International Tchaikovsky Youth Orchestra Yekaterinburg

© Herlinde Kölbl

Hermann Parzinger’s profession requires an eye for details and patience. He studied archaeology and history and modestly recounts: “Even if it sounds somewhat immodest, I somehow knew I would make my way in archaeology from my very first semester.” And he was proven right. After receiving his doctorate and post-doctorate degrees in Munich, he became the director of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin for thirteen years and then its president for another five years. He led numerous excavations in the Middle East and South-Western Asia and especially in Russia, with a focus on Siberia. His research has won several awards. And he also has the ability to take the long view: since 2008 he has been president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which makes him responsible for the master plan for Berlin’s Museum Island and many other cultural building projects within the city. He was also appointed one of three founding directors of the Humboldt Forum. And as for his ability to see and describe beauty … one of his books, fresh off the press, is always a joy!

© Thomas Otto

The conductor Bruno Weil looks back on a long career as an opera and concert conductor ever since he acted as a last-minute replacement for Herbert von Karajan, who had fallen ill in Salzburg in 1988, thus leading three performances of Don Giovanni. Born in Hochstätten in the German Palatinate in 1949, Weil began his career as General Music Director at the Opera Houses in Augsburg and Duisburg; he also directed the festival “Klang & Raum”, which took place at The Irsee Monastery from 1993 to 2011. He has made a name for himself the world over as a conductor of Vienna’s classical era. Thus, he has enjoyed longstanding working relationships not only with specialist orchestras such as Tafelmusik in Toronto and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. His CD recordings of the late Haydn symphonies, Beethoven’s piano concertos and Schubert’s masses have also won numerous awards. Between 2011 and 2015, Bruno Weil conducted Mozart’s three da Ponte operas at Jeunesses Musicales in Weikersheim. In 2015 he was appointed a professor of conducting at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

www.brunoweil.eu

In 2015 the Russian pianist Dmitry Masleev catapulted himself to international attention by winning the most renowned piano competition of all, the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Ever since, the 28-year-old has received invitations from all over the world: in January 2017 he first performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall, followed in March by Masleev’s celebrated Berlin debut with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin. The spring of 2017 also brought many solo recitals as well as a China tour with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. As artist-in-residence he will work with the SWR Symphony Orchestra. Masleev’s repertoire ranges from Scarlatti, Mozart and Beethoven to the late romantic Russian repertoire and sonatas (with Boris Berezovsky) and piano quintets by Shostakovich and Weinberg. Raised in Ulan-Ude, a Siberian town located between Lake Baikal and the border to Mongolia, he studied at the Moscow Conservatory and at the International Piano Academy on Lake Como.

www.dmitry-masleev.com