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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.
Internationally-acclaimed viola player Lawrence Power is widely heralded for his richness of sound, technical mastery and his passionate advocacy for new music. Lawrence has advanced the cause of the viola both through the excellence of his performances, whether in recitals, chamber music or concertos and the creation of the Viola Commissioning Circle (VCC), which has led to a substantial body of fresh repertoire for the instrument by today’s finest composers. Lawrence has premiered concertos by leading composers such as James MacMillan, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Julian Anderson, Alexander Goer, and through the VCC has commissioned works by Anders Hillborg, Thomas Adès, Gerald Barry, Cassandra Miller and Magnus Lindberg.
Lawrence is Resident Artist at the Southbank Centre in 2024/25, which commences with a recital with Thomas Adès featuring works by Adès, Britten, Dowland, Stravinsky and Berio where they will be joined by a percussionist and internationally renowned dancer and choreographer Jonathan Goddard. Further performances include the UK Premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s Viola Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, a ‘Lock-in’ featuring live performance and cinematic projection and a newly commissioned project from creative studio Âme.
Elsewhere in the season, Lawrence will give the German, US and Austrian premiere of the Lindberg Viola Concerto with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester (Alan Gilbert), St Louis Symphony (Hannu Lintu) and Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg (Aivis Greters). Further highlights include the Konzerthausorchester Berlin (Ivan Fisher), Orchestre National de Belgique (Antony Hermus) and a return to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra for the Scottish premiere of Anders Hillborg’s Viola Concerto conducted by Andrew Manze.
Over the past decade, Lawrence has become a regular guest performer with orchestras of the highest calibre, from Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Stockholm, Bergen and Warsaw Philharmonic orchestras to the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, BBC Symphony, Philharmonia, BBC Scottish Symphony and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestras, with conductors such as such as Osmo Vänska, Lahav Shani, Parvo Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski, Andrew Manze, Edward Gardner, Nicholas Collon, Ilan Volkov and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Lawrence enjoys play-directing orchestras from both violin and viola, most recently at the Edinburgh International Festival with Scottish Ensemble, Australian National Academy of Music and with Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and leads his own orchestra, Collegium, made up of fine young musicians from across Europe. He is on the faculty at Zurich’s Hochschule der Kunst and gives masterclasses around the world, including at the Verbier Festival.
As a chamber musician he is in much demand and regularly performs at Verbier, Salzburg, Aspen, Oslo and other festivals with artists such as Steven Isserlis, Nicholas Alstaedt, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Vilde Frang, Maxim Vengerov and Joshua Bell. Lawrence was announced in 2021 as an Associate Artist at the Wigmore Hall, a position lasting for five years, with artists performing at least once each season.
Welsh bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel has established an extraordinary career, performing regularly on the prestigious concert stages and opera houses of the world.
After winning the Song Prize at the 1989 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, Sir Bryn made his professional operatic debut in 1990 as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte with Welsh National Opera. He made his international operatic debut in 1991 as Speaker in Die Zauberflöte at the Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels and made his American debut in the same year as Figaro with Santa Fe Opera. Other roles performed during his career include Méphistophélès in Faust, both the Title Role and Leporello in Don Giovanni, Jochanaan in Salome, the Title Role in Gianni Schicchi, Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress, Wolfram in Tannhäuser, Balstrode in Peter Grimes and Four Villains in Les contes d’Hoffmann.
Sir Bryn marked his 50th birthday and twenty-five years in the profession with a special one-off Gala Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, presented by Hollywood star Michael Sheen. The celebrations continued at Cardiff’s Wales Millennium Centre, where he sang Scarpia in a special concert performance of Tosca with Welsh National Opera.
Recent performances include Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville for Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Balstrode for Wiener Staatsoper and Royal Opera House, Holländer in Der fliegende Holländer for Grange Park Opera, Falstaff for Zürich Opera and Bayerische Staatsoper, Münich, Scarpia for Zürich Opera and Opera National de Paris, Don Pizarro in Fidelio at the Schloßberg, Graz, Don Pasquale at the Royal Opera House and Boris Godunov for Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Royal Opera House.
Other operatic highlights to date include his debut in the role of Hans Sachs in the critically acclaimed production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for Welsh National Opera, Wotan in The Ring Cycle at the Royal Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera, New York, his debut in the role of Reb Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof for Grange Park Opera, Sweeney Todd for English National Opera and hosting a four day festival, Brynfest, at the Southbank Centre, London as part of the Southbank Centre’s Festival of the World.
Equally at home on the concert platform, his highlights range from the opening ceremony of the Wales Millennium Centre, BBC Last Night of the Proms and the Royal Variety Show to a Gala Concert with Andrea Bocelli in Central Park, New York and curating a special Christmas concert and live international stream for the Metropolitan Opera’s ‘Met Stars Live in Concert’ series from Brecon Cathedral, Wales. He has given recitals all around the world and for nine years, he hosted his own festival in Faenol, North Wales. Recent performances include a 9-date recital and concert tour of the UK, orchestral concerts in Antwerp and Belgrade, and voice, harp and piano recitals in Stockholm and Geneva.
Sir Bryn is a Grammy, Classical Brit and Gramophone Award winner with a discography encompassing operas of Mozart, Wagner and Strauss, and more than fifteen solo discs including Lieder, American musical theatre, Welsh songs and sacred repertory.
Bryn was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to Opera in 2003, was awarded the Queen’s Medal for Music in 2006, received a knighthood for his services to music in 2017, was honoured with the title of Austrian Kammersänger for his services to the Wiener Staatsoper and awarded an European Cultural Award at the Tonhalle, Zurich, in recognition of his extraordinary music career in 2022. He was the last recipient of the Shakespeare Prize by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation and in 2015, he was given The Freedom of the City of London.
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.