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Soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan, renowned for her dramatic sensibility and innovative artistry, has spent over 30 years at the forefront of contemporary music. She has developed close collaborations with luminaries such as John Zorn, Simon Rattle, Kent Nagano, and Krzysztof Warlikowski. A tireless advocate for modern music, Hannigan has premiered nearly 100 new works and collaborated with composers like Boulez, Ligeti, and Abrahamsen.
Beginning her career as a soprano, she gained recognition for tackling challenging roles before transitioning to conducting at age 40. Now, she regularly leads major orchestras including the Concertgebouw, Cleveland Orchestra, and Montreal Symphony, while maintaining relationships with festivals like Aix-en-Provence and Spoleto. Recent highlights include her acclaimed dual role in Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine, where she sings and conducts, and world premieres such as Golfam Khayam’s I am not a tale to be told.
In the 2024/25 season, she will return to lead orchestras including the London Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, and Iceland Symphony, while also embarking on a vocal recital tour with Bertrand Chamayou. In 2026, she will assume the role of Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.
Hannigan’s recordings have garnered international acclaim. Her album Crazy Girl Crazy won the 2018 Grammy for Best Classical Solo Vocal album, alongside an Edison and Juno Award. Her recent works include Hannigan Sings Zorn and collaborations with Juilliard and the Royal Academy of Music. A passionate mentor, she founded Equilibrium Young Artists and Momentum: Our Future Now to support emerging musicians.
Her numerous accolades include the Order of Canada, Gramophone Magazine’s Artist of the Year (2022), and Denmark’s Léonie Sonning Music Prize. Hannigan resides in Finistère, France, connecting her Atlantic coast home to her roots in Nova Scotia.
Nathalie Stutzmann has just been announced as the Philadelphia Orchestra’s new Principal Guest Conductor from season 21/22. The three-year tenure will involve a regular presence in the orchestra’s subscription series in Philadelphia and at its Summer festivals in Vail and Saratoga. Nathalie is also entering the third season of a highly successful tenure as Chief Conductor of the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, a tenure which has just been extended by a further two seasons, to the end of 22/23.
Nathalie Stutzmann is considered one of the most outstanding musical personalities of our time. Charismatic musicianship, combined with unique rigour, energy and fantasy, characterise her style. A rich variety of strands form the core of her repertoire: Central European and Russian romanticism is a strong focus — ranging from Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms and Dvorak through to the larger symphonic forces of Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Mahler, Bruckner and Strauss — as well as French 19th century repertoire and impressionism. Highlights from her partnership with the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra include acclaimed performances of Bruckner’s Symphony No.7, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.6 and a complete cycle of Beethoven’s symphonies.
Nathalie was also Principal Guest Conductor of the RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland 2017-2020. Her sold-out performances with the RTE NSO in Dublin attracted outstanding accolades from the press, with particular praise for her performances of Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5, and Mahler’s complete Das Knaben Wunderhorn.
As a guest conductor, Nathalie began the season 20/21 with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and returns to them twice during the season. Other guest conducting highlights over the next two seasons include performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Orchestre Métropolitain Montreal, NDR Elbphilharmonie, London Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orquesta Nacional de España and Finnish Radio Symphony.
Nathalie has also established a strong reputation as an opera conductor. She will open her 21/22 season with a conducting debut at the Metropolitan Opera (Iphigenie en Tauride). Last season she was due to conduct Tchaikovsky’s Pikovaya Dama at La Monnaie in Brussels (cancelled due to COVID-19), which has now been re-scheduled in 22/23. In recent years she conducted critically acclaimed performances of Wagner’s Tannhäuser (2017, Monte Carlo Opera), Boito’s Mefistofele (2018 Chorégies d’Orange festival in Provence).
Nathalie started her studies at a very young age in piano, bassoon, cello and studied conducting with the legendary Finnish teacher Jorma Panula. She was mentored by Seiji Ozawa and Sir Simon Rattle who says that “Nathalie is the real thing. So much love, intensity and sheer technique. We need more conductors like her”. Nathalie continues to keep a few projects as a singer each season, primarily recitals and performances with her own ensemble. In January 2019 she was elected a Chevalier in the ‘Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur’, France’s highest honour. France had previously honoured her unique contribution to the country’s cultural life by electing her ‘Commandeur des Arts et Lettres’ and ‘Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite’.
Nathalie is an exclusive recording artist of Warner Classics/Erato. Her next album, Contralto, will be released in January 2021.
Joshua Weilerstein is the Artistic Director of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. He also enjoys a flourishing guest conducting career throughout Europe and the USA and is known for his clarity of musical expression, boundless enthusiasm, and deep natural musicianship. His enthusiasm for a wide range of repertoire is combined with an ambition to bring new audiences into the concert hall.
As Artistic Director of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne(OCL), Weilerstein has brought a fresh programming perspective to the orchestra, performing a contemporary or rarely heard work on each one of his subscription concerts alongside the core classical repertoire. The OCL regularly commissions new works, and has launched a series of community initiatives resulting in the growth of new audiences while also retaining loyal subscribers. The orchestra has also released a critically acclaimed all Stravinsky recording under Weilerstein’s direction, and has toured the major musical capitals of Europe.
Joshua Weilerstein believes passionately in programming both traditional and contemporary repertoire and whenever possible, presents a piece by a living composer in each of his concerts. He hosts a successful classical music podcast, Sticky Notes, for music lovers and newcomers alike. This reflects his interest in music education and in trying to reach as wide an audience as possible. In his capacity as Artistic Director of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Weilerstein encourages and is committed to participating in the educational and Découvertes series of concerts for children and families. During his time as Assistant Conductor with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Weilerstein was actively involved in the orchestra’s Young People’s Concerts. In August 2018, he conducted a specially devised programme, “The Sound of an Orchestra” for the BBC Proms which was inspired by and which re-worked Leonard Bernstein’s televised presentations in New York and which was described (Bachtrack) as “… an exhilarating musical ride through three centuries’ worth of orchestral music to try to investigate “the sound of an orchestra.”
Since 1988 Yuri Temirkanov has been the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom he regularly undertakes major international tours and recordings.
Born in the Caucasus city of Nal’chik, Yuri Temirkanov began his musical studies at the age of nine. When he was thirteen, he attended the Leningrad School for Talented Children where he continued his studies in violin and viola. Upon graduation, he attended the Leningrad Conservatory where he completed his studies in viola and later returned to study conducting, graduating in 1965. After winning the prestigious All-Soviet National Conducting Competition in 1966, Yuri Temirkanov was invited by Kirill Kondrashin to tour Europe and the United States with legendary violinist David Oistrakh and the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra.
Yuri Temirkanov made his debut with the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra (formerly the Leningrad Philharmonic) in early 1967 and was then invited to join the orchestra as Assistant Conductor to Yevgeny Mravinsky. In 1968, he was appointed Principal Conductor of the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra where he remained until his appointment as Music Director of the Kirov Opera and Ballet (now the Mariinsky Theatre) in 1976. He remained in this position until 1988 and his productions of Eugene Onegin and Queen of Spades have become legendary in the theatre’s history.
Maestro Temirkanov has appeared with leading European orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, London Philharmonic, London Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome and La Scala, Milan and others.
After making his London debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1977, he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor, and then in 1992 named Principal Conductor, a position he held until 1998. From 1992 to 1997 he was also the Principal Guest Conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra and from 1998 to 2008 Principal Guest Conductor of the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. A regular visitor to the USA, he conducts the major orchestras of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He was the Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from 2000 till 2006, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre until 2009. In 2010 – 2012, he was Music Director of Teatro Regio di Parma.
His numerous recordings include collaborations with the St Petersburg Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestras, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with whom he recorded the complete Stravinsky ballets and Tchaikovsky symphonies.
For twelve days over the Christmas holiday, Maestro Temirkanov hosts the annual International Winter Festival Arts Square in St Petersburg, Russia. Unique in its concept, the festival gathers artists of the highest caliber, confirming the status of St. Petersburg as one of the cultural capitals of Europe. The 15th festival in December 2014 featured Jonas Kaufmann, Ian Bostridge, Olga Peretyatko and Christian Blackshaw, among others.
Maestro Temirkanov has received many distinguished awards in Russia. He has been awarded the Order “For Merit for the Country” of all the four degrees (1998, 2003, 2008, 2013). In 2003 and 2007, he received the Abbiati Prize for Best Conductor, and in 2003 was named Conductor of the Year in Italy. Recently, he was made an Honorary Academician of Santa Cecilia. In 2012 he was awarded “The Commander of the Order of the Star of Italy”, in 2014 the Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Prize, and in 2015 the “Order of the Rising Sun” (Japan) and “Una vita nella musica” Prize (Italy). In November 2015, Yuri Temirkanov was made the Honorary Conductor of the Academia Santa Cecilia Choir and Orchestra.
Marc Minkowski plays an active role in promoting classical music both though his exciting career as conductor, and as an artistic administrator. He is currently General Manager of the Opéra National de Bordeaux, having been appointed in 2016, was the Artistic Director of the Mozartwoche (Mozart Week), Salzburg from 2013 to 2017 and became the Artistic Advisor of Kanazawa Orchestra (Japan) from September 2018. In addition, he founded the orchestra Les Musiciens du Louvre in 1982 and created the Ré Majeure Festival on Île de Ré (French Atlantic coast) in 2011. In 2018, he was honored as a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.
After studying the bassoon, Marc Minkowski began conducting at an early age, then followed maestro Charles Bruck’s academy at the Pierre Monteux Memorial School, Hancock, Maine. At the age of nineteen, he founded Les Musiciens du Louvre, an ensemble that was to play an active role in the revival of Baroque music. Under his direction, Les Musiciens du Louvre explored both French Baroque music and Handel, before expanding their repertoire to include Mozart, Rossini, Offenbach, Bizet, and Wagner.
Marc Minkowski regularly appears in many of the world’s most highly-regarded opera houses and concert halls. In Paris, he has conducted Idomeneo, Platée, Die Zauberflöte, Ariodante, Giulio Cesare, Iphigénie en Tauride, Mireille and Alceste at the Opéra National; La Belle Hélène, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, Carmen and Die Feen at the Théâtre du Châtelet; and La Dame blanche, Pelléas et Mélisande, Cendrillon, Die Fledermaus, Mârouf and Manon at the Opéra Comique. He has conducted several operas at the Salzburg Festival (Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Mitridate, Così fan tutte, Lucio Silla, Die Fledermaus). His other international engagements have included: San Francisco (Don Giovanni), Brussels (Les Huguenots, Hamlet, and Il Trovatore at La Monnaie), Zurich, Venice, Moscow (first Pelléas et Mélisande ever on a russian stage at the Stanislavski Theatre, which won many awards), Berlin, Amsterdam, Vienna (Hamlet, Fidelio, Le Nozze di figaro and Der Fliegende Holländer at the Theater an der Wien, Alcina and Gluck’s Armide at the Vienna State Opera) and Aix-en-Provence (L’incoronazione di Poppea, Le nozze di Figaro, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Idomeneo, Don Giovanni, Les Boréades and Il turco in Italia). Since the 2014-2015 season, he has appeared at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (Idomeneo, Traviata, Don Giovanni) and the Teatro alla Scala (Lucio Silla, L’Enfant et les Sortilèges and l’Heure espagnole). At the Opéra National de Bordeaux, he has conducted Pelléas et Mélisande, La Vie Parisienne, Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Manon.
With an active interest in collaborating with a diverse range of directors, he has worked with François Abou-Salem, Chistopher Alden, David Alden, Ivan Alexandre, Philippe Béziat, Robert Carsen, Jérôme Deschamps, Richard Eyre, Jürgen Flimm, Joan Font, Achim Freyer, La Fura dels Baus, Jean-Claude Gallotta, Romain Gilbert, Klaus Michael Grüber, Claus Guth, Karl Ernst and Ursel Herrmann, Kasper Holten, Vincent Huguet, Nicholas Hytner, Nicolas Joel, Charles Jude, Waldemar Kamer, Natalia Korczakowska, Günter Krämer, Martin Kušej, Jorge Lavelli, Benjamin Lazar, Macha Makeïeff, Satoshi Miyagi, Sergio Morabito, Mark Morris, David McVicar, Jean-Pierre Miquel, Hans Neuenfels, Adrian Noble, Pascal Paul-Harang, Laurent Pelly, Jean-Louis Pichon, Pier Luigi Pizzi, David Pountney, Olivier Py, Marshall Pynkoski, Emilio Sagi, Karine Saporta, Laura Scozzi, Florent Siaud, Philippe Sireuil, Jacopo Spirei, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Jossi Wieler, Robert Wilson.
Marc Minkowski is also in high demand on the concert platform in standard and modern symphonic repertoire, conducting orchestras such as DSO Berlin, Staatskapelle Dresden, Berlin Philharmonic, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Bamberger Symphoniker, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, BBCSO, City of Birmingham SO, Kanazawa Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Finnish Radio Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Mariinsky Orchestra among others.
The highlights of his 2019-2020 season include: Offenbach Contes d’Hoffmann at the Opéra National de Bordeaux, Meyerbeer Huguenots at Grand Théâtre de Genève, Messiah staged by Bob Wilson in Salzburg and the revival of his Mozart Trilogy at Opéra National de Bordeaux.
Although raised in Paris, both his heritage – American mother, French father, Swiss, Czech and Polish grandparents – and frequent travels for work have lead him to become a global citizen.
Daniel Harding CBE is Music and Artistic Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, with whom in 2022 he celebrated his 15-year anniversary. He is Conductor Laureate of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with whom he has worked for over 20 years. In 2024, he will take up the position of Music Director of the Youth Music Culture, The Greater Bay Area for a five-year term, and that same season will take up the position of Music Director of the Orchestra and Chorus of the Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
He is a regular visitor to the world’s foremost orchestras, including the Wiener Philharmoniker, Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Staatskapelle Dresden, London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala. In the US, he has appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony.
A renowned opera conductor, he has led critically acclaimed productions at the Teatro alla Scala Milan, Wiener Staatsoper, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and at the Aix-en-Provence and Salzburg Festivals.
He is a qualified airline pilot.
Born in Toro, Spain, Jesús López-Cobos studied at the universities of Granada and Madrid, earning a doctorate in philosophy in 1964. In his student days, López-Cobos led a student chorus with such success that he decided to undertake full-time musical studies, first earning a degree in composition from Madrid in 1966. He then studied conducting with Franco Ferrara in Italy. In 1968, López-Cobos won first prize at the Besançon international conducting competition, and as a student of Hans Swarowsky he took his degree in conducting at the Vienna Academy in 1969. That same year, López-Cobos gave his debut concert as a symphony conductor in Prague, and as an opera conductor at La Fenice in Venice.
López-Cobos first led the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1970 and would serve as general musical director for that company from 1981 to 1990. During that time, López-Cobos led Wagner’s Ring cycle on tour in Japan in 1987; the tour marked the first time the whole Ring cycle had been staged in that country. In the 1970s and 1980s, López-Cobos also led opera productions at Covent Garden, San Francisco, the Vienna Opera, La Scala, and he Metropolitan in New York. López-Cobos was named principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic and served there from 1981 to 1986. Also, from 1984 to 1989, he served as principal conductor and artistic director of the Spanish National Orchestra.
In 1986, López-Cobos was named principal conductor and music director of the Cincinnati Symphony; he added the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra to his musical directorships in 1990. With Cincinnati he would embark on an extensive recording schedule with Telarc, resulting in recordings of works by Respighi, Ravel, Richard Strauss, Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler, Falla, Bizet, Franck, and Dukas. Among these, his recording of the Mahler Symphony No. 9 has been singled out as a critical favorite, and his complete recording of Albéniz’s Iberia in the Arbos and Surinach orchestrations is apparently unique in the catalog. His repertory was rich with works of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. López-Cobos also recorded with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra for Denon and Teldec.
López-Cobos led the usually homebound Cincinnati Symphony on several tours, including one to Puerto Rico in 1998 and the first West Coast tour in the orchestra’s history in 1992. His annual appearances with the Cincinnati orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York regularly sold out the house. In 1997, López-Cobos led the ensemble in its first coast-to-coast telecast on PBS, featuring pianist Alicia de Larrocha. In 1996, the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music awarded López-Cobos an honorary doctorate in music.
In 2001, maestro López-Cobos became conductor emeritus in Cincinnati. He also ended his association with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra in 2000. López Cobos was the first Spanish Conductor to climb the podium at the Scala in Milan, the Covent Garden in London, the Paris Opera and the Metropolitan in New York. He directed opera regularly, having collaborated in five productions at the Opéra de La Bastille in Paris, at the Metropolitan in New York with “Manon” and “Thaïs”; in Chicago, the Orange Festival, etc. He was also Musical Director of the Teatro Real de Madrid and Chief Conductor of the Madrid Symphony Orchestra with which he offered his own series of concerts.
López-Cobos continued as permanent conductor of the Orchestre Français des Jeunes, a Paris-based summer workshop for student musicians. He died in Berlin in March 2018 at the age of 78.
Iván Fischer is founder and Music Director of the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Music Director of the Konzerthaus and the Konzerthausorchester in Berlin. Recently he has also been active as a composer: his works have been performed in the US, Holland, Belgium, Hungary, Germany and Austria. He also staged successful opera performances, recently a Mozart cycle in Budapest and New York.
The 30 year-old partnership with the Budapest Festival Orchestra has become one of the greatest success stories of classical music. Intense international touring and a series of acclaimed recordings for Philips Classics, later for Channel Classics have contributed to Iván Fischer’s reputation as one of the world’s most visionary and successful orchestra leaders.
Both in Berlin and Budapest he has developed and introduced new types of concerts, “cocoa-concerts” for young children, “surprise” concerts where the programme is announced from the stage, “public dress rehearsals” where he talks to the audience, open-air concerts attracting tens of thousands of people and “staged concerts” combining concert and theatre. He has founded several festivals, including one composer marathons, the Budapest Mahlerfest which is also a forum for commissioning and presenting new compositions and the Bridging Europe Festival.
As a guest conductor Fischer works with the finest symphony orchestras of the world. He has been invited to the Berlin Philharmonic more than ten times, he leads every year two weeks of programs with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and appears with leading US symphony orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra.
Earlier music director of Kent Opera and Lyon Opera, Principal Conductor of National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC, his numerous recordings have won several prestigious international prizes.
Ivan Fischer studied piano, violin, cello and composition in Budapest, continuing his education in Vienna in Professor Hans Swarowsky’s conducting class.
Mr. Fischer is a founder of the Hungarian Mahler Society, and Patron of the British Kodály Academy. He received the Golden Medal Award from the President of the Republic of Hungary, and the Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum for his services to help international cultural relations. The French Government named him Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. In 2006 he was honored with the Kossuth Prize, Hungary’s most prestigious arts award. He is honorary citizen of Budapest. In 2011 he received the Royal Philharmonic Award and the Dutch Ovatie prize. In 2013 he was awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Recently appointed Chief Conductor and Music Advisor of the Philadelphia Orchestra as well as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Dutoit regularly collaborates with the world’s pre-eminent orchestras and soloists.
Renowned for polished and idiomatic interpretations of an eclectic array of musical styles and since his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1980, Charles Dutoit has been invited each season to conduct other major orchestras of the United States, including those of Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Pittsburgh.
He has also performed regularly with all the great orchestras of Europe, including the Berlin Philharmonic and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra as well as with all the London orchestras, the major orchestras of Japan, South America and Australia.
Charles Dutoit has recorded extensively for Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Philips, CBS, Erato among other labels with American, European and Japanese orchestras. His more than 170 recordings, half of them with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, have garnered over 40 awards and distinctions around the world.
For 25 years (1977 to 2002) Charles Dutoit was Artistic Director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, a dynamic musical partnership recognized the world over.
He has also been closely associated with the Philadelphia Orchestra since 1990 as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Orchestra’s summer festival at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in upstate New York and he led the Orchestra in a series of distinctive recordings.
From 1991 to 2001, Charles Dutoit was Music Director of the Orchestre National de France with which he made a number of critically lauded recordings, and toured extensively on the five continents. In 1998, he was appointed Music Director of the NHK Symphony Orchestra (Tokyo) with which he has toured Europe, the United States, China and Southeast Asia and is today Music Director Emeritus of the Orchestra.
When still in his early 20’s, Charles Dutoit was invited by Von Karajan to lead the Vienna State Opera. He has since conducted regularly at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, New York and the Deutsche Oper, Berlin. He also led a highly acclaimed new production of Berlioz’s masterpiece Les Troyens at the Los Angeles Music Center Opera.
In 2003, he began a series of Wagner operas – Der fliegende Holländer and the complete Ring Cycle – at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.
Artistic Director for three seasons of the Sapporo Pacific Music Festival, Charles Dutoit is presently Artistic Director of the Miyazaki International Music Festival in Japan as well as Artistic Director of the Canton International Summer Music Academy (CISMA) in Guangzhou (Canton), China which he founded in 2005.
Charles Dutoit also participated in a series of educational documentary films entitled Cities of Music produced by the NHK Television of Tokyo and which features ten musical capitals of the world.
In 1991, Charles Dutoit was made Honorary Citizen of the City of Philadelphia. In 1995, the government of Québec named him Grand Officier de l’Ordre national du Québec and in 1996, he was invested as Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France. He is the recipient of two awards by the Canadian Conference of the Arts and in 1998, Charles Dutoit was invested as Honorary Officer of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest award of merit whose other honorary recipients include John Kenneth Galbraith, James Hillier, Nelson Mandela, The Queen Mother, Vaclav Havel and Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
Charles Dutoit was born in Lausanne, Switzerland and his extensive musical training included history of music, composition, violin, viola, piano and percussion at the conservatoires of Geneva, Siena, Venice and Boston. A globetrotter motivated by his passion for history and archaeology, political science, art and architecture, Charles Dutoit has traveled in all 195 nations of the world. He maintains residences in Switzerland, Paris, Montreal, Buenos Aires and Tokyo.
Paul Hess is the President of the Académie de l’opera Association (Geneva), its conductor and musical director. He is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, the Mozarteum in Salzburg and the Academia Chigiana in Siena, Italy. He is a laureate of the Besançon International Conducting Competition and a recipient of a Fullbright Scholarship in Italy. He studied conducting with the Masters: Michael Tilson Thomas, Sir Charles Mackerras, Rafael Kubelik, Stanley Pope, Franco Ferrara, Boris Goldovsky, and conducted concerts and operas in Boston, Salzburg, Buffalo, Rome, Siena, Bologna, Treviso, San Remo, Trapani, Besançon, Geneva, Basel and Bern, and prestigious orchestras such as the OSR, OCG, OCL, BBC. He is also a regular member of the jury for international opera competitions.
Paul Hess is also a cartoonist and humorous portraitist. His drawings have been published in various specialised music magazines, including Il Mondo de la Musica (Rome) and Clavier (United States). He has been exhibited at the Rome Opera (100 drawings), at Victoria Hall in Geneva, at the B. F. M. in Geneva, at the Radio Suisse Romande in Lausanne, at the Télévision Suisse Romande in Geneva and at the G.A.T.T. in Geneva.
His career as a musical director; symphonic orchestras, ballets, operas, operettas, musicals, choirs, and his talent as a draughtsman and his pedagogical abilities, lead him today quite naturally towards teaching and passing on knowledge and expertise to new generations.