Archive Programme 2016

© Christof Rieken

Prof. Monika Grütters was born in Münster and studied German literature, art history and political sciences at the universities in Münster and Bonn. She gained professional experience by working for opera houses, in publishing and in the museum field before working for arts and culture programmes in major corporations. From 1998 to 2013 she was a board member for the foundation “Brandenburger Tor”. Since 1999 she has been an honorary professor of culture management at the Free University in Berlin.

Monika Grütters is First Associate Chairwoman of Berlin’s CDU. From 1995 to 2005 she was a member of the Berlin House of Representatives, where she was the CDU Faction’s spokeswoman for science and culture. Since 205 she has been a member of the German Parliament. During the past legislature period, Monika Grütters chaired the Committee on Culture and Media. In December 2013 she was appointed Minister of State and Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

© S. Tarlova

The Russian conductor Vasily Petrenko began his musical education at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he had such important teachers as Ilya Musin, Mariss Jansons and Yuri Temirkanov. Today the 40-year-old is not only chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, but has also been chief conductor of the European Union Youth Orchestra since the autumn of 2015. At the same time, Petrenko is a sought-after guest conductor, appearing with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras including the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Sydney Symphony and Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the San Francisco and Chicago Symphony Orchestras. Petrenko is an active opera conductor, appearing at houses including the Bavarian State Opera of Munich, and the Zurich Opera, and has recorded a wide range of repertoire for CD, including the complete Shostakovich symphonies and works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Elgar and Szymanowski.

© Brigitte Lacombe

The French sisters Katia and Marielle Labèque are doubtlessly the most fascinating and successful piano duo of our times. For four decades, the two have given duo recitals in all the world’s great concert halls and appeared with major orchestras. They have worked with contemporary composers such as Luciano Berio, Olivier Messiaen and Osvaldo Golijov and with conductors representing historical performance practice, Giovanni Antonini, John Eliot Gardiner and Andrea Marcon among them. At the same time, the Labèques are continuously initiating new projects: in 2013 they realised The Minimalist Dream House, inspired by the concerts organized by La Monte Young at Yoko Ono’s New York loft in 1961. Together with her own rock band and the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Katia performed a concert featuring music of Hitchcock’s film composer Bernard Herrmann in 2014. In 2015 the sisters gave the world premiere of a new concerto by Philip Glass with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel. In 2005 they founded the Foundation Katia & Marielle Labèque in Rome, which is dedicated to interdisciplinary cooperation, but also offers young artists their own recording studio.

Chairwoman of the Board, GASAG

© GASAG

“I was never leaving places, but moving towards others“, thus Vera Gäde-Butzlaff describes her career. In 1973, at the age of 19, she moved from Lower Saxony to Berlin to study law at the Free University. In 1985 she became a judge at the Berlin Administrative Court, where she first dealt with the many issues of environmental law, presiding over cases concerning construction and ecological issues. Ever since, the environment has accompanied her in various guises – for example, she worked for the Ministry of Environmental Issues of Saxony-Anhalt in 1998.

An opportunity to approach the issue from an entrepreneurial point of view came in 2003, when Vera Gäde-Butzlaff became Chairwoman of the Board of Berlin’s municipal waste-disposal company BSR. From 2007 to 2014 she was responsible for about 5,300 BSR employees. Since March 2015 she has been Chairwoman of Gasag, Berlin’s Gasworks. Her priority is to shape entrepreneurial and economic issues – private or communal is not a dogmatic pair of opposites to her. Rather, she likes to ask which construct offers the greatest value for society as a whole.

She is also a friend of the arts: since 2011 she has been chairwoman of the Friends of the Berlin State Ballet. So it makes perfect sense for her to welcome the National Youth Ballet at Young Euro Classic!

© Steven Haberland

The US-American John Neumeier is among the most important choreographers of our times. As Ballet Director and Artistic Director of the Hamburg Ballet, he turned this company into one of Germany’s leading ones. John Neumeier won international acclaim for his combination of traditional ballet with new, contemporary forms. One of John Neumeier’s passions is the support and education of young talent. In 1978, he founded the Ballet School of the Hamburg Ballet. In 2011, John Neumeier took on the position of Artistic Director of the newly-founded National Youth Ballet. John Neumeier has been awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit twice and was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 2003. He already choreographed a ballet for Young Euro Classic in 2012, and in 2013 and 2014 the National Youth Ballet appeared at the Konzerthaus in two of his choreographies as well.

www.hamburgballet.de

© Yohan Stegli

Born in Miami, Kevin Haigen has worked as a dancer, choreographer, ballet teacher and ballet master. He trained at the School of American Ballet under George Balanchine, where he created his first choreographies. In 1976 Kevin Haigen joined the Hamburg Ballet, where he returned in 1991, after several international engagements, as company ballet master and ballet teacher. Ever since, he has assisted John Neumeier in the production of numerous ballets worldwide. Since the founding of the National Youth Ballet, Kevin Haigen has been its Artistic and Pedagogical Director.

Born in Nürtigen near Stuttgart in 1986, Steven Walter studied cello in Oslo and Detmold and lives in Berlin and Stuttgart. He is an enthusiastic chamber musician, a member of various formations, who enjoys playing in extraordinary situations and being involved in special orchestra projects. As a musician and creative spirit, he felt the urge to initiate his own projects early on. His ideas and undertakings met with broad enthusiasm; thus, he was nominated as one of three “Cultural Managers of the Year” in 2011, gives lectures at symposia and at academies, and has published widely on artistic and managerial subjects. Steven Walter is the initiator and artistic director of the PODIUM Festival – in 2008 he had the idea of starting his own festival; in 2009 the PODIUM Festival Esslingen took place for the first time.

Aike Errenst, a native of Hamburg, has a passion for piano accompaniment and chamber music, fields in which she won several “Jugend musiziert” awards on the national level. Even during her studies, she worked as a répétiteur at the Hamburg Academy of Music and Theatre. While studying piano with Tinatin Gambashidze, she intensified her focus on chamber music and piano duo, taking master courses with Grigory Gruzman and Tal & Grothuysen, among others. Her arrangements won her a scholarship from the European Choral Forum for Young Composers. As a songwriter and keyboarder, e.g. for her band project “Cuico”, she is also active in the popular music field. Since 2013 she has supported the National Youth Ballet as a pianist, arranger and composer and conceives and implements the sound for its choreographic creations.

Johannes Fuchs is a theatre and music pedagogue. From 2002 to 2006 he developed concepts for staged and musical interpretation of operas together with Cecilia Zacconi at the Young Opera programme of the Stuttgart State Opera. Together, they developed children and youth projects, workshops and teacher training sessions to accompany all the productions of the Stuttgart State Opera, then directed by Klaus Zehelein. During the seasons from 2004 to 2006 he was also responsible for the project office of the Young Opera programme. There, he initiated the project “IMPULSE MusicTheatreDance”, which focused on special pedagogical and social needs at elementary and secondary schools; from 2006 onwards he continued this project at the Stuttgart State Theatre under Hasko Weber. Since 2011 he has been responsible for the children’s and youth programmes of the LUCERNE FESTIVAL in Switzerland.

© Ingrid Theis

Actor and Voiceover Artist

Dietmar Wunder owes his career start in the film business to the James Bond movies starring Sean Connery. Today, he is a successful actor and voiceover artist who also records audio books and works as a dialogue director. He is the German voice of the current James Bond actor Daniel Craig as well as Adam Sandler, Cuba Gooding Jr., Omar Epps and Sam Rockwell.

Wunder has won several awards for his work, including the German Voiceover Prize in 2008 for directing the dialogues of the TV series Weeds, the prize “Ohrkanus” in 2011 in the category “Best Reading for Children / Teenagers” for the audio book Chroniken der Weltensucher – Der Palast des Poseidon by Thomas Thiemeyer. At the Los Angeles Reel Film Festival in 2010 he won the “Best Supporting Actor” Award for his role in the crime thriller Not Worth A Bullet.

© BBC Philharmonic Sussie-Ahlburg

The Spanish conductor Juanjo Mena has had a close connection with Norway since he held the position of principal guest conductor at the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra from 2007 to 2013. Before that time, the Basque-born musician led the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra for many years. Since 2011, the 49-year-old has been chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester, and tours have taken them to China and South Korea, but also to Germany and Spain. Mena is also a sought-after guest at all the great orchestras in the USA, Scandinavia and France; in May 2016 he makes his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic with a French and Spanish programme. Mena’s CD productions also frequently feature Spanish and Spanish-speaking composers; thus, he has recorded works by de Falla, Turina, Montsalvatge and Ginastera. His broad repertoire, however, also includes Russian and American composers, Viennese classicism, Stravinsky, Strauss and Messiaen.

© Stéphane de Bourgies and Virgin Classics

Over the course of three decades, the Norwegian cellist Truls Mørk has not only conquered one of the foremost ranks among cellists worldwide, but also confirmed it consistently by outstanding achievements. Apart from his brilliant technique, the intensity of his interpretations is widely praised. The 55-year-old appears as a guest with the Berlin and the Vienna Philharmonic, in London, Paris and Tokyo and with the great American orchestras in New York, Boston, Cleveland and Los Angeles. Furthermore, Mørk has made a multitude of CD recordings; apart from the famous cello concertos of the 19th and 20th centuries, they feature works by Massenet, Miaskovsky, Prokofiev and the complete cello suites by Bach and Britten. Mørk has an insatiable curiosity about contemporary works: he has performed no less than 30 world premieres, including works by composers Einojuhani Rautavaara, Pavel Haas, Krzysztof Penderecki and Matthias Pintscher.

Actor

© Gerhard Kassner

Vienna’s Burgtheater, Hamburg’s Schauspielhaus, Munich’s Residenztheater – Dietrich Mattausch is at home on all the major German-language stages. And of course on your television screen: “Der Fahnder”, “Traumschiff”, “Tatort”, many whodunits, but also many serious roles, such as in the movie “Die Wannseekonferenz”. Mattausch is one of Germany’s most well-known actors – on television and on the stage, which means the world to him. Yet he only arrived in his dream career after several detours, suffering through an apprenticeship as a forwarding merchant, taking acting classes on the side, playing provincial theatres for a relatively long time and only having his breakthrough in his mid-thirties. But then it was a real breakthrough! Being tall, he is considered the ideal casting for bankers, doctors, directors or high-ranking civil servants. He often plays these types as ice-cold and calculating, or cynically intellectual. In his private life, he is quite different: amusing, curious, open-minded, a ponderous activist. Apart from the theatre, music is his love. Good for Young Euro Classic: he has accompanied the festival from the very beginning, proving himself an active and true friend for sixteen years.

© Kaspars Teilans

The Latvian conductor Andris Vecumnieks, born in 1964, has headed the Orchestra of the Latvian Music Academy “Jazeps Vitols” since 2002. In addition, he is artistic director of the chamber orchestra “Sinfonia concertante” and is also responsible for the music education programme of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. Vecumnieks also teaches conducting at the Latvian Music Academy and has won renown as a composer. His numerous works include orchestral and choral works, chamber music and concerti for solo instruments, including the Latvian folk instrument kokle. As a conductor, Vecumnieks has appeared not only throughout the Baltic States, but also in Russia, Azerbaijan, Sweden and Germany. There, he has been invited repeatedly as a guest conductor to the Summer Academy at Pommersfelden Castle in Franconia during recent years.

© International Piano Forum

Laureate of the world’s most prominent piano competitions, including the Leeds, Rubinstein in Tel Aviv, Long-Thibaud in Paris, Queen Elisabeth in Brussels, as well as the Audience Awardee of the 5^th International German Piano Award – Andrejs Osokins is one of the most sought-after Latvian pianists. Andrejs Osokins grew up in Riga, where he also had his first lessons with his father at the Latvian Music Academy, and since 2004 has been living in London, where he graduated from the Royal Academy of Music. Since his participation in the IPF Masters Management he has played at major European concert halls such as Auditorium Verdi in Milan, two concerto performances at Berlin’s Philharmonie, a collaboration with Kremerata Baltica at the Alte Oper Frankfurt as a part of the festival International German Piano Award, a performance with the Latvian National Orchestra under the baton of Vladimir Fedoseyev. Andrejs Osokins’ repertoire spans Bach to Gershwin and features classics by Mozart and Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt, but also a copious amount of chamber music, from violin sonatas to piano quintets.

© Janis Romanovskis

The 21-year-old Latvian pianist Georgijs Osokins caused an uproar at the 17th International Chopin Competition in Warsaw in October 2015 – although he didn’t even win! Still he was widely praised for his “extraordinary and unpredictable” interpretation of Chopin’s works, and ever since, he can take his pick among offers from concert presenters at home and abroad – including a tour of Japan in December 2015, concerts on three continents and future CD recordings. Osokins, a graduate of the Latvian Music Academy, hails from a family of pianists. His father Sergeijs, a professor at the Academy, continues to be his teacher; his brother Andrejs is also an internationally sought-after pianist. At the early age of ten, Georgijs Osokins made his debut as the soloist in a Mozart Piano Concerto with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra; in 2009 he won the Scriabin Competition in Paris and in 2014 the Moscow Chopin Competition for Young Pianists.

© Sebastian Haenel

General Manager of the Foundation Berliner Philharmoniker

Martin Hoffmann was born in Nussloch/Heidelberg in 1959. He studied law at the universities in Saarbrücken, Lausanne and Hamburg, completing his studies with a law degree in 1991. Until 1993 he worked at the Max-Planck-Institute for Foreign and International Private Law and as a lawyer in Hamburg. From 1994 to 1996 Martin Hofmann was director of business affairs for the TV station Sat.1 and from 1997 to 1999 managing director of the Sat.1 Boulevard TV GmbH. In 2000 he was appointed managing director of the Sat.1 Satelliten Fernsehen GmbH, a position he held until 2003. From 2004 to 2010 he was chairman of the TV production company MME MOVIEMENT AG. In 2010 he became a member of its board of supervisors. Since September 2010 Martin Hoffmann has been general manager of the Foundation Berliner Philharmoniker.

© Eric Brissaud

Christoph Eschenbach has been closely associated with the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival for almost two decades. Time and again, the pianist and conductor has rehearsed and performed fascinating programmes with the Festival Orchestra, whose chief conductor he has been since 2004 – their tours have regularly included Young Euro Classic. Since 2010 Eschenbach has also been the director of the National Symphony Orchestra and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC. The 75-year-old continues to appear on all the world’s major concert stages. During the 2015/16 season, he conducts in Germany in Hamburg, Leipzig and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Other appearances include London, Paris and Madrid as well as Hong Kong, Shanghai and Seoul. Together with the Vienna Philharmonic, he is preparing an extensive tour of Asia. Last but not least, Eschenbach continues to perform as a piano soloist and in song recitals with the baritone Matthias Goerne.

Undersecretary of State at the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth

© Bundesregierung, Denzel

Dr. Ralf Kleindiek (SPD) is known for his poised and unpretentious disposition. Since his appointment as Undersecretary of State at the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth by the Federal Minister of Family Affairs Manuela Schwesig on January 8, 2014, he has represented the ministry with speeches on numerous podiums and platforms, winning general sympathy. Born in Hameln, Kleindiek studied law in Gießen and subsequently worked at the Federal Ministry of the Interior, in various positions at the Federal Ministry of Justice, and as a State Councilor at the Hamburg Authority for Justice and Equal Opportunities. His departure was unfortunate for Hamburg, but practical for him: the Undersecretary of State lives in Brandenburg with his family, so his commute became significantly shorter. In an interview with the Foundation for German-Russian Youth Exchange last year, he said: “Youth politics must be international; they depend on the mutual experience of young people in different countries.” Now if that isn’t the perfect attitude for a patron at the festival Young Euro Classic… 

Born in New York City in 1980, the Mexican conductor received her early music education in Mexico before returning to the Manhattan School of Music at the age of 19, where she graduated with honours from the conducting class. At the early age of 23, Alondra de la Parra founded the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas (POA) as a platform for young musical talents from all the Americas. On the occasion of the bicentennial of Mexico, she recorded the album Mi alma mexicana (“My Mexican Soul”) with the POA and also presented its repertoire with the orchestra in Mexico City before a live audience of more than 100.000 and many millions more via worldwide TV. The conductor also champions music education programmes at public schools throughout Mexico. Apart from her numerous performances in Central and South America, Alondra de la Parra was invited to conduct in Japan and China, by the Orchestre de Paris, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich. In Berlin, she has appeared several times on the podium of the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin. In 2016 she takes on the position of chief conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Australia.

www.alondradelaparra.com

© Manfred Esser Haenssler Classic

At the age of 36, Johannes Moser is one of the world’s best cellists. A student of David Geringas, he had his breakthrough in 2002, when he won the international Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Since then, he has appeared with leading orchestras on all continents; conductors he has worked with include Lorin Maazel, Mariss Jansons and Zubin Mehta as well as Christian Thielemann, Paavo Järvi and Gustavo Dudamel. One focus of his repertoire is contemporary music; Johannes Moser frequently performs on an electric cello, for which numerous works have been written specifically for him. These include Enrico Chapela’s Magnetar, which he premiered together with Gustavo Dudamel and his Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2012. Johannes Moser is particularly interested in young audiences, from kindergarten children to university students. Thus, most of his concert performances are linked with a school visit or master class.

www.johannes-moser.com

Journalist

© rbb/Fabian Schellhorn

Maria Ossowski was born to be a reporter, and is a real radio animal. Various attempts to work and supervise from a desk only made the native Berliner’s longing for good stories and fascinating people grow. After studying literature and history, she became an intern at the Süddeutscher Rundfunk in Stuttgart. As a reporter for politics and contemporary issues, she never learned proper Swabian, but she learned everything about radio. She spent six years in Basel as chief moderator of the Swiss Culture Channel before moving to Berlin, where she was director of cultural programming at the RBB before moving on to become the ARD correspondent reporting on every aspect of Berlin’s culture scene. Opera, theatre, visual art, history, cultural policy and architecture: from Flensburg to Garmisch, from Cottbus to Cologne, listeners know what is going on in the nation’s capital. Berlin’s culture and the radio are imprinted in her genes, so to speak: Maria Ossowski’s father was one of the driving forces in establishing RIAS Berlin and founded the RIAS Youth Orchestra. Therefore, supporting youth orchestras has always been important to her.

The Kazakh conductor Aidar Torybaev, born in 1964, was educated at the Almaty Conservatory and in Kiev, Ukraine, where he studied with Roman Kofman, among others. His life is still divided between these two countries: since 2011 he has been chief conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the National University of the Arts in Astana, and with the beginning of the current season he was appointed chief conductor and artistic director of the State Symphony Orchestra of Kazakhstan. On the other hand, Torybaev is chief conductor of the Symphony Orchestra in Lviv in the Ukraine and a professor of conducting at the Tchaikovsky Music Academy in Kiev. The conductor has performed in Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, Japan, South Korea, Mexico and the USA, collaborating with prominent soloists such as Natalia Gutman, Alexander Lyubimov, Eliso Virsaladze and Liana Issakadze.

The Kazakh violinist Aiman Mussakhajayeva, born in 1958 in what was then Alma-Ata, is one of her country’s leading soloists. Trained during the Soviet era at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, she then returned to Kazakhstan, where she won great merit by helping to revive cultural activities in the country after the state’s independence. The musician was actively involved in founding the National University of the Arts in Astana, where she was appointed rector in 1998. Furthermore, she has been invited to lead workshops in Germany, Austrian and the USA and serves on the jury of numerous international violin competitions.

Music Producer and Director of the Labels ACT Music + Vision

© ACT, Anja Grabert

“I no longer want to be important, but useful.” With these words, Siggi Loch ended his unprecedented career as an international music manager after 30 years. He discovered and built up artists such as Klaus Doldinger, Marius Müller-Westernhagen or Katja Ebstein. Once Germany’s youngest label director at the age of 25, in his early fifties, Loch decided to make a radical cut. In founding ACT, he fulfilled his youthful dream: his own jazz label – which quickly enjoyed international success. ACT focuses particularly on European jazz, especially from Scandinavia and Germany. Crossing over into the world of classical music is part of his concept. In 2017 ACT celebrates its 25-year anniversary, making it one of the few constant factors in the business. Among other honours, Siggi Loch has received the Cross of the German Federal Order of Merit, the Honorary Award of the German Record Critics and the Skoda Jazz Award, and was made a Knight of the Order of the Polar Star by the Swedish King. ACT received the ECHO Audience Jazz Award as “Label of the Year” no less than four times.

© Sebastian Schmidt

Nils Landgren is doubtlessly one of Europe’s most successful jazz musicians. Fans and observers of the 60-year-old Swede are already wondering whether his days might have more than 24 hours. Critics have nominated him as the hardest working man in show business. When “Mr. Redhorn,” the man with the red trombone, is not touring with his legendary band Funk Unit or other projects bearing his name, he works as a producer and talent scout or is found passing his know-how on to his students. In the German capital, he has made a name for himself as the artistic director of the JazzFest Berlin. It is not least his versatility which is admired in this musician, who began playing drums at the age of six and discovered the trombone for himself at 13: apart from hardcore jazz, he is devoted to Swedish folk music – or he might record romantic and idiosyncratic Christmas songs, as he did on his album Christmas With My Friends. In cooperation with Doctors without Borders, Nils Landgren’s Funk Unit supports a music education project for children and teenagers in one of the largest slums of Kenya’s capital city of Nairobi. After leading the successful “Classic meets Jazz” projects at Young Euro Classic for two years running, Nils Landgren returns in 2016 for its third edition.

www.nilslandgren.com

Four personalities are united the Berlin-based Ensemble Olivinn: apart from the composer Sinem Altan, it includes the soprano Begüm Tüzemen, originally from Istanbul and living in Berlin since 2007, whose repertoire ranges from classical arias to jazz standards and international folk song arrangements. Then there is the Anatolian-born multi-instrumentalist Özgür Ersoy, who performs the duduk, baglama and ney in many formations, for example with pianist Fazil Say. The fourth musician is the percussionist Axel Meier from Berlin, equally virtuosic on timpani and darbuka, in salsa and Turkish folklore, on drum set and vibraphone. The Ensemble Olivinn stands for a very special sound, mixing traditional Turkish and Anatolian folk songs with classical European and contemporary works, which also include improvisation. In Berlin, the quartet has performed regularly in musical theatre works at the Maxim Gorki Theater, Ballhaus Naunynstraße and Atze Musiktheater.

Guest Musicians of Ensemble Olivinn: Tanja Svoboda (Violin) and Beatrice Holzer-Graf (Cello)

olivinn.com

© Andre Wunstorf

She is from Ankara and lives in Berlin: for the 30-year-old German-Turkish composer Sinem Altan, the dialogue between these two cultures is the central subject of her artistic work. Even as a young girl, she won first prizes as a pianist and composer in Turkey and Germany; she was accepted at the Music Academy Hanns Eisler as a junior student at the age of only 11. Later, she initiated the concert series “Yenilige Dogru – On the Road towards Novelty”, which later resulted in the founding of her ensemble Olivinn, which moves freely between European classical music, Turkish folk music and jazz. Sinem Altan’s activities are uncommonly broad-ranging: she has been composer-in-residence at the Neukölln Opera; she has set several stories about Keloglan, the Turkish equivalent of Till Eulenspiegel, for the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin (RSB); and for the Amsterdam Opera she composed a new version of Verdi’s Aida including a gospel choir and oriental percussion. In 2013 her Concerto for Baglama (Turkish lute) and Symphony Orchestra had its successful premiere at the Konzerthaus Berlin. In 2015 she won the European Composers Award at Young Euro Classic for her work Hafriyat – Earthwork.

Sinemaltan.com

Born in Istanbul in 1983, Begüm Tüzemen studied musical and operatic singing at the State Conservatory of the Istanbul University. At the same time she studied Russian philology and literature and performed in musicals and concert projects in Antalya-Aspendos. She continued her education in classical singing and acting in Berlin, winning acclaim for her performance in the successful productions Türkisch für Liebhaber and Tango Türk at the Neukölln Opera. Together with Sinem Altan and Özgür Ersoy, she founded the Ensemble Olivinn. Her mastery of different vocal techniques and her large repertoire covering many languages and different styles – from classical music, jazz and tango to international folk music arrangements and interpretations of contemporary music – allow her to participate in intriguing cross-genre and multi-media performance projects. She works with several renowned partners on stage. In addition to her career as a vocalist, she has appeared in various musical theatre productions on German-language stages.

© Taschka Turnquist

Susanna Risberg is a young, award-winning guitarist from Sweden. Her musicianship stretches widely from all forms of jazz to blues to pop, rock and classical. From 2005 to 2008 she performed as soloist with Blue House Jazz Orchestra (led by Magnus Lindgren), the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and others. In 2008 she was accepted by the Berklee College of Music in Boston on a scholarship. Since May 2011 she has recorded two albums and toured a great deal with her own group “Susanna Risberg Trio”. In October 2015 Susanna was awarded the prestigious prize “Jazzkatten” as “Newcomer of the Year” from the Swedish Radio. Susanna Risberg is now a full-time freelance guitarist, touring, performing and recording with a great variety of musicians and groups such as Marit Bergman, Elin Ruth, Henric De La Cour, and Miriam Bryant, next to her own projects.

susannarisberg.com

This past year, Lisa Wulff, born in Hamburg in 1990, began playing electric bass at the age of 9, completed her studies in music education in jazz and jazz-related music in Bremen, during which she majored in E-bass and acoustic double bass. Since then, she has been studying for a performance degree at the Hamburg Music Academy. Lisa Wulff takes to the stage not only as a bass player, but also as a singer. Furthermore, she composes and founded the Lisa Wulff Quartet, following her experiences with her own bands such as Kalís, Greenroom and takadoon. Concerts beyond the German borders have taken her all over Europe and to China. She has shared the stage with artists such as Bob Mintzer, the NDR Bigband, Trilok Gurtu, Nils Landgren, Curtis Stigers, Robbie Smith, Semino Rossi and Love Newkirk. She is particularly active on the jazz scene in Northern Germany.

© Julie Verlinden

Robert İkiz is known as an extremely versatile drummer/percussionist having played and recorded all sorts of music from straight-ahead jazz to funk and pop. By the age of 2 he was accompanying Tchaikovsky symphonies on pots and pans in his grandmother’s apartment in Istanbul. He moved to Stockholm from Istanbul when he was 4 years old. İkiz studied Afro-American music programme at the Stockholm Music Conservatory (1995-1998). In 1998 he received a scholarship to study at the Los Angeles Music Academy. İkiz has performed, taught and recorded in over 40 countries. In addition to awards from the Swedish Royal Music Academy, in 2015 Ikiz was nominated as “the musician of the year” for Jazzkatten, the biggest Swedish jazz prize. He has run his record company, Stockholm Jazz Records, since 2002. Checking In (2012) was his debut album as a solo artist. İkiz is presently a steady member of the following bands: Nils Landgren Funk Unit, Dan Reed Band, Jacob Karlzon 3 and Petter Bergander Trio. İkiz is also member of three exiting duos with the eminent musicians Magnus Lindgren, Cenk Erdogan and Mousa Elias.

www.ikiz.se

Journalist, former Director of the ARD Studio in Brussels

© WDR/Herby Sachs

Tough times in Brussels! After the British voted for Brexit, the European capital then had to survive the “Krexit” as well: Rolf-Dieter Krause, the ARD’s “Mr. Europe” for decades, retired amidst well-earned accolades. Now he is a true Berliner. Krause, born in Lüneburg, began his career as a local editor in Unna, Kamen and Hamm, moved to the WDR Studio in Düsseldorf in 1982 and became the ARD Correspondent in Bonn from 1985 to 1990. In 1990 he finally landed where he belonged: in Brussels. After an intermezzo as a Deputy Studio Director in Bonn and Head of Programming for the WDR TV in Cologne in 2000, Brussel welcomed him back in 2001 – for the rest of his professional life. His explanations of Europe were a class of its own – as is the extremely tall correspondent himself. Occasionally, he regretted having so little time for reporting from the countries which he was also responsible for in Brussels – apart from the EU and NATO: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. He always found the Netherlands particularly interesting. Why? Surely his speech as patron of the evening at Young Euro Classic will explain…

© Marco Borggreve

Dutch conductor Antony Hermus is currently Artistic Advisor of the National Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands and Principal Guest of the North Netherlands Orchestra. He has guest-conducted orchestras such as the Philharmonia, Royal Concertgebouw, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Bamberg Symphony, MDR Leipzig Symphony, and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and will soon debut with Royal Flemish Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic and Seoul Philharmonic. He studied piano and conducting at the Tilburg Conservatory, becoming Music Director of the Theatre Hagen from 2007. From 2009 to 2015 he was Music Director of the Anhaltisches Theater in Dessau, where he was nominated for Conductor of the Year in Opernwelt magazine for three years in a row. He has guest-conducted operas in Stuttgart, Komische Oper Berlin, at the Opéra de Paris studio, Rennes and Dutch Reisopera; in 2016 he returns to the Komische Oper and makes his debut at Gothenburg Opera with Verdi’s Macbeth.

antonyhermus.com

© Marco Borggreve

The Dutch pianist Hannes Minnaar studied at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and launched his career by winning prizes at the Piano Competition in Geneva (2008) and at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels (2010). In the meantime, the 32-year-old has performed as a soloist under renowned conductors such as Frans Brüggen, Herbert Blomstedt, Eliahu Inbal and Edo de Waart. His second CD, Bach Variations, was widely praised by the critics; Minnaar is currently working on a recording of the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos. He presents these concerts live with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (Jiří Bělohlávek), the BBC Philharmonic (Juanjo Mena) and the London Philharmonic Orchestra (Manfred Honeck). A member of the award-winning Dutch Van Baerle Trio, the pianist is also a passionate chamber musician; in 2015 the piano trio gave 18 concerts as part of the series “Rising Stars”, including appearances in Vienna, Paris and London.

Philosopher, Journalist and Author

© Amanda Berens

Richard David Precht (b. 1964) is a philosopher, journalist and author and one of the most prominent intellectuals in the German-language region. He holds an honorary professorship at the Leuphana University in Lüneburg and also teaches philosophy and aesthetics as an honorary professor at the Music Academy Hanns Eisler in Berlin. His books, such as Wer bin ich – und wenn ja, wie viele? (published in English as Who am I – And if so, How Many?), Liebe – ein unordentliches Gefühl and Die Kunst, kein Egoist zu sein are international bestsellers and have been translated into more than 40 languages. Since 2012 he has moderated the philosophy show Precht on the German ZDF television channel.

© Virgil Oprina

The Romanian conductor Cristian Mandeal, born in 1946, graduated from the Bucharest Music Academy before continuing his studies with Herbert von Karajan in Berlin and Sergiu Celibidache in Munich. From 1987 to 2009 he was chief conductor and general music director of the Bucharest Philharmonic. Apart from Romanian ensembles, he has led renowned orchestras all over Europe and was principal guest conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester until 2009 and of the Philharmonic Orchestra Copenhagen until 2013. During this time, he led more than 60 world premieres by Romanian and other composers. Mandeal is a tireless champion of the oeuvre of his compatriot George Enescu, whose complete symphonic works he has recorded on CD. During recent years, the 70-year-old conductor has dedicated much of his time to the establishment of the Romanian Youth Orchestra, with which he already appeared at Young Euro Classic in 2012 and 2014, and the Romanian National Symphony Orchestra.

© Daniel Delang

At the moment, Andrei Ionita is still a student with Jens-Peter Maintz at Berlin’s University of the Arts. Yet the 22-year-old is already well on his way to a great career: in June 2015 he won the 1st Prize at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow – ever since, one invitation has been chasing the next, for example for concerts with Valery Gergiev in St. Petersburg, Munich, Baden-Baden and London. Ionita’s success was not a surprise, having already won 2nd Prizes at the ARD Competition in Munich and at the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann in Berlin in 2014. He was subsequently invited to the Kronberg Academy, where he gave concerts with Gidon Kremer and Christian Tetzlaff. Born in Bukarest, Andrei Ionita began playing the cello at the age of eight, moving to Berlin in 2012. He is a fellow of the German foundation “Musikleben” and plays a Rogeri cello built in 1671.

Actor

© Roman Goebel

Audiences and the press celebrate Samuel Finzi’s intensive images of human motivation that almost crave transformation, and his effortless precision when performing. The actor shapes his figures as smart, associative character studies, which bear witness to a detailed and intelligent acting strategy. Alongside his theater engagements at all of the important German language theaters, Samuel Finzi has performed in many film and television productions. Very early on, he came into contact with directors who have had a major influence on European theater and film, such as Benno Besson, Dimiter Gotscheff, Frank Castorf, Jürgen Gosch and Robert Wilson. In film, his collaborations with Michael Glawogger, Oliver Hirschbiegel, Peter Popzlatev, Sönke Wortmann and Til Schweiger have extended his popularity to a wider audience. He has captivated audiences in popular successes such as Das Wunder von Bern and Kokowääh, as well as Die Erfindung der Liebe,  Marie Curie or Tod den Hippies!! Es lebe der Punk!. He has been honored many times for his brilliant, versatile performances, including being named “Actor of the Year 2015” by the renowned theatre journal “Theater heute” and the German Actors Award 2016. At present, he can be seen in eight leading roles at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin as well as at the Théâtre National du Luxembourg.

© Lora Nusheva

The Bulgarian conductor and composer Lyubomir Denev Jr., born in 1988, is the son of the well-known jazz pianist and composer of the same name. He studied conducting at the National Music Academy Pancho Vladigerov in Sofia. In the meantime, the 28-year-old has already conducted all the important symphonic orchestras of his country, including on tours to neighbouring countries such as Hungary, Serbia, Greece and Turkey. At the Ruse State Opera, he has conducted operas by Verdi and Donizetti and was also musical assistant during a production of Wagner’s Twilight of the Gods. Denev works regularly with the Sofia Session Orchestra, with which he records film soundtracks for producers in the USA, Great Britain, France and India. The conductor also devotes much of his time to educating young musicians: he is one of the founders of the Balkan Youth Symphony Orchestra. He has been chief conductor of the National Bulgarian Youth Orchestra “Pioneer Youth Philharmonic” since 2010.

The French-Bulgarian violinist Svetlin Roussev was born in Ruse, Bulgaria, in 1976, and lives in Paris today, where he is concertmaster of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France and professor of violin at the Conservatory. At the same time, he is an active soloist and chamber musician; Roussev has also recorded a multitude of CDs, including works by the most important Bulgarian composer, Pancho Vladigerov. In Bulgaria he was honoured as “Musician of the Year” in 2006. Svetlin Roussev plays the Stradivarius 1710 “Camposelice” violin kindly loaned by the Nippon Music Foundation.

© Christophe Gateau

The French-Bulgarian cellist Emilia Baranowska, born in Sofia in 1948, studied in her hometown and in Paris as well as the Juilliard School in New York. From there, she launched her international career, which has taken her to the USA, Mexico and Canada, Israel and China, among others. In Paris, Baranowska worked with renowned composers such as George Zamfir, Vahtang Kachidze and William Bolcom, performing numerous world premieres. At the same time, the cellist is a pedagogue teaching in France, in Bulgaria and at numerous master courses. Since 2010 Emilia Baranowska has lived in Berlin.

© International Piano Forum

Laureate of the world’s most prominent piano competitions, including the Leeds, Rubinstein in Tel Aviv, Long-Thibaud in Paris, Queen Elisabeth in Brussels, as well as the Audience Awardee of the 5^th International German Piano Award – Andrejs Osokins is one of the most sought-after Latvian pianists. Andrejs grew up in Riga, where he also had his first lessons with his father at the Latvian Music Academy, and since 2004 has been living in London, where he had graduated the Royal Academy of music. Since his participation in the IPF Masters Management he plays on important European concert halls such as Auditorium La Verdi in Milan, two Concerto performances in Berliner Philharmonie, collaboration with Kremerata Baltica orchestra in Alte Oper Frankfurt as a part of  Festival International German Piano Award, performance with Latvian National Orchestra under the button of Maestro Vladimir Fedoseyev, as well as performance of Rachmaninov 3rd Piano Concerto in Qatar Cultural village  with Maestro Pablo Mielgo. Andrejs’ repertoire spans Bach to Gershwin and features classics by Mozart and Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt, but also a copious amount of chamber music, from violin sonatas to piano quintets.

www.andrejsosokins.com

Versatility is one of the outstanding characteristics of the Japanese pianist Wataru Hisasue, who won the Mendelssohn Competition in Berlin this past January. The programme he has assembled for his performance at the Young Euro Classic Piano Festival is also versatile: it starts with a spirited Piano Sonata by Joseph Haydn, immediately contrasted by the Variations Op. 27 composed by Anton Webern following the rules of twelve-tone technique in 1936. These are followed by two very special pianistic highlights: Sergey Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 7, written in the midst of World War II, offers a bravura synopsis of the Russian composer’s style. And Franz Liszt’s brilliant Rigoletto Paraphrase proves how much song is contained in a piano on its own!

© Edith Michel

After receiving her first piano lessons at the Arts Academy in Seoul and the National University in Seoul, the Korean pianist Yoonhee Yang moved on to the Music Academy “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin in 2007, where she studied with Michael Endres and Fabio Bidini. After graduating in 2011, the pianist moved to Hamburg, where she studied with Yevgeny Koriolov and passed her concert exam with honours in 2015. At the same time, she won several prizes at international competitions, for example the 2^nd Prize at the 12. International Mozart Competition in Salzburg in 2016, 1^st Prize at the Verona International Competition (2014), the 1^st Prize at the Elise Meyer Competition in Hamburg (2012), the 2^nd Prize and the Special Chopin Prize at the Premio Pecar in Gorizia, Italy (2010 – a first prize was not awarded). Yoonhee Yang has been invited to numerous international music festivals as a soloist and chamber musician, for example in Santander, Montepulciano and Salzburg.

© Dan Hannen

The Italian Filippo Gorini advanced a major step on the career ladder last year, when he won the International Telekom Beethoven Competition in Bonn – the youngest of all the 150 contestants. Aged only 20, he convinced the jury mainly with his interpretation of Beethoven’s late piano works; in addition, Gorini also won two audience awards. Born near the Northern Italian town of Monza, young Filippo received his first piano lessons at the age of six. He has been studying with Maria Grazia Bellocchio at the Conservatory Gaetano Donizetti in Bergamo since 2009. Concert invitations have already taken the pianist to many Italian cities and to Moscow, Warsaw and London. In March 2016 he was on tour in Germany with the Klassische Philharmonie Bonn, appearing in Munich, Nuremberg, Hanover, Hamburg and Bremen, among others.

www.filippogorini.it

Journalist

© ARD Hanna Lippmann

Ulrich Deppendorf is a doyen of public television in Germany, whose appearance signalled important information on current world events – he moderated the Report from Berlin no less than 289 times. Berlin is the adopted home of this child of the Ruhr area, the place the 66-year-old feels at home. After studying law in Münster, he interned at the WDR, whose television programme director he ultimately became, after many successful years as an editor responsible for multiple features and programming areas, including “ARD aktuell” and its signature shows Tagesschau and Tagesthemen. That job interrupted his position as the head and chief editor of the ARD Capital Studio, which he then took up again from 2007 to 2015. To many, perhaps himself included, he thereby “returned home”. After all, he kept his apartment in Berlin’s Charlottenburg district the entire time – he says he finds it easy to deal with the gruff nature of the Berliners. Perhaps it is also the city’s cultural riches that attract him. After all, the self-confessed classical music fan originally harboured quite a different dream profession: “I never regretted my decision to become a journalist, not even for one day. But in my next life, I would like to be a conductor.” Deppendorf is one of the regulars at the Philharmonie, and as one of the founding fathers of Young Euro Classic, he has actively accompanied the festival from the very first minute. We hope this will remain the case for many years!

© Johannes Ifkovits

The Swiss conductor Philippe Jordan dedicates himself to opera and concerts with equal intensity. This is reflected by his positions as chief conductor as well: the 41-year-old is music director of the Paris Opera with its two houses and chief conductor of the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra, the latter since 2015. Jordan has a close connection with Berlin: his career began here in 1998 as Daniel Barenboim’s assistant at the State Opera Unter den Linden; today he is a regular guest conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester. Jordan has conducted at the opera houses of London, New York and Milan and at the festivals in Aix-en-Provence, Glyndebourne and Bayreuth (Parsifal, 2012). At the Paris Opera he recently led such different operas as La Damnation de Faust (Berlioz), Le Roi Arthus (Chausson) and Moses und Aron (Schoenberg). Together with the Orchestra of the Paris Opera he has performed the complete symphonies of Beethoven and the complete Schubert symphonies with the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra.

www.philippe-jordan.com

© Jim Rakete

The baritone Christian Gerhaher, born in Straubing in Bavaria in 1969, is one of the most sought-after song recitalists of our times and performs on all the major concert stages in Germany and abroad. His recordings with his regular piano partner Gerold Huber range from Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann to Mahler, Wolf and Alban Berg. He has recorded Bach’s Passions and Schumann’s oratorio Das Paradies und die Peri and Szenen aus Goethes Faust. At the Berlin Philharmonic, Gerhaher became the first singer ever to be named “Artist in Residence” during the 2013/14 season. In December 2015 he appeared in a semi-staged production of Debussy’s Pelleas et Mélisande under Sir Simon Rattle with the Berlin Philharmonic. Apart from the role of Pelleas, Gerhaher, who consciously limits his opera appearances, has won great acclaim in the roles of Papageno, Don Giovanni, Wolfram and most recently Wozzeck. His second opera recital on CD appeared last autumn: entitled Mozart Arias and featuring the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the baritone also toured it in live performances which included Barcelona, Stockholm, Vienna, Budapest and New York.

www.gerhaher.de

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Director General of the Department of Culture and Communication

© Auswärtiges Amt

Not a classical diplomatic career: today’s Director General of the Department of Culture and Communication at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Andreas Görgen, completed a law degree and then began working at the theatre company Berliner Ensemble in 1996. For many years, he crossed borders between France and Germany, between culture and industry. After having been awarded a scholarship to the French National School of Administration, he joined the public sector in Germany to work on the public aid scheme for film financing. He then became an advisor within the Directorate General for European Affairs to the German Chancellor and advisor to the minister of Foreign Affairs. Given his experience and skill at negotiation in a complex international environment, leading positions in the energy sector at Siemens France followed in 2009 and 2011, before he returned to Minister Steinmeier’s team again in 2014.

The Russian conductor Anton Shaburov, born in Yekaterinburg in 1983, graduated from the Mussorgsky Conservatory in his hometown in 2008 with a conducting degree, going on to study at the State Conservatory in Moscow under Gennady Roshdestvensky. In 2013 Shaburov won the Ilya Musin Conducting Competition and one year later the competition in Budapest. As early as 2009 he took on the position of chief conductor of the Globalis Symphony Orchestra in Moscow; he added the Symphony Orchestra of the Mussorgsky Conservatory in Yekaterinburg to his portfolio in 2011. In the meantime, Shaburov looks back on 40 different concert programmes, with no lack of world premieres between them. In addition, he has conducted opera productions such as Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Orff’s Die Kluge, as well as Mavra and The Nightingale by Stravinsky.

The Russian violist Alexander Mitinsky, born in 1984, received his first violin lessons at the famous Gnessin Music School in his native city of Moscow. After graduating with success, the 16-year-old transferred to the Gnessin Music Academy, where he studied viola with Eugen Stoklitskaya, Yuri Yurov and the principal violist of the Rudolf Barshai Chamber Orchestra, Vyacheslav Trushin. His repertoire includes works from the baroque period to contemporary music. Mitinsky has performed with numerous orchestras, string quartets and chamber music ensembles; his musical partners have included Michail Pletnev, Justus Frantz, Julian Rachlin and Misha Maisky. Since 2010 the violist has also given master classes in Italy, Canada and the USA.

TV Moderator

© Urbschat

Born in 1979, Constantin Schreiber has one of the most extraordinary journalistic profiles in Germany. Apart from his work as moderator and correspondent for the TV stations n-tv and RTL, he also moderates and produces several successful TV formats in Arabic in the Middle East. He edited the international bestseller 1000 Peitschenhiebe (1000 Lashes), featuring texts by the Saudi blogger Raif Badawi. His show Marhaba – Ankommen in Deutschland (Marhaba – Arriving in Germany), which addresses refugees in Germany in Arabic, has caused a massive stir in Germany and abroad. In 2016 he won the prestigious Grimme Prize for his moderation of this feature. The Süddeutsche Zeitung subsequently called him the “German Minister of Integration”.

Constantin Schreiber has a law degree, interned at the Deutsche Welle and was a Reuters Fellow at the University of Oxford. For three years he worked as a TV journalist in Dubai and from 2009 to 2011 at the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He speaks Arabic fluently.

Originally from Bremen, Heiner Buhlmann (b. 1947) studied piano, organ, oboe, composition and conducting. After completing his studies, he decided to dedicate himself to supporting young musicians, becoming the director of the Bremen Music School. In 1980 he founded the Bremen Youth Symphony Orchestra, which he conducted for 32 years, until his retirement in 2012. In 1982 the Oldenburg University Orchestra and the Bremen Youth Sinfonietta followed, and in 1999 the International Youth Symphony Orchestra Bremen, uniting 200 young musicians from 23 countries. Buhlmann undertook numerous concert tours through Europe and other continents with these ensembles. The conductor has had a close working relationship with Fawzy El-Shamy and the Arab Youth Philharmonic Orchestra for many years. Furthermore, he has given school and family concerts with the Bremen Philharmonic and, together with his wife Helga Warner-Buhlmann, school concerts with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich.

The mezzo-soprano Gala El Hadidi is a native of Cairo, where she also attended the German School. Directly after graduating from high school, she was engaged by the Cairo Opera House, where she appeared in smaller roles in operas including Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana, Menotti’s The Medium and Weill’s Threepenny Opera. In addition to singing, she studied philosophy, English and comparative literature at the American University. Later, she moved on to Yale University in the USA and also attended master classes with Marilyn Horne, Teresa Berganza and Francisco Araiza. In the meantime, the 33-year-old singer can look back on a highly successful career: since 2010 she has been an ensemble member at the Semper Opera in Dresden, first as part of the Young Ensemble, now in the regular ensemble. Here, Gala El Hadidi has performed very different roles, such as Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus and Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro. She was particularly acclaimed for her portrayal of Bizet’s Carmen, a role which was also the subject of her Master’s degree thesis.

Actor

Something to be proud of: Dietmar Bär, who plays the character of Freddy Schenk in the Cologne Tatort crime series, was voted the most popular TV investigator in Germany in 2014. He has played the Detective Inspector in over 60 cases since 1997 and won the German Television Award in 2000. Together with Klaus J. Behrendt, he received the Order of Merit of North Rhine-Westphalia in 2015 from Prime Minister Hannelore Kraft.

Dietmar Bär, a native of Dortmund, considers it of extreme importance to remain close to his people. As often as he can, the ardent fan of Borussia Dortmund mixes with the fans in the stadium in his black and yellow jersey. His daily life, however, is rather different from the rough big guy with an insatiable appetite for “currywurst” he plays in the Tatort series. Dietmar Bär lives in Berlin, loves to read, listens to all kinds of music and has developed into a gourmet with vegetarian preferences: “I am too old for cheap wine and bad food.” However, he is not too old for the various social causes he supports: Bär is a member of the association “pro futura”, which attempts to give young and long-term unemployed people a perspective for the future. He also tries to improve the lives of children living in the streets in the Philippines. And he supports Young Euro Classic not only as an evening patron, but also as a member of the German Association of Friends of European Youth Orchestras e.V.

© Stewen Quigley

The 62-year-old Estonian Paul Mägi looks back upon several decades of a successful career as a concert and opera conductor, making him one of the central figures in his country’s musical life. He founded the Estonian Radio Chamber Orchestra as early as 1978, going on to conduct the Estonian National Opera and becoming chief conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. As a guest conductor, he is active mainly in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries, but has also conducted renowned orchestras in Germany, Switzerland, France and the USA. Since 2011 Paul Mägi has been music director at the oldest theatre in Estonia, the Vanemuine Theatre in Tartu, where he has conducted operas such as Carmen, Werther and Eugene Onegin, but also new productions of operas by Eduard Tubin and Tauno Aints. Paul Mägi already conducted the Symphony Orchestra of the Estonian Music Academy during its last performance at Young Euro Classic in 2005.

© Mait Jüriado

The Estonian pianist Marrit Gerretz-Traksmann is one of her country’s most important chamber musicians. She has performed all over Europe, mainly with the Trio New Tallinn, and also celebrated her US debut with a programme of her compatriot Erkki-Sven Tüür in 2011. Educated at the Estonian Academy of Music and at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Marrit Gerretz-Traksmann has also performed as a soloist with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Radio Philharmonic and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. She has participated in music productions of the Estonian Radio and in several CD productions, where she took on the piano part in vocal works by her compatriots Veljo Tormis (Litany to Thunder), Toivo Tulev and Erkki-Sven Tüür (Oxymoron).

Editor-in-Chief, ZDF

© ZDF, Jens Hartmann

From “Morgenmagazin” to “WISO” and “Aktuelles Sportstudio” – as ZDF Editor-in-Chief Peter Frey is responsible for these and many other shows. Since 2010 he has worked on and off camera in Mainz. Frey was also born on the Rhine – in Bingen. Before returning there six years ago, he familiarized himself not only with various editorial offices throughout the German media landscape, but also with very different places all over the world. He has worked as a journalist since 1978: while still a student of political sciences, pedagogics and Romance languages, he began working for the Südwestfunk, as it was then known, and the Frankfurter Rundschau. After that he moved on to Washington, where he reported about the Gulf War, among other issues, as the ZDF correspondent. Back in Berlin, he established the “ZDF Morgenmagazin” from 1992 to 1998. As the director of the ZDF’s editorial desk for foreign affairs, he moderated the show “auslandsjournal”, among others. Reporting trips have taken him all over the Middle East, Russia, the USA and Eastern Europe. Major events also fell within his tenure as director of the ZDF Capital Studio: he presented special broadcasts covering the elections of Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis and Barack Obama as US President.

© Marco Berggreve

As chief conductor of the German String Philharmonic, Wolfgang Hentrich draws upon his many years of experience as an orchestral violinist. Since two decades, the 50-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 compositions by Paganini for violin and guitar stand out. In August 2013, Hentrich became Michael Sanderling’s successor as chief conductor of the German String Philharmonic.

A native of Korea, Yura Lee loves her “double life”: she performs both as a violinist and violist. And she divides her time between the USA and Germany. In the USA, where she grew up from 1994 onwards, she made her Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 14, and in 2003 Lorin Maazel invited her to perform on a summer tour of the New York Philharmonic. In 2008 Yura Lee won the Leopold Mozart Competition in Augsburg; this was followed by further prizes, e.g. in 2009 at the Joseph Joachim Competition in Hanover and in 2013 at the ARD Competition in Munich (1st Prize in the viola category). A sought-after soloist and chamber musician, she has performed at the greatest festivals, such as Salzburg, Verbier, Ravinia and Marlboro. Her chamber music partners include András Schiff, Gidon Kremer, Leonidas Kavakos and Mitsuko Uchida. In 2008 Yura Lee recorded the CD Mozart in Paris with Reinhard Goebel and the Bavarian Chamber Philharmonic. In 2014 she was appointed professor at the Carl Maria von Weber Music Academy in Dresden.
www.yuralee.com

Dieter Rexroth is considered one of the most creative minds on the German music scene today. From 1996 to 2006 he was artistic director and dramaturge of the Radio Orchestras and Choruses GmbH and the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester in Berlin, a capacity in which he invited the conductor Kent Nagano to Berlin, who has since become a world-renowned artist and whose concert programmes he still designs today. In addition, Dieter Rexroth has been the artistic director of Young Euro Classic since its inception in 2000, making him one of the fathers of the extremely successful festival which takes place for the sixteenth time in 2015. Further career highlights were the directorship of the Paul Hindemith Institute in Frankfurt as well as positions as dramaturge and chief programmer for Frankfurt’s Alte Oper. He was also artistic director of the “Frankfurter Feste” (1986 to 1994) and has been responsible for the “Kassel Music Days” in the same position since 2006. Furthermore, he has taken on the unsalaried responsibility for the “Felix Mendelssohn Music Academy Competition” held by the German Music Academies and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.

Actress and Photographer

© Renate Neder

Margarita Broich was born in Neuwied in 1960. After studying photo design for three years at the Dortmund Polytechnic, she worked as a theatre photographer at the Bochum Theater under the artistic directorship of Claus Peymann, inspiring her to study acting at the Berlin University at the Arts. Her first engagement took her to the Frankfurt Theatre in 1987, after which she appeared at the Deutsches Theater, the Schillertheater, Berliner Ensemble, Maxim-Gorki-Theater, Volksbühne Berlin and at the Salzburg Festival, among others. She has worked with renowned directors such as as Heiner Müller, George Tabori, einar Schleef and Christoph Schlingensief, who passed away in 2010. From 1991 to 2002 she was a member of the Berliner Ensemble. Apart from her theatre, film and television roles, she keeps working as a photographer. She is particularly pleased to play Chief Detective Inspector Anna Jenneke in the Frankfurt Tatort series: “This German jewel has a long tradition, and of course it is great to be a pearl in such a long chain.”

© A. Cárdenas

The Mexican conductor Sergio Cárdenas has been a professor at the National University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City since 2005, and he is also the artistic director of the Symphony Orchestra of the Music Faculty. In 2015 he was charged with establishing a chair for conducting at UNAM. Born in Ciudad Victoria in 1951, he studied choral conducting at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey (USA) and orchestral conducting at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. There, Cárdenas also conducted the music academy’s orchestra before his further career took him to many countries in Europe and Latin America, but also Egypt and Taiwan. For several years, Cárdenas has also been a successful composer, for example with the work The Flower is a Key (A Rap for Mozart), which was commissioned by the 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic and has also been recorded on CD – with Sir Simon Rattle taking the role of the rapper.

© G. Pérrez

Born in Mexico City in 1987, the tenor Alan Pingarrón began his vocal studies in 2003 at the UNAM Music Faculty in his hometown. He won several competitions, for example the Francisco Araiza Competition and the opera competition “Las voces del Bicentenario” (The Voices of the Bicentennial). Pingarrón has performed with all the major orchestras and all renowned classical music festivals in Mexico. His repertoire includes the tenor parts in sacred works such as the Mozart Requiem, the Verdi Requiem and Handel’s Messiah to opera roles by Mozart, Donizetti and Puccini.

© JMP Walle

As an artist, Luis Gerardo Villegas is at home in various genres: he works as an orchestral and choral conductor, performing with various ensembles in North and Central America, but also in China. In addition, he is a stage director, for example as artistic director for several Disney productions. Last but not least, he is also active as a percussionist and – mainly in collaboration with Sergio Cárdenas – as a “symphonic rapper”.

© A. Cárdenas

The Mexican conductor Sergio Cárdenas has been a professor at the National University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City since 2005, and he is also the artistic director of the Symphony Orchestra of the Music Faculty. In 2015 he was charged with establishing a chair for conducting at UNAM. Born in Ciudad Victoria in 1951, he studied choral conducting at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey (USA) and orchestral conducting at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. There, Cárdenas also conducted the music academy’s orchestra before his further career took him to many countries in Europe and Latin America, but also Egypt and Taiwan. For several years, Cárdenas has also been a successful composer, for example with the work The Flower is a Key (A Rap for Mozart), which was commissioned by the 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic and has also been recorded on CD – with Sir Simon Rattle taking the role of the rapper.

© G. Pérrez

Born in Mexico City in 1987, the tenor Alan Pingarrón began his vocal studies in 2003 at the UNAM Music Faculty in his hometown. He won several competitions, for example the Francisco Araiza Competition and the opera competition “Las voces del Bicentenario” (The Voices of the Bicentennial). Pingarrón has performed with all the major orchestras and all renowned classical music festivals in Mexico. His repertoire includes the tenor parts in sacred works such as the Mozart Requiem, the Verdi Requiem and Handel’s Messiah to opera roles by Mozart, Donizetti and Puccini.

© JMP Walle

As an artist, Luis Gerardo Villegas is at home in various genres: he works as an orchestral and choral conductor, performing with various ensembles in North and Central America, but also in China. In addition, he is a stage director, for example as artistic director for several Disney productions. Last but not least, he is also active as a percussionist and – mainly in collaboration with Sergio Cárdenas – as a “symphonic rapper”.

© Timm Kölln

Viviane Hagner, the artistic director of Krzyżowa-Music, is among the most high-profile musicians of her generation. Since her debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta at the age of 13, she has made guest appearances with the world’s greatest orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. She appears regularly at the Marlboro Music Festival and has been “artist in residence” at the Berlin Konzerthaus and “prize-winner in residence” at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival.  From 2009 onwards she was appointed professor of violin at Berlin’s University of the Arts; since 2013 she has held the same position at the Mannheim Music Academy.

The young Spanish clarinettist Pablo Barragán won not only the Prix Credit Suisse Jeunes Solistes in 2013, but also international awards such as the ARD Music Competition in 2012. Since 2007 Pablo Barragán has been a member of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, working with Maestro Daniel Barenboim. Pablo Barragán studied with Antonio Salguero at the Conservatorio Superior de Música Manuel Castillo in Seville, and with Matthias Glander via the Barenboim-Said Foundation. Today he holds a scholarship from the Caja Madrid Foundation and studies with François Benda at the Music Academy in Basel.

© Tony Sandin

The Swedish cellist Torleif Thedéen has performed as a soloist with almost all the world’s major orchestras over the course of the past 25 years; as a passionate chamber musician, he has also graced the stages of the most important concert halls and appeared at such renowned festivals as the ones in Schleswig-Holstein, Salzburg, Utrecht, Dubrovnik, Helsinki, Kuhmo, Bath, Bordeaux, the Prague Spring Festival and the Verbier Festival. He has recorded the complete cello works by Schnittke, Britten’s three Solo Suites as well as the cello concertos by Dvořák, Lalo, Schumann, Elgar, Saint-Saëns, Kabalevsky, Bloch, Kokkonen, Shostakovich, Lutosławski and Penderecki for various labels. His recording of the Solo Suites by Johann Sebastian Bach has been acclaimed worldwide (e.g. BBC “Editor’s Choice”).

The 21-year-old Polish violinist Ania Filochowska is currently a student at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where Aaron Rosand and Pamela Frank are her teachers. She gave her solo debut at the early age of 10 with the Rybnik Symphony Orchestra in Poland, and ever since she has made guest appearances with many orchestras worldwide. At the age of 15 Ania Filochowska played for Zubin Mehta at Avery Fisher Hall in New York. As a chamber musician, she has worked together with Men-Chieh Liu, Paul Katz and Ralph Kirschbaum; she also enjoys making music with her brother Piotr, who is also a student at the Curtis Institute of Music.

The outstanding young pianist Adam Golka has Polish-American roots. He has performed with numerous orchestras and given solo recitals at renowned concert halls such as New York’s Lincoln Center and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He first studied the piano with his mother Anna Golka and Dariusz Pawlas. He later studied with José Feghali, one of his most influential teachers, as Golka himself points out. At the Peabody Conservatory Adam studied with Leon Fleischer. Today he is artist-in-residence at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Originally from Vancouver, the young violist Eleanor Kendra James began playing the violin at age four and switched to the viola when she was 14. She studied with Paul Coletti at the renowned Colburn School in Los Angeles and later with Ettore Causa at Yale University. After winning the first prize at the “Shean String Competition” in Edmonton, she appeared as a soloist with numerous American symphony orchestras. A passionate chamber musician, she has performed with such outstanding partners as Ani Kavafian and Paul Neubauer and was coached by Michael Tree, Pinchas Zukerman and Alfred Brendel. She has participated in many major summer festivals in America, Europe and China, for example the Zermatt Festival, the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, the Sarasota Music Festival, Music@Menlo and Krzyżowa-Music. She is currently completing her studies with Nils Mönkemeyer in Munich.

Originally from Berlin, Nadja Reich studied in the junior division of Berlin’s University of the Arts from 2003 to 2012, where her teachers were Matias de Oliveira Pinto and Jens Peter Maintz. Since September 2013 she has been as student of Thomas Grossenbacher at the Zurich Academy of the Arts. Nadja Reich has been invited to festivals such as the Kyoto International Students’ Festival, the Musical Summer in East Friesland, the Norsjø Kammermusikkfest, the Valdres Sommersymfoni and the Young Prague Festival. Since 2012 Nadja Reich has held a scholarship from the Liechtenstein Music Academy; since 2014 the Lyra Foundation has supported her.

© Priska Ketterer

The American conductor David Zinman is a perfect example for the fact that one can tackle new experiences and challenges even at an advanced age: this year, he turns 80 – and has only been the new chief conductor of the Orchestre Français des Jeunes since 2015. In addition he regularly conducts all over Europe and the USA; this season his performance schedule includes renowned orchestras in Los Angeles, Chicago and Montréal, in Scandinavia and the Orchestre de Paris. Zinman regularly appears in Berlin as a guest conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester. The conductor maintains a special relationship with the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, whose chief conductor he was for 19 years, from 1995 to 2014. A box set of 50 CDs, recently released, documents the conductor’s broad repertoire, from classical works to the complete orchestral oeuvres of Strauss and Mahler. His Beethoven cycle with the Tonhalle Orchestra won multiple awards. Another focus of his activities is on American composers, such as Bernstein, Michael Torke, Ferde Grofe, Gershwin and Barber.

© Gregory Batardon

At the age of 34, the French cellist Gautier Capuçon is one of the world’s most sought-after soloists and is regularly invited by the world’s most prestigious orchestras. The list of conductors he has collaborated with ranges from Semyon Bychkov, Gustavo Dudamel and Charles Dutoit to Christoph Eschenbach, Bernard Haitink and Andris Nelsons. At the same time, Capuçon, who plays a valuable cello built by Goffriller in 1701, is an enthusiastic chamber musician who performs not only with his brother, the violinist Renaud, but also with artists such as Daniel Barenboim, Martha Argerich, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and the Artemis Quartet. His CD recordings also reflect his broad range of interests. In addition to the great solo concertos, he has recorded works by Prokofiev, Britten, Carter and most recently Beethoven’s complete cello sonatas. Together with the Louis Vuitton Foundation, Capuçon founded a “classe d’excellence” in Paris in 2014, where he provides intensive training for young cellists over an extended period.

www.gautiercapucon.com