix (2014), the Violin Concerto (2015) and the orchestral work Morphic Waves (2015), an outstanding composition is Boundless (2016), commissioned by the Concertgebouw Orkest to commemorate Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday. For the piano duo Artur and Lucas Jussen, Roukens composed the double concert In Unison. In his works, the Dutchman seeks to combine very different styles – from Stravinsky and Ravel to Mahler and Sibelius, the rhythms of US-style minimalism and the clarity of renaissance polyphony, not to mention jazz and pop. With the work Distorted Fantasie (after J. P. Sweelinck), Roukens commemorated the 400th birthday of his compatriot Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck in 2021.
“Night Flight” (2021, German Premiere) 🏆
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 4 in G-minor Op. 40 (1926)
“Petrouchka” (1947)
Ad
© Mimoza Veliu
Born in Albania, Desar Sulejmani began playing the piano at the age of six, soon appearing in public. From 1998 he attended the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, where he studied with Till Engel (piano), Andreas Reiner and Rainer Kussmaul (chamber music) and David de Villiers (conducting). As Andreas Reiner’s piano partner, Sulejmani recorded the complete violin sonatas by Felix Mendelssohn for CD. Conducting has been the focus of his artistic work since 2003: he has held positions with orchestras in Essen, Cologne and Düsseldorf and has been invited to conduct in Albania and Kosovo, the Czech Republic, Austria and Uzbekistan. In 2008 Sulejmani conducted the first Albanian opera Mrika by Preng Jakova in his hometown of Shkodra. In 2016 he conducted an international production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte in Johannesburg, South Africa. In 2019 he founded the Western Balkans Youth Orchestra.
Overture to “La Forza del Destino” (1862)
“O papagaio do moleque” (1932)
“Pictures at an Exhibition” (1874, orchestrated by Sergey Gorchakov)
Ad
Michal Bares
The Czech conductor Alena Hron studied in Prague at the Conservatory and the Academy of Performing Arts, then moved on to Oslo and finally to Zurich, where she recently graduated with a master’s degree from the Academy of the Arts. The only current recipient of the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship, the conductor receives two years of intense mentoring and coaching from the conductor Marin Alsop. In 2023, Alena Hron made her debut at the Prague Spring Festival and also conducted the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic and the Janáček Philharmonic, including in concerts in Berlin and Paris. Alena Hron gathered her first opera experiences at the Silesian Theatre in Opava, where she conducted Verdi’s Rigoletto and the musical Funny Girl. In parallel with Jakub Hrůša, the chief conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and future music director at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, she has led the summer concerts of the Ševčík Academy Orchestra during the past two years. Starting with the 2024/25 season, she will be the chief conductor of the Southern Czech Philharmonic in Ceske Budejovice.
Marek Novotný
Born in Prague in 1985 and living in Berlin today, the Czech cellist Tomáš Jamník has established himself on the international classical music scene as a performer of classical and contemporary compositions. He studied with Josef Chuchro at the Prague Academy of the Performing Arts, then with Peter Bruns in Leipzig and with Jens Peter Maintz at the Berlin University of the Arts. In 2006, he won the International Competition of the Prague Spring Music Festival. Since then, the musician has appeared with internationally renowned orchestras in Europe, the USA and Asia, including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under the baton of Robin Ticciati. His chamber music partners include the pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, the violinist Josef Špaček, the mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená and the Pavel Haas Quartet. Championing contemporary music, he has given world premieres of works by the Czech composers Miroslav Srnka, Michal Nejtek, Slavomír Hořínka and Ondřej Kukal. Since 2015, he has been the artistic director of the Czech Chamber Music Academy, and since 2019 he has held the same position at the Ševčík Academy.
©
The Czech-American violinist Matteo Hager graduated from the Music High School in Prague and received a scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he currently studies with Rodney Friend. The 21-year-old has won several international competitions, for example the Violin Competition Josef Micka, the France Musique Competition, the Augustin Aponte Music Competition and the “Note di Talento”. In 2023, Matteo Hager was declared a “Rising Star” by the BBC Music Magazine. He has performed with all the major orchestras in the Czech Republic, working with conductors such as Tomáš Netopil, Tomáš Brauner, Radek Baborák, Petr Vronský and Jan Kučera. In 2023, the violinist was entrusted with the honour of representing the Royal Academy of Music as a soloist in New York City. Apart from the violin, his main interest is composition; Hager has repeatedly performed his own works.
The Czech composer Jiří Teml, born in 1935, can look back upon a long and fruitful creative life; his compositions seems innumerable. Teml also achieved broad renown by working for the radio for decades, first in Pilsen, then at Radio 3 in Prague. Teml achieved his first great success as a composer in 1972 at the festival Prague Spring with his Fantasia appassionata for organ. While in his early years, especially under the influence of the Polish avant-garde, the contemporary idiom dominated his work, Teml later found a personal style with a greater affinity for melodic and rhythmic elements of Czech folk music. Apart from symphonic works, chamber music makes up the bulk of his oeuvre, within which Teml kept experimenting with new combinations ranging from duos to sextets. Furthermore, solo compositions for organ and harpsichord stand alongside vocal works and choral music. Teml also wrote the two children’s operas The Emperor’s New Clothes (2006) and Puss-in-Boots (2008) and several song cycles for children’s choruses.
“The Vltava” from “My Fatherland” (1874)
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (World Premiere) 🏆
Overture for Orchestra H 345 (1953)
Romance for Violin and Orchestra in F-minor Op. 11 (1873-1877)
“Suita Rustica” Op. 19 (1938)
Slavic Dance No. 7 in C-Major Op. 72 (1886/87)
Ad
© Kike Barona
The Catalan conductor Josep Caballé Domenech, born into a family of musicians in 1973, studied piano, percussion, violin and singing in his hometown of Barcelona before turning to conducting. Caballé Domenech has close ties to Germany; from 2013 to 2018, he was General Music Director at the Halle Opera House, where he presented a complete Ring of the Nibelung cycle in 2016. Guest concerts with the Halle Staatskapelle have also taken him to Berlin’s Konzerthaus. In addition, he has conducted a multitude of opera productions, both at the State Opera Berlin and the Komische Oper in Berlin as well as the opera houses in Naples, Lisbon and Beijing. He has been invited to conduct several German radio orchestras, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London and renowned orchestras in Madrid, Stockholm, Zurich and Toulouse. Apart from being chief conductor of the Colorado Springs Orchestra, the Catalan has also been chief conductor of the Moritzburg Festival Orchestra since 2019.
© Simon Pauly
The horn player Stefan Dohr from Berlin represents his instrument like few others: as a celebrated soloist, chamber musician and principal horn player of the Berlin Philharmonic (since 1993), he occupies a stellar place in the international horn landscape. Dohr’s virtuosity and adventurous spirit have moved many leading composers to dedicate new works to him, redefining the possibilities of his instrument. Examples include Toshio Hosokawa, whose horn concerto Moment of Blossoming was given its world premiere by Dohr with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle in 2011, Wolfgang Rihm, who wrote a horn concerto for him in 2014, as well as Jorge E. López (2009), Johannes Wallmann (2010), Dai Bo (2015) and Hans Abrahamsen (2020). Most recently, Dohr and the Berlin Philharmonic gave the world premiere of a new horn concerto by Jörg Widmann in the spring of 2024. Furthermore, the 58-year-old is an esteemed chamber music partner of artists including Ian Bostridge, Mark Padmore, Maurizio Pollini, Kirill Gerstein, Kolja Blacher and Guy Braunstein. He is a member of the Ensemble Vienna-Berlin and of the Philharmonic Octet Berlin.
© Timor Raz
Born in East Berlin in 1964, Jan Vogler has been a presence on all the world’s important stages for three decades. The cellist, who lives in New York City today, has performed with all the important symphony orchestras in the USA as well as orchestras in London, Paris, Vienna and St. Petersburg. He has worked with conductors such as Andris Nelsons, Antonio Pappano, Thomas Hengelbrock, Manfred Honeck and Kent Nagano. Apart from his work as artistic director of the Dresden Music Festival and the Moritzburg Festival, Vogler also found time for the musical and literary project “Bill Murray, Jan Vogler & Friends – New Worlds”, which he developed jointly with the American actor. As part of his long-established collaboration with the label Sony Classical, his most recent recordings were Three Continents, featuring cello concerti by Nico Muhly (USA), Sven Helbig (Germany) and Zhou Long (China) in 2020, followed by a recording of the Cello Concerti by Edouard Lalo and Enrique Casals. Jan Vogler plays the Stradivari cello “Castelbarco/Fau” of 1707.
Overture to “Così fan tutte” K. 588 (1790)
“Sound and Fury” (2019)
Concerto for Horn and Orchestra No. 1 in E-flat-major Op. 11 (1882-1883)
Romance for Cello in F-major Op. AV. 75 (1883)
“Score” (2020)
Symphony No. 35 “Haffner” in D-major K. 385 (1782)
Ad
© Kaupo Kikkas
The musical world of the British-Swedish violinist Hugo Ticciati is characterized by infinite curiosity. The 44-year-old, brother of the chief conductor of Berlin’s DSO, Robin Ticciati, includes literature, philosophy, spirituality and meditation in his programmes, just like dance and kinetic painting. He performs the classical violin concertos, but also delves into contemporary music with verve. Ticciati has works by Takemitsu, Shchedrin, Glass and Lera Auerbach in his repertoire and has also given works by Albert Schnelzer, Sergey Yevtushenko, Erkki-Sven Tüür and Judith Weir their world premieres recently. He is a passionate chamber musician, working with the percussionist Evelyn Glennie, pianists Angela Hewitt and Olli Mustonen and the trombonist Nils Landgren, for example. In addition, Hugo Ticciati is the artistic director of the O/Modernt Kammarorkester and the O/Modernt Festival in Stockholm. Recently he has turned increasingly to conducting as well and has been invited to work with the Swedish and Australian Chamber Orchestras as well as Stuttgarter Kammerorchester.
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 2 “In Evening Light” (2020, Excerpts)
Scandinavian Folk
Symphony No. 1 in E-Minor Op. 39 (1898-1899)
Finale from the suite “The Prodigal Son” R. 214 (1957)
Ad
© Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra
The conductor Sebastian Weigle hardly needs an introduction in Berlin. After studies at the Hanns Eisler Music Academy, the native Berliner began his musical career at the State Opera Unter den Linden, where he was appointed principal horn player at the age of 21. He became a conductor and First Kapellmeister at the State Opera Unter den Linden in 1994. Recently, Weigle conducted the new production of Piotr I. Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades at the Deutsche Oper Berlin this spring. Before that, he spent more than 15 years, through the end of the 2022/23 season, as general music director at the Frankfurt Opera, where he conducted a complete Ring cycle and numerous other productions. In 2000, Weigle made his debut at the Met in New York; from 2007 to 2011, he conducted the Meistersinger production at the Bayreuth Festival. Since 2019, he has been chief conductor of the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. Numerous productions of the Frankfurt Opera conducted by Weigle, such as Korngold’s Die tote Stadt, Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen, Rienzi and Die Feen and Aribert Reimann’s Lear, appeared on CD, as did a major part of Richard Strauss’ orchestral works.
© Simon Pauly
A native of Salzburg, Julia Hagen began playing cello at the age of five, studying with Heinrich Schiff in Vienna from 2013 onwards and later with Jens Peter Maintz at the Berlin University of the Arts. As a fellow of the Kronberg Academy, she also studied with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt through 2022. She has appeared as a soloist with many renowned European orchestras; this season, she gave her debut at the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra under Andrés Orozco-Estrada and with the Kammerakademie Potsdam under Paul McCreesh. Another debut took place in form of a concert tour in Switzerland with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under its designated chief conductor Petr Popelka. Julia Hagen’s chamber music partners include the violinist Renaud Capuçon and the pianist Igor Levit. In June 2023, she received the Beethoven Ring 2022 for promising young artist personalities at the Beethoven House in Bonn from the organization “Citizens for Beethoven”. Julia Hagen plays an instrument built by Francesco Ruggieri in Cremona in 1684.
Symphony No. 1 in D-major Op. 25 “Symphonie classique” (1916-1917)
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in A-minor Op. 129 (1850)
Symphony No. 4 in A-major Op. 90 “Italian” (1833)
Ad
© Tony Hitchcock
The Italian Gianandrea Noseda, born in Milan in 1964, is a sought-after conductor worldwide. Since 2016 he has been chief conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC; in 2021 he also became general music director of the Zurich Opera, where he has staged Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen over the past two seasons with artistic director Andreas Homoki directing. He regularly conducts the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic, appears in New York and Paris and leads orchestras with which he enjoys long-standing relationships, e.g. the BBC Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Israel Philharmonic. At the Met in New York, he has conducted operas such Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Bizet’s Pearl Fishers and Borodin’s Prince Igor. His discography includes works ranging from Dvořák and Liszt to Casella, Respighi and Dallapiccola as well as Shostakovich and Prokofiev. His special championship of the younger generation is apparent in such engagements as his appointment as founding conductor of the Tsinandali Festival and its youth orchestra in Georgia in 2019.
© Marco Borggreve
The German-French cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, born in Heidelberg in 1982, has long become one of the world’s most sought-after soloists during recent years. As one of the last students of Boris Pergamenschikow, he trained at the Hanns Eisler Music Academy in Berlin, where he himself has now held a professorship since 2016. Altstaedt performs with orchestras all over the world, from Vienna to Zurich and London to the USA and Asia. This season, he has toured with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées under the baton of Philippe Herreweghe. In addition, the cellist frequently works with early-music ensembles such as Il Giardino Armonico, La Cetra and Berlin’s Akademie für Alte Musik. In 2012 Altstaedt took over the artistic leadership of the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival from Gidon Kremer. His repertoire is remarkably broad: in addition to the great cello concerti of the repertoire, the Bach Suites and chamber music works, he is a champion of contemporary music, having given world premieres of works by Sofia Gubaidulina, Jörg Widmann, Wolfgang Rihm, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Thomas Adès. In the 2023/24 season he also premiered works by Erkki-Sven Tüür and Martón Illes.
“Fate Now Conquers” (2020)
“The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” (1946)
“Don Quixote” Op. 35 (1897)
Ad
© Kiran West
“With its own repertoire reflecting the feeling, conscience and ideas of the younger generation in a creative manner, the National Youth Ballet seems ideally poised to combine and amalgamate youth culture, high culture and the general public. It also has an important social aspect, which will radiate positively.” John Neumeier, Director
John Neumeier was director and chief choreographer of the Hamburg Ballet for 51 years from 1973; in 1996 he also became the Ballet’s Artistic Director and in 2005 one of the managing directors of the Hamburg State Opera. He received his first ballet lessons in his hometown of Milwaukee/Wisconsin (USA) and then trained in Copenhagen (Denmark) and at the Royal Ballet School in London (Great Britain). In 1963 he was engaged as a dancer at the Stuttgart Ballet; in 1969 he moved on to Frankfurt, where he was appointed as ballet director. Under his direction, The Hamburg Ballet became one of the leading ballet companies on the German dance scene and soon received international recognition. As a choreographer, John Neumeier has continually focused on the preservation of ballet tradition, while giving his works a modern dramatic framework. John Neumeier has received numerous awards and his choreographies are part of the repertoire of many renowned ballet companies worldwide – his oeuvre comprises more than 170 ballets of different genres. In 1978 John Neumeier founded the Hamburg Ballet’s Ballet School. In 2006 he initiated the John Neumeier Foundation and in 2011 founded the National Youth Ballet, whose Director-General and Intendant he is.
© Kiran West
“Our goal with the National Youth Ballet is to make the dancers instruments for living choreographers. To be involved physically and emotionally in a choreographer’s creative process, to join in this creativity, that is what was important to me as a dancer, and that, I believe, is what makes our profession as dancers special.”
Kevin Haigen Artistic and Pedagogical Director
Kevin Haigen, born in Miami, trained at the School of American Ballet. After dancing with the American Ballet Theatre under Erik Bruhn and the Stuttgart Ballet under the directorship of Glen Tetley, he joined the Hamburg Ballet in 1976 to work with John Neumeier. Starting in 1984, he danced with the Nederlands Dans Theater with Jiří Kylián, William Forsythe and Nacho Duato; in 1985 he moved on to the Ballets de Monte Carlo as principal soloist, ballet master, teacher and choreographer, then in 1986 to the London Festival Ballet, in1988 to the Béjart Ballet Lausanne, and in 1991 he returned to Hamburg. As principal ballet master of the Hamburg Ballet and teacher at its School, he teaches internationally and also oversees productions of John Neumeier’s ballets all over the world. Since 2011, he has also been Artistic and Pedagogical Director of the Bundesjugendballett. However, he is inspired mainly by the current development of his work: teaching creative thinkers and makers, conveying that the art of ballet is a journey that never ends. In 2019, Kevin Haigen won the Hamburg Theatre Prize – Rolf Mares in the category “Outstanding Production”.
Ad
©
Born in Anápolis, Brazil, Eliel Ferreira began playing the violin at the age of eight; in 2011, he graduated from the State University of Goiás with a diploma in violin performance. Since 2013, Ferreira has been devoting himself increasingly to conducting. His main conducting teacher has been Neil Thompson, but he also took courses from Marin Alsop, Abel Rocha, Claus Efland, Gottfried Engles, Claudio Cruz and Gian Luigi Zampiere. In 2015, he received important impulses from Bernard Haitink, whose rehearsals he attended at the Lucerne Festival; during the following year, he participated in the conducting workshop at London’s Westminster School. Currently, apart from his work as chief conductor and artistic director of the Orquestra Sinfónica Jovem de Goiás (OSJG), he is the assistant conductor of the Goiânia Symphony Orchestra and coordinator for the various symphonic groups of the “School of Future” of his region.
©
Born in São Paolo in 2005, Guido Sant’Anna began playing the violin at the age of five, first performing with an orchestra when he was seven. Many scholarships and awards accompanied his career; in 2018, he became the first Brazilian violinist invited to the International Yehudi Menuhin Competition in Geneva. In 2022, Guido Sant’Anna caused a stir when he became the first South American ever to win the renowned Fritz Kreisler Competition in Vienna; the prize winner’s concert took place at the venerable Musikverein in Vienna. In October 2022, the violinist stepped in at short notice in São Paolo when Christian Tetzlaff fell ill, performing the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. Further invitations have taken him to Austria, Switzerland and Great Britain; in 2023, the violinist gave his Asian debut with a series of concerts in South Korea. Since October 2023, Guido Sant’Anna has been studying with Mihaela Martin at the Kronberg Academy near Frankfurt.
Three Brazilian Dances for Orchestra (1941)
Concerto “em formas brasileiras” for Violin and Orchestra No. 4 Op. 107 (1962)
“Bachianas Brasileiras No. 7” W 432 (1942)
Dances from the Ballet “Estancia” (1943)
Ad
© SHABYT CHANNEL OF KazNUA
The Kazakh conductor Yerbolat K. Akhmedyarov, born in 1982 as the son of the conductor, composer and musicologist Karshyg Akhmedyarov, studied conducting and piano performance at the National Conservatory of Kazakhstan. Today, he is one of the most prominent artists of his country, commanding a repertoire of no less than 200 symphonic works. For many years, he conducted the State Academic Symphony Orchestra, later also the Symphony Orchestra Akhmet Zhubanov. At the Abay State Opera House, Akhmedyarov conducted numerous productions; here, his repertoire ranges from Verdi and Puccini to Wagner and Bizet and the great ballets by Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev all the way to the most important operas by Kazakh composers. In addition, the conductor plays an active role at the annual congress of the Kazakh Union of Composers, the “Orchestra Parade” on the holiday celebrating the capital of Almaty, and at Kazakh Culture Festivals abroad, most recently in the USA, Switzerland and South Korea.
© SHABYT CHANNEL OF KazNUA
The Kazakh pianist and composer Karina Izmailova is one of the leading artistic personalities of her country. Trained mainly at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, from which she graduated with highest honours in 2017, she has performed during recent years at all the important concert halls and with all the orchestras in Kazakhstan. She was also successful at international competitions such as “Maria Yudina” (St. Petersburg), “Musical Diamond” (Moscow), “Viva Music All World” (New York) and “Primavera Romana” (Rome). As a soloist and chamber musician, the pianist has performed a multitude of concerts, for example as part of a Kandinsky exhibition at Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery. In 2012, she organized a concert commemorating the 85th birthday of the Kazakh composer Gaziza Zhubanova, who died in 1993. At the same time, she dedicates a significant part of her activities to the heritage of Akhmet Zhubanov, the central figure in Kazakh music in the first half of the 20th century.
© SHABYT CHANNEL OF KazNUA
The dombra ensemble “Shabyt”, which is associated with the National University of the Arts in Astana, is one of the leading ensembles of its kind in Kazakhstan. The dombra, a two-stringed, long-necked lute with a pear-shaped corpus, is considered the national instrument of Kazakhstan and is also very popular in the neighbouring countries, such as Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Founded in 2011, the repertoire of “Shabyt” is marked by high quality and original programming; the ensemble considers it its special mission to combine the artistic traditions of dombra playing with the technical challenges of contemporary works and arrangements. Apart from tours to the most important cities and concert halls in Kazakhstan, the dombra ensemble “Shabyt” has also demonstrated its abilities on tours to the USA and Great Britain, Germany, Austria and Italy, performing for a broad audience.
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in A-minor Op. 54 (1841)
“Makhambet” for Dombra Ensemble and Orchestra (1975-80)
“Rondo alla Turca” (ca. 1783), arr. for Dombra Ensemble and Orchestra
Symphony No. 8 in G-major Op. 88 (1889)
Ad
© Gregor Hohenberg
A native of Salzburg, David Christopher Panzl has an international career as a percussionist. At the age of 13, he first performed as a soloist in a school concert; later during his school years, he participated in several jazz courses in New York City. One of his teachers was Martin Grubinger Sr. Today, the 39-year-old travels around the world giving master courses and judging numerous international competitions, apart from performing himself. Among his musical partners are H. K. Gruber, Christian Seibert and Andreas Steiner, but also Keiko Abe, Nebojsa Zivkovic, Jeff Queen and Nanae Mimura. Panzl has given world premieres by notable composers, such as Keiko Abe, Shih, Johannes Motschmann, Peter Koene, Jorge Sánchez Chiong and Enjott Schneider. Since 2016, he has been the artistic director of the mdw Percussion Ensemble, and most recently was appointed to the same position at the MIAGI Orchestra.
“Cuban Overture” (1932, arr. Markus Geiselhart, David Panzl)
“Black Child” (2022)
“Joburg Sun” (2024)
“A Bubble is a nice Friend to have” (2013, arr. Markus Geiselhart, David Panzl)
“Celebration Suite” (2018, arr. David Panzl)
Excerpts from “Musica para charlar” and “Caminando” (1937, 1938, arr. Markus Geiselhart, David Panzl)
“Blue in green” (1959, arr. Markus Geiselhart, David Panzl)
“Soweto Protocol” (2024)
“Missing Soest” (2015, arr. Markus Geiselhart, David Panzl)
“Birdland” (1977, arr. Markus Geiselhart, David Panzl)
Ad
Nine „Ode to Compassion“ – Commissioned by Deutscher Musikrat, BTHVN2020, Royal Philharmonic Society, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Sinfonie Nr. 9