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Born in Marseille in 1981, Jonathan Gilad began learning the piano at the Conservatoire National de Région de Marseille with Pierre Pradier. In 1992 he won the Premier Grand Prix of Marseille for piano and the Gold Medal in chamber music. In 1991 Jonathan Gilad won first prize at the Salzburg Summer Academy. He was also laureate of the Natexis Foundation for the year 2002. In 1991 Jonathan Gilad began studying with Dmitry Bashkirov in Madrid and Salzburg. From 1992 to 2000 he also studied with Tatiana Dernovski and from 1999 to 2001 he studied at the International Piano Foundation in Cadenabbia, Lake Como, working with Karl-Ulrich Schnabel, Leon Fleisher and Fou-Tsong.
A regular guest at numerous festivals (Ravinia, Aspen, Klavier Ruhr Festival, Luzerne and Verbier), he also performs in prestigious venues (Carnegie Hall, New York, Herkulessaal in Munich, Wigmore Hall, London, Berlin Philharmonic, as well as at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam). He has also performed with many orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Salzburg Camerata Academica, Maggio Musicale Orchestra in Florence, São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, under the direction of Daniel Barenboim, Sir Neville Marriner, Zubin Mehta, Eiji Oue, Seiji Ozawa, Vladimir Spivakov, Yuri Temirkanov, Sandor Vegh, Alain Lombard amd Tugan Sokhiev.
Jonathan Gilad gives regular chamber music recitals with musicians such as Julia Fischer, Viviane Hagner, Danjulo Ishizaka, Mihaela Martin, Nikolaj Znaider, Frans Helmerson, Daniel Müller-Schott, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon. Recent engagements have taken him to Munich (Philharmonic with the Russian National Orchestra), Frankfurt (Alte Oper with the Frankfurter Museumsorchester and the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie), Paris (Théâtre du Châtelet and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées with the Orchestre National de France), to Koln (Philharmonic) as well as to Verbier, Stavanger and Jerusalem.
He has recorded a CD with EMI, in the « Début » series, of works by Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms. This recording was nominated for the « Victoires de la Musique Classique 1999 ». Under the Lyrinx label Jonathan Gilad has recorded 3 CDs (Beethoven, Mozart, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev). Under the PentaTone label, alongside Daniel Müller-Schott and Julia Fischer, he recorded Mendelssohn’s trios, a recording which received a Diapason d’Or. Again with Daniel Müller-Schott, under the Orfeo label, he recorded a CD of Mendelssohn’s cello and piano pieces.
Acclaimed worldwide for his profound musicianship and technical mastery, British cellist Steven Isserlis enjoys a uniquely varied career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, author and broadcaster. He appears with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, and gives recitals in major musical centres. As a chamber musician, he has curated concert series for many prestigious venues, including London’s Wigmore Hall, New York’s 92nd St Y, and the Salzburg Festival. Unusually, he also directs chamber orchestras from the cello in classical programmes.
He has a strong interest in historical performance, working with many period-instrument orchestras and giving recitals with harpsichord and fortepiano. He is also a keen exponent of contemporary music and has given many premieres of new works, including Sir John Tavener’s The Protecting Veil and many other works, Thomas Adès’s Lieux retrouvés, three works for solo cello by György Kurtág, and pieces by Heinz Holliger and Jörg Widmann.
Steven’s wide-ranging discography includes J S Bach’s complete solo cello suites (Gramophone’s Instrumental Album of the Year), Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano, concertos by C P E Bach and Haydn, the Elgar and Walton concertos, and the Brahms double concerto with Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
Since 1997, Steven has been Artistic Director of the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove, Cornwall. He also enjoys playing for children, and has created three musical stories, with the composer Anne Dudley. His two books for children, published by Faber & Faber, have been translated into many languages; his latest book for Faber is a commentary on Schumann’s Advice for Young Musicians, and a book about the Bach suites was published in 2021. He has also devised and written two evenings of words and music, one describing the last years of Robert Schumann, the other devoted to Marcel Proust and his salons, and has presented many programmes for radio, including documentaries about two of his heroes – Robert Schumann and Harpo Marx.
The recipient of many awards, Steven’s honours include a CBE in recognition of his services to music, the Schumann Prize of the City of Zwickau, the Piatigorsky Prize and Maestro Foundation Genius Grant in the U.S, the Glashütte Award in Germany, the Gold Medal awarded by the Armenian Ministry of Culture, and the Wigmore Medal.
Steven plays the ‘Marquis de Corberon’ Stradivarius of 1726, on loan from the Royal Academy of Music.
Being one of the most promising talents of her generation, Anastasia Kobekina debuted with an orchestra at the age of six. Since that time she has had the opportunity to perform with many renowned orchestras, such as Moscow Virtuosi, Kremerata Baltica, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, and many others – under guidance of Krzysztov Penderecki, Heinrich Schiff, Vladimir Spivakov and Valery Gergiev.
In June 2019 Anastasia won the Bronze medal at the XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition in St. Petersburg. In 2018 she became a „New Generation Artist“ of the BBC 3 Radio Scheme and was also awarded the Prix Thierry Scherz and the Prix André Hoffmann at the Swiss Winter Music Festival “Sommets musicaux de Gstaad”, a reward that comprises a recording with orchestra for the Swiss recording label Claves (released in April 2019).
In the upcoming season 2019-2020 she will debut with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, participate in the chamber music week of Verbier Festival in Elmau, and will go on concert tour with the Konzerthaus orchestra Berlin.
One of young cellist’s main dedications and passions is chamber music – she has been participating in many festivals performing with artists, such as Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Giovanni Sollima, Denis Matsuev, Fazil Say, Vladimir Spivakov, and Andras Schiff.
Born into a family of musicians, she received her first cello lessons at the age of four at her home in Ekaterinburg, the capital of Ural part of Russia. Following the completion of her studies at the Central Music school in Moscow she was invited to study at the famous Kronberg Academy in Germany with Frans Helmerson. She continued her studies at the University of Arts in Berlin in the class of Professor Jens Peter Maintz. She is currently a student of Jerome Pernoo at the Conservatoire of Paris and at the Frankfurter Hochschule at the class of Kristin von der Goltz (barockvioloncello).
In 2015 Anastasia won the prestigious TONALi Competition in Hamburg and was given the opportunity to borrow a beautiful violoncello by Giovanni Baptista Guadagnini which dates back to 1743.
Hailed by The Times as a “remarkable cellist” and described by Gramophone as “sheer perfection”, Kian Soltani’s playing is characterised by a depth of expression, sense of individuality and technical mastery, alongside a charismatic stage presence and ability to create an immediate emotional connection with his audience. He is now invited by the world’s leading orchestras, conductors and recital promoters, propelling him from rising star to one of the most talked about cellists performing today.
In 2020/21 Soltani has been invited to make debuts with orchestras including the Munich Philharmonic, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Furthermore, Soltani will embark on extensive orchestral touring including with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and Daniel Barenboim, Bolshoi Orchestra and Tugan Sokhiev, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop, Orchestre Philharmonique de la Radio France and Myung-whun Chung and the Tonhalle Orchestra with Paavo Järvi. Recent orchestral highlights include the Vienna Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Berlin Staatskapelle, NCPAO, Boston Symphony and Chicago Symphony Orchestras. Soltani commences a multi-year residency with Junge Wilde at Konzerthaus Dortmund from Autumn 2018.
As a recitalist, Soltani has recently performed at Carnegie Hall, Salzburg and Lucerne Festivals, Wigmore Hall and the Boulez Saal, where he will return to curate an evening of cello music in April 2021. In January 2021, Soltani will perform Beethoven trios on tour with Daniel and Michael Barenboim at venues including Paris Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein, London Southbank Centre and Munich Philharmonie im Gasteig.
In 2017, Soltani signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon and his first disc ‘Home’, comprising works for cello and piano by Schubert, Schumann and Reza Vali, was released to international acclaim in February 2018, with Gramophone describing the recording as “sublime”. His recording of the Mozart Piano Quartets with Daniel and Michael Barenboim and Yulia Deyneka was released in August 2018. In April 2019, Warner Classics released a disc of the Dvorak and Tchaikovsky Piano Trios with Lahav Shani and Renaud Capucon, recorded live at Aix Easter Festival in 2018. Soltani’s latest disc for Deutsche Grammophon was released in August 2020 and features Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the Staatskapelle Berlin and Daniel Barenboim, amongst other works arranged by Soltani for solo and cello ensemble.
Soltani attracted worldwide attention in April 2013 as winner of the International Paulo Cello Competition in Helsinki where he was hailed by Ostinato magazine as “a soloist of the highest level among the new generation of cellists”. In February 2017 Soltani won Germany’s celebrated Leonard Bernstein Award and in December 2017, he was awarded the prestigious Credit Suisse Young Artist Award.
Born in Bregenz, Austria, in 1992 to a family of Persian musicians, Soltani began playing the cello at age four and was only twelve when he joined Ivan Monighetti’s class at the Basel Music Academy. He was chosen as an Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation scholarship holder in 2014, and completed his further studies as a member of the Young Soloist Programme at Germany’s Kronberg Academy. He received additional important musical training at the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein.
Kian Soltani plays “The London, ex Boccherini” Antonio Stradivari cello, kindly loaned to him by a generous sponsor through the Beares International Violin Society.
Lars Vogt has established himself as one of the leading musicians of his generation. Born in the German town of Düren in 1970, he first came to public attention when he won second prize at the 1990 Leeds International Piano Competition and has enjoyed a varied career for over twenty-five years. His versatility as an artist ranges from the core classical repertoire of Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms to the romantics Grieg, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov through to the dazzling Lutoslawski concerto.
During his prestigious career Lars has performed with many of the world’s great orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Santa Cecilia Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Bayerischer Rundfunk Munich, Staatskapelle Dresden, Wiener Philharmoniker, London Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony and NHK Symphony.
Since September 2015 Lars has been Music Director of Royal Northern Sinfonia at Sage Gateshead in the UK, a position which he has held for five years with the 2019/20 season marking his final season before he becomes Principal Artistic Partner of the orchestra. As a conductor Lars has also worked with many leading orchestras, including the Cologne and Zurich Chamber Orchestras, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Camerata Salzburg, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Hannover Opera Orchestra, Frankfurt Museumorchester, Warsaw Philharmonic, and the Sydney, Singapore and New Zealand symphony orchestras. In May 2019 he undertook a highly acclaimed tour of Germany and France leading the Mahler Chamber Orchestra including concerts in Berlin, Munich and Paris.
Since 2017, Stephen McHolm has served as Director of the Verbier Festival Academy, one of the world’s most prestigious summer music academies. McHolm brought a fresh approach to the Academy upon his arrival, with a passion for working with young artists to create connections with contemporary audiences. McHolm also launched the Festival’s UNLTD division—an inventive concept that aims to disrupt norms, push boundaries, and awaken musical curiosity. UNLTD shines a spotlight on emerging talent, including Verbier Festival Academy students and recent alumni, and engaging interactive performances with cross-generational appeal. For 12 years before his arrival in Switzerland, McHolm grew the Honens International Piano Competition Foundation into one of Canada’s most respected and widest-reaching international classical music organisations—discovering, nurturing, presenting and promoting the talents of emerging concert artists. He was described as a “rebel and revolutionary” by Calgary’s Avenue Magazine—a testament to his work in building new audiences for classical music and nurturing artists ready for 21st century careers. The Honens artistic and career development programme, together with the Honens recording label, which he founded in 2008, were held up as models for the world’s leading international music competitions and artist development trusts.
Martin T:son Engstroem was born in Stockholm in 1953 where he received his schooling and a degree in Music History from the University of Stockholm. His father was the sculptor Torolf Engström and mother Inge Rosenfeld-Engström.
He began early his career as organizer of concerts by creating his own series of Sunday afternoon concerts for young Swedish musicians at the National Museum in Stockholm. This series became the leading window for young Swedish talent through the 1970s. Still a teenager he also arranged major concerts in Stockholm for Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Antal Dorati and Staffan Scheja.
1972-1973 he worked for one year at the Foreign Division of Ibbs & Tillett artists’ management in London mainly dealing with British artists performing abroad. Here he worked a.o. with John Ogdon, Shura Cherkassky and many UK orchestras.
In 1975, Engstroem moved to Paris to become partner in the artists management company ‘Opéra et Concert’. During the 12 years with the agency, he worked intimately with many major artists such as Karl Böhm, Birgit Nilsson, Jessye Norman, Lucia Popp, Renato Bruson and Leonard Bernstein. His prime interest was to develop new talent and many of the young musicians he represented went on to major careers such as Barbara Hendricks, Neil Shicoff, Han-Na Chang and Giuseppe Sinopoli.
During many years he enjoyed a close collaboration with Herbert von Karajan.
After having moved to Switzerland in 1987 with his wife, soprano Barbara Hendricks and their two children, he worked for a period of time as consultant to EMI France, the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele and the Paris Opera (co-organizer of the opening of l’Opéra de Paris / Bastille in 1992 with Leonard Bernstein, Michael Tilson Thomas and Robert Wilson). Engstroem was instrumental in the choice of Myung-Whun Chung as Artistic Director of l’Opéra de Bastille.
In 1991 he started to put together what in 1994 became the Verbier Festival & Academy for which he remains the artistic and executive head as Founder & Director. The Verbier Festival has over the years developed into one of the most innovative performing arts communities in Europe. In 2000, Engstroem, together with the Swiss bank UBS developed what became one of the most attractive training orchestras in the world, the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra, with James Levine as its Music Director. Charles Dutoit followed as Music Director in 2009 and Valery Gergiev, the present Music Director of the Verbier Festival Orchestra started in 2018.
2005 saw the beginning of the UBS Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra which immediately enjoyed a close association with Maxim Vengerov through major tours and a highly successful EMI recording of Mozart Violin Concertos. In 2008 Gabór Takács-Nagy was named Music Director of the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra.
Between 1999 and 2003, Engstroem was Vice President of Artists & Repertoire of Deutsche Grammophon (and between 2003 and 2005, Senior Executive Producer & Artists Development). He was directly responsible for the recording projects of many major artists such as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Pierre Boulez, Claudio Abbado and Maurizio Pollini to name but a few. Among the new artists he signed to DG were Anna Netrebko, Lang Lang, Yundi Li, Hélène Grimaud, Ilya Gringolts, Hilary Hahn and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
He has been a jury member of numerous competitions: in 2005 at the 50th anniversary of the Paganini Competition in Genoa, in 2006 he was invited by Galina Vishnewskaja to be on the jury of her first vocal competition in Moscow. In 2009 Thomas Quasthoff invited him to Berlin as a jury member for the ‘Das Lied’ Competition. In 2009, 2011, 2013 (the last two years he was the President of the Jury) he was a member of the Clara Haskil Competition, and in 2010 member of the jury for the Geneva Competition (voice). In 2014 he was a member of the Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv. Engstroem has had a long-term relationship with the Tchaikovsky Competition; in 2011 he was a member of the violin jury and in 2015 he was a member of the piano jury; in 2019 he chaired the violin jury.
In June 2011, The Nobel Foundation in Lindau induced Martin T:son Engstroem and Bill Gates to their Honorary Senate. The Foundation thereby recognized “their sustained personal commitment to supporting and encouraging young talents by opening the door to future opportunities.”
From 2013 to 2016 he was a Member of the Board of the Béjart Ballet Lausanne and of the Board of Governors of the Glion Institute of Higher Studies. From 2014 to 2017 he was also a Board member of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva.
In April 2015, Engstroem received the Dmitri Shostakovich Prize at a ceremony held at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, in Moscow. Awarded by the Yuri Bashmet Foundation, the recognition is considered to be one of the most prestigious prizes in the field of Russian art. He is the first laureate of the Dmitri Shostakovich Prize who is not a musician.
Engstroem has also worked as Global Advisor on Artistic Planning for IMG Artists and as consultant for Rolex in developing artistic projects in China and India.
Since 2016 he has been a Board Member of the Macao Festival and, in 2018, became Artistic Director both of the Tsinandali Festival in Georgia and of the Riga Jurmala Festival in Latvia.
Engstroem now lives on the shores of Lac Leman in Switzerland with his second wife Blythe Teh-Engstroem and their two daughters.
Beatrice Fihn has more than a decade of experience in disarmament diplomacy and civil society mobilisation through her work with ICAN, the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize Campaign coalition working to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. Fihn was trained at University College London (UCL) in international law and at Stockholm University in international relations.