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James Garnon trained at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and Edinburgh University. He has performed in over 20 productions at Shakespeare’s Globe, most recently in the main house as Touchstone in As You Like It and in the title role in Pericles in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. He is a Globe Associate Artist and a member of the Higher Education Faculty for whom he has taught both actors and directors. He has also frequently acted for the Royal Shakespeare Company, was a founder member of The Factory Theatre Company, and has performed at numerous other theatres including the Old Vic and Almeida Theatre. Aside from varied film and television work, James has also regularly worked as a masterclass leader for the Samling Artist Programme and Samling Academy.
Born in a Hindu Brahmin family in Northeast India, Tapashi Devchoudhury was introduced to asanas by her father, and the wisdom of Vedic mantras and ancient Hindu philosophies by her mother very early in her life. The ancestral teachings of oriental philosophies and a fascination towards the human consciousness led to her exploring deeper connections between the body-mind and consciousness. She leads a meditative and fluid yoga session, blending traditional hatha yoga with Tai-chi and Qi Kung. Tapashi believes that ‘Yoga’ cannot be taught, it can only be experienced. Her classes intend to make this experience accessible.
He has played as a soloist with a number of orchestras, including the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Russian National Orchestra conducted by Mikhail Pletnev, the Polish Radio Orchestra, the Belgrade Philharmonic, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. His passion for chamber music has led him to the world’s most famous festivals, such as Marlboro, Verbier, Bergen, Gstaad, where he performed with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Mitsuko Uchida, Nobuko Imai, Pierre Amoyal or with his Duo partner pianist Louis Schwizgebel. He has also been invited to perform with the Berlin Philharmonic and with the 12 cellists of this legendary orchestra.
Winner of the Swiss Ambassador’s Award, Lionel Cottet has received numerous prizes at international competitions including Lutoslawski Competition in Warsaw, Brahms Competition in Austria and Astral Artist Auditions in Philadelphia. He is also a Soloist of the swiss Migros Kulturprozent Classics and was finalist at the Eurovision competition.
He studied in the prestigious Artist Diploma program of the Juilliard School in New York, at the Salzburg Mozarteum, at the Zurich Hochschule and at the Geneva Conservatoire with Joel Krosnick, Clemens Hagen, Thomas Grossenbacher and François Guye.
Lionel is deeply committed to communicating with the young generation in various outreach programs in Mexico, Colombia, USA and in Switzerland. He plays an 1852 Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume cello.
The German tenor Gerhard Siegel began his musical career as an instrumentalist and composer. After completing his voice training with Liselotte Becker-Egner at the Augsburg Conservatory, he became an ensemble member of the Stadttheater Trier. Here the stage version of Heinrich Heine’s “Deutschland – ein Wintermärchen”, for which he composed the music, had its world premier. In 1995 Gerhard Siegel was the winner at the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition in Vienna. After an engagement as dramatic and lyric tenor at the Anhaltisches Theater Dessau and guest performances in Germany, Bulgaria, Holland and Spain, he was engaged in Augsburg in 1997.
In 1998 he debuted at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. From 1999 to 2006 he was under contract at the Nuremberg Theater, where he was primarily able to expand his repertoire in the field of dramatic and heroic tenor. Here he sang Parsifal, Bacchus, Herodes, Florestan, Laca (“Jenufa“) and Sergej (“Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District”), but also Mephistopheles (“Doctor Faust” by Busoni), Tom Rakewell and Alfredo. He won special acclaim for his debut as Stolzing (“Meistersinger”) and in the title role of “Siegfried”.
As a freelance singer since 2006, Gerhard Siegel has made guest appearances as Max in the new production of Weber’s “Freischütz” at the Comic Opera Berlin, in Hindemith’s “Nusch-Nuschi” under Gerd Albrecht and as Max in “Jonny spielt auf” in Cologne, as Florestan at the Granada Festival, as Weill’s “Protagonist” at the Bregenz Festival, as Herodes at the Opéra Montpellier and at the Vienna State Opera, as Hauptmann (“Wozzeck”) at Teatro Real Madrid, at the Opéra Bastille in Paris, at Covent Garden London and at the Met New York, in Zemlinsky’s “Traumgörge” at the Deutschen Oper Berlin and as Sellem in “The Rake’s Progress” at the Theater an der Wien, “Lulu” in Geneva and Madrid, Schuiskij in „Boris Godunow“ in Munich .A central role in his repertoire today is Mime in “Rheingold” and “Siegfried”. He sang the part on the occasion of his debuts at the Metropolitan Opera New York, at the Bayreuth Festival and at the Covent Garden in London, in the “Ring” directed by Jeffrey Tate at the Cologne Opera, and also at Covent Garden London and under Jun Markel in Tokio.
Another artistic highlight was Schönberg’s “Gurrelieder” (Klaus-Narr) on a tour with Michael Gielen and the SWR Symphony Orchestra and his debut with “Tristan and Isolde” and “Mahagonny” in Augsburg.
After Mime in “Rhinegold” and “Siegfried” in Barcelona, Dresden, New York and Tokyo, “Lulu” in Amsterdam, “Wozzeck” (Captain) in Chicago and Salzburg (Festival), Prince Schuiskij in “Boris Godunow” in Munich, “Herod” at the Vienna State Opera, Zurich Opera House, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and at the Verbier Festival conducted by Charles Dutoit and Midas in “The Love of Danae” at the Salzburg Festival, 2017 still has in store the Witch at the Metropolitan Opera New York.
The next years will see the “Ring” in Dresden and “Salome” at the Berlin State Opera, “Tristan” in Cleveland and song recitals in New York, Staunton/Virginia and Texas. “Salome” in Budapest, the “Ring” as well as the Witch in London. Also planned: “Wozzeck” in New York, the “Ring” in Paris, “Le Grand Macabre” in Dresden.
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.”
Hungarian soprano Emőke Baráth began her musical education studying the piano and the harp. She began singing at the age of 18 following the teaching of József Hormai and Katalin Szőke and then Professor Júlia Pászthy at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. During the 2011/2012 school year, she also studied at the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory in Florence, Italy. In 2009, she received the third prize at the 44th Anton Dvorak International Competition (Czech Republic). In 2011, she won the First Prize and the award of the Public at the Second International Singing Competition for Baroque Opera in Innsbruck (Austria). The same year, she won the Grand Prix of Verbier Festival Academy (Switzerland). She took part in several master classes with, among others, Barbara Bonney, Kiri Te Kanawa, Stephen Stubbs, Deborah York. Early on, as a student she was already invited to perform as a soloist at many festivals and venues as famous as the Müpa (Budapest, Hungary) and the Hungarian State Opera, the Theater an der Wien, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the Opéra Royal de Versailles in France and the Verbier Festival in Switzerland; the Nikolaisaal in Potsdam, the Braunschweig Staatstheater, and the Brandenburger Theater in Germany; the Concert Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Russia.
Milan Siljanov has established himself as a compelling presence on the European operatic scene, praised for his ‘fiery and persuasive vocal presence’ (Bachtrack) and ‘heartbreakingly intense singing’ (Süddeutsche Zeitung). In recent seasons, he has been a frequent presence at Bayerische Staatsoper, where his roles include Leporello (Don Giovanni), Dulcamara (L’elisir d’amore), Schaunard (La bohème), Donner (Das Rheingold), and Panas in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Night Before Christmas. His growing international profile includes performances with Theater an der Wien—where he debuted as the Forester in The Cunning Little Vixen, later reprising the role at Opéra national de Paris—as well as repeated returns to the Verbier Festival, most recently in the title role of Falstaff in 2024. In the 2025/26 season, he appears again at Bayerische Staatsoper and embarks on a French tour with Ensemble Correspondances. Milan Siljanov was the first recipient of the Prix Yves Paternot in 2016 and has since returned regularly to Verbier as a guest artist.
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.