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Last year, Mikkel Myer Lee made his public debut in Singapore at age 9 performing the complete cycle of Chopin’s 24 Preludes Op. 28 to a sold-out Esplanade-Theatres on the Bay. In the same year, he made his debut with orchestra in a sold-out concert where he performed both Beethoven’s third and Chopin’s second piano concertos. Mikkel studies with Tedd Joselson. He began his musical journey playing by ear and improvising on the piano at age 6. Months later, he went on to win top prizes in several piano competitions, and has since represented Singapore and performed at the Mozarteum in Salzburg (Austria) and Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam (Netherlands). He has also been invited to perform at Carnegie Hall. This year, Mikkel performs with the Asian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Robert Casteels and next season he will perform a series of concerts in collaboration with Bechstein. He is the youngest artist supported by Bechstein Music World Singapore, which sponsors all his performances in that country.
Trained in classical singing and acting, Michèle Larivière is the producer of key musical programmes for Radio France, including Mémoires retrouvées de Nicolaï Gedda, Leopold Simoneau, Suzanne Danco, Ileana Cotrubas and Peter Ustinov (France musique), and portraits of Alfred Bruneau, Wolf-Ferrari, Maurice Ohana, Renaud Gagneux and Yves Prin (France culture). As a performer and actor, she created Alfred Bruneau, un granc cœur, Psaume pour Nako by Yves Prin, and has just interpreted the role of Princess Aristione in Les Amants Magnifiques by Molière and Lully at the Gstaad New Year Music Festival (2022), where she is the Artistic Advisor.
She was a presenter on Mezzo TV from 1999 to 2002 and has been a pre-concert host at the Verbier Festival since 1995. As a lecturer, she performs in France in the greatest halls, Châtelet, Operas of Paris, Nancy, Tours, Nantes, UTL of La Rochelle or Cannes (Pushkin, a Black Russian, the Thousand and One Nights, Mozart and women… ) as well as in Aix-Les-Bains (2021) for « Rendre Notre-Dame de Paris au monde », a conference-concert in support of the restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris with Philippe Villeneuve, the chief architect in charge of its restoration and the Société des Membres de la Légion d’honneur de Savoie.
Author-director of documentaries for Arte, Mezzo and France 2, she signed with Don Kent, Les pianos de l’été, and with Gérald Caillat, Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Une Trilogie de Monteverdi, Coline Serreau répète Rossini, La Péniche Opéra, Le Manuscrit disparu, Le Concours de Musique, and OMO BELLO, I want to be a prima donna and for the Péniche Théâtre-Opéra, Divertir en honnête homme with Yves Coudray, Rencontre avec Jean-Claude Pennetier or Portrait Lyrique de Yves Prin.
President of the Péniche-Opéra from 2014 to 2016, Michèle Larivière has just been promoted to Chevalier des Arts et Lettres.
Lisa Wyss (1991, Langnau, Switzerland) has made a name for herself not only as a versatile chamber musician but also as a virtuous soloist.
In the past years, she received invitations to perform as a soloist with the Zürcher Kammerorchester, the Musikkollegium Bern, the Sinfonia Baden, the festival ensemble of Arosa Kultur and the symphony orchestra Burgdorf. She also played at renowned festivals such as the Schleswig Holstein Musikfestival, the Festival Next Generation Bad Ragaz and the Grachtenfestival Amsterdam and was invited to play solo concerts in the Auditorium Lyon and the Zeche Zollverein in Essen.
In 2014 Lisa Wyss founded the Ardemus Quartet, together with three study colleagues in Amsterdam. In the last years the quartet has established itself as a distinguished ensemble with international concert activity.
Especially the radiating joy and enthusiasm of playing together has been numerously praised by the international press. The success of the ensemble is documented by invitations to play in halls such as the Konzerthaus Berlin, the BOZAR Brussels, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Izumi Hall Osaka and the Lisinski Hall Zagreb.
Lisa Wyss completed her Bachelor studies at the Hochschule der Künste Bern with distinction. She continued her studies in the internationally respected class of Arno Bornkamp at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, where she graduated from her Master studies.
She has been awarded numerous prizes: several times she won a first prize at the Music Competition for Youth in Switzerland, in 2010 she won the award of the Kiwanisclub Burgdorf, in 2011 a first prize at the international competition of the Fondation Bellan in Paris and in 2012 and also 2013 she received a study prize of the Migros Kulturprozent in Switzerland and was admitted into their concert agency. In 2016 she won the first prize at the Kiefer Hablitzel music competition.
Imaginative and eloquent, violinist Mari Samuelsen is known for her breath-taking artistry and adventurous approach to programming and presentation. With a technique that blends virtuosity and entrancing musical finesse, Mari presents an innovative musical universe that knows no barriers between the music of such composers as Anna Meredith, Max Richter, Hannah Peel, Caroline Shaw, Arvo Pärt, Pēteris Vasks and Jeff Mills, and that of Bach, Phillip Glass, Beethoven and Vivaldi. Her drive to not do what is traditionally expected, is what has turned Mari Samuelsen into an inspiration for a global audience.
Mari has appeared as soloist and recitalist on many of the world’s leading stages, including New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, London’s Barbican Centre, Berlin’s Konzerthaus and Paris’ Philharmonie and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. She has recently performed with the Orchestre National de Lyon, with appearances at the Berlin Philharmonie and Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, as well as the Radio France Festival in Montpellier.
Recent and upcoming highlights has seen Mari Samuelsen perform with the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra alongside Alice Merton, returns to the BBC Concert Orchestra in London, as well as performances in Spain at the Palau de la Música in Barcelona, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Bratislava, Slovakia with Slovak Philharmonia at Viva Musica! Festival; Ottawa, Canada, and visits to CC Hasselt and Leuven, Belgium with Casco Philharmonic.
In terms of collaborations, she regularly works with the British composer, Max Richter, as a soloist in concert performances of both his Recomposed and Memoryhouse, as well as on his recent Deutsche Grammophon album, Voices. Mari Samuelsen’s recent work also includes collaborations with electronic music artists Jeff Mills and Dubfire and multimedia artist Philipp Geist. Her ground-breaking explorations of contemporary art and classical music as artistic director of Oslo’s Yellow Lounge for its first two seasons reaffirm her position as an innovative artist who is reaching out to new audiences.
Mari is an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist. 2022 marks the release of her second album for the distinctive Yellow Label, named LYS, meaning “light” in Norwegian features new commissions for her from the likes of Hannah Peel, Anna Meredith, Laura Massoto and MEREDI as well as existing works from Caroline Shaw and Hildur Guðnadóttir. In 2019 she released MARI, her debut recording, and was lauded by Gramophone magazine for her ‘Seriously impressive playing…hand-crafted precision.’ As well as dominating the classical charts, MARI and her previous albums were also number 1 hits in the popular charts in her home county of Norway.
Her presence, popularity and the impact of her music among new audiences is astonishing, having reached 34 million views in her YouTube video of Summer from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons alone. Mari Samuelsen also has recorded the world premiere of James Horner’s double concerto for violin, cello and orchestra with her brother, Håkon Samuelsen, as the centrepiece of Pas de Deux, released on Mercury Classics (Universal Music). Very unusual for classical recordings, this album along-side with her first solo recording Nordic Noir as well as the 2019 release MARI were hits in the Norwegian pop charts (reaching the No.1 and No.2 spots respectively).
A classically trained violinist, her studies with Arve Tellefsen and later at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo were followed by a decade with world-renowned professor Zakhar Bron at the Zurich University of the Arts. She is an alumna of the Verbier Festival Academy.
Francesco Tristano is a multifaceted artist—pianist, composer, and a musician equally at home in techno and jazz. Blending eras, genres, and styles, he has carved out a unique musical universe. A key figure in the movement bridging classical and electronic music, he naturally unites diverse audiences. He frequently collaborates with major artists such as Derrick May, Carl Craig, and Michel Portal.
Since 2017, Tristano has been releasing his own compositions with Sony Classical. He tours globally, performing in concert halls as well as electronic and experimental music festivals. Piano Circle Songs (2017) marked a return to solo piano, inspired by French impressionist composers. Tokyo Stories (2019) pays tribute to Japan, while On Early Music (2022) explores Renaissance and early Baroque repertoire—works by Frescobaldi, Gibbons, Bull, and Philips—paired with Tristano’s own baroque-inspired pieces.
In 2023, he launched his own label, intothefuture, and began recording Bach’s complete keyboard works—a lifelong project that remains at the heart of his artistic journey.
Professor Arseny Sokolov is a neurologist and Head of the Neurorehabilitation Department at the CHUV in Lausanne, specialising in the treatment of cognitive disorders, i.e. difficulties with concentration, memory or language, following a stroke, craniocerebral trauma or multiple sclerosis, among others. Following an international specialisation programme in Lausanne, Munich, London, San Francisco and Berne, Professor Sokolov is studying the potential of new technologies and music to promote recovery from neurological and cognitive disorders. In 2019, Professor Sokolov’s team organised the musical event ‘Le Cerveau enchanté’, explaining the links between the brain and music, with the participation of the Orchestre de chambre de Lausanne.
Following his studies and doctorate in medicine at the University of Tübingen and his clinical and academic training in neurology in Munich and at the CHUV, Sokolov obtained a doctorate in clinical cognitive and social neuroscience at University College London. He then pursued his clinical and scientific career in the fields of neurotechnology, cognitive neurology and neurorehabilitation at the University of California San Francisco. He was appointed Deputy Director of the Neurorehabilitation Unit at the Inselspital in Berne in 2020, before taking over as Director of the Neuropsychology Unit at the CHUV in 2021 and Director of the Neuropsychology and Neurorehabilitation Service ad interim in 2023. He was formally named Head the CHUV’s Neurorehabilitation Service in July 2024.
Christopher Bailey is the Arts and Health Lead at the World Health Organization. His Healing Arts Initiative which he co-founded, is looking at the evidence base for the health benefits of the arts by building up a global network of research centers to look at effective practice as well as the foundational science of why the arts may benefit physical, mental and social wellbeing. The emphasis of the program is supporting underserved communities around the world. The program also engages with the global media to promote pro health messaging and build solidarity on health issues through all media. Educated at Columbia and Oxford Universities as well as the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, after a career as a professional actor and playwright, Bailey joined the Rockefeller Foundation as their Research Manager, and from there was recruited to WHO where he lead the Health Informatics work and later their on-line communications team before starting the Arts and Health program. As an ambassador for the field, Bailey has also performed original pieces such as Stage 4: Global Stories on Empathy and Health, and The Vanishing Point: A journey into Blindness and Perception, in venues around the world from the Hamwe Festival in Rwanda, to the Wellcome Collection in London, to the World Bank in DC, as well as Lincoln Center in NY, the LA Opera, LACMA, and Warner Bros Studios in LA, and the Conservatory of Music in San Francisco among many others. The basic message of his work is to amplify the WHO definition of health which states that health is not merely the absence of disease and infirmity, but the attainment of the highest level of physical, mental and social wellbeing.