Sheku Kanneh-Mason is already in great demand from major orchestras and concert halls worldwide. He became a household name in 2018 after performing at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at Windsor Castle, his performance having been greeted with universal excitement after being watched by nearly two billion people globally. Sheku initially garnered renown as the winner of the 2016 BBC Young Musician competition, and subsequently became a Decca Classics recording artist. His latest album, Song, showcases his lyrical playing with a wide selection of arrangements and collaborations. Sheku’s 2020 album Elgar reached No. 8 in the main UK Official Album Chart, making him the first ever cellist to reach the UK Top 10. Sheet music collections of his performance repertoire along with his own arrangements and compositions are published by Faber.

In the 22/23 season, Sheku appears as Artist in Residence with the Philharmonia Orchestra, performing three concerti across the year in addition to chamber music and giving educational workshops. He also performs with orchestras such as the London Mozart Players, Orchestre de chambre de Paris, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Camerata Salzburg, Hallé Orchestra, and Royal Scottish National Orchestra. In the Americas, Sheku features as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Boston Symphony, São Paulo Symphony, and on tour with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He also performs his first solo cello recital programme in venues such as Wigmore Hall London, National Concert Hall Dublin, Palau de la Música Catalana Barcelona, Auditorio Nacional de Música Madrid, Musée du Louvre Paris, and De Doelen Rotterdam and returns to the Dortmund Konzerthaus as one of their Junge Wilde artists.

Since his debut in 2017, Sheku has performed every summer at the BBC Proms, including in 2020 when he gave a breath-taking recital performance with his sister, Isata, to an empty auditorium due to the Covid-19 pandemic. He was selected to appear in the coveted role as guest soloist at the 2022 Last Night of the Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

A graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Music where he studied with Hannah Roberts, Sheku was appointed in May 2022 as the Academy’s first Menuhin Visiting Professor of Performance Mentoring. He is an ambassador for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Future Talent, and Music Masters.  Sheku was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List. He plays a Matteo Goffriller cello from 1700 which is on indefinite loan to him.

Ji Liu has positioned himself as one of the brightest stars in classical music today. Alongside topping the classical charts on numerous occasions, he also delights audiences around the world, from the Royal Albert Hall in London to Carnegie Hall in New York. Back in 2010, Ji Liu’s recording of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Royal Academy of Music Symphonic Brass and James Watson on the Academy’s own label had foreseen the pianist’s future thriving career as a recording artist. In 2014, his debut solo album ‘Piano Reflections’ stormed the UK Classical Charts, reaching number one and making him the UK’s biggest-selling classical breakthrough artist of the year. This album was also nominated as the ‘Best Classical Album’ in the prestigious Chinese Music Awards in 2015. Following this success, Ji Liu went on to release two more acclaimed albums, ‘Piano Encores’ and ‘Pure Chopin’. In 2016, ‘Pure Chopin’ was nominated as one of 20 best classical albums of the year by Classic FM radio. In early 2018, Ji Liu was nominated as ‘Best Classical Artist of the Year’ at the inaugural Global Awards.

Vera Michalski-Hoffmann founded the Jan Michalski Foundation for Writing and Literature in memory of her husband. The Foundation’s mission is to promote literary creation and encourage the practice of reading through various actions and activities, including the organization of cultural events, the provision of a large multilingual library, the award of an annual world literature prize, the provision of financial support and the hosting of writers in residence. Ms Michalski-Hoffmann also heads the Libella publishing group and is involved in many committees such as the Paul Sacher Foundation, the International Bureau of French Publishing and the Fondation du Théâtre de Vidy.

Lisa Batiashvili, the Georgian-born German violinist, is praised by audiences and fellow musicians for her virtuosity. An award winning artist, she has developed long-standing relationships with the world’s leading orchestras, conductors and musicians.

Batiashvili is also the Artistic Director of Audi Sommerkonzerte, Ingolstadt. For the 2019 festival – ‘Fantastique’ – she curated a diverse programme featuring artists such as Daniel Harding with Bayerische Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Gautier Capuçon. For the 2020 festival, Batiashvili designs a programme to celebrate Audi’s anniversary year, as well as Beethoven year 2020 under the motto ‘Lights of Europe’.

Lisa Batiashvili appears with the world’s greatest orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa and Boston Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Recording exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon, Batiashvili’s latest album ‘City Lights’ is released in June 2020. The project marks a deeply personal musical journey that takes listeners around the world via eleven pieces that represent the most important cities in Lisa’s life. Her previous recording – ‘Visions of Prokofiev’ (Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Yannick Nezet-Seguin) – won an Opus Klassik Award and was shortlisted for the 2018 Gramophone Awards. Earlier recordings include the concertos of Tchaikovsky and Sibelius (Staatskapelle Berlin/Daniel Barenboim), Brahms (Staatskapelle Dresden/Christian Thielemann), and Shostakovich No. 1 (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Esa-Pekka Salonen).

Batiashvili has had DVD releases of live performances with the Berliner Philharmoniker/Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Bartok Violin Concerto No.1) and with Gautier Capuçon, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann (Brahm’s Concerto for Violin and Cello).

She has won a number of awards: the MIDEM Classical Award, the Choc de l’année, the Accademia Musicale Chigiana International Prize, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival’s Leonard Bernstein Award and the Beethoven-Ring. Batiashvili was named Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year in 2015, was nominated as Gramophone’s Artist of the Year in 2017, and in 2018 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Sibelius Academy (University of Arts, Helsinki).

Lisa lives in Munich and plays a Joseph Guarneri “del Gesu” from 1739, generously loaned by a private collector.

The French baritone Ludovic Tézier is one of the world’s leading baritones and appears regularly on major opera stages worldwide. His repertoire includes title roles in Hamlet, Eugene Onegin, Don Giovanni, Rigoletto, Simon Boccanegra as well as Wolfram (Tannhäuser), Amfortas (Parsifal), Posa (Don Carlo), Luna (Il Trovatore), Scarpia (Tosca), Escamillo (Carmen), Giorgio Germont (La traviata), Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor), Sir Riccardo Forth (I Puritani), Carlo Gérard (Andrea Chénier), Don Carlo (Ernani), Amonasro (Aida), Renato (Un ballo in maschera), Don Carlo di Vargas (La forza del destino), Conte Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Ford (Falstaff), Yeletsky (Pique Dame), Athanaël (Thaïs). Ludovic Tézier also gives numerous concerts and recitals around the world. Recordings – SONY: Verdi arias; Deutsche Grammophon: Carmina Burana; Warner: Aida.

Salvatore Accardo made his debut in recital at the age of 13 playing Paganini’s Capricci.Two years later he won the Geneva Competition and in 1958 the Paganini Competition in Genoa.

His repertoire ranges from pre-Bach to post-Berg; composers like Sciarrino, Donatoni, Piston, Piazzolla, Colasanti and Xenakis wrote for him.

In addition to playing with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, Accardo performs in recital and particularly loves chamber music.

In 1992 he founded the Accardo Quartet and in 1986  the Walter Stauffer Academy together with Giuranna, Filippini and Petracchi in Cremona, where they regularly give master classes. In 1971 he founded the Settimane Musicali Internazionali in Naples, where rehearsals were open to the audience, and the Cremona String Festival.

Accardo has also dedicated part of his activities to conducting important European and American Orchestras. He recorded as conductor with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London. Since 1987 he conducts also opera (Rossini Festival with Ponnelle, Rome Opera House, Monte Carlo Opera, Lille and  Naples Opera House).

In 1992 for the 200th anniversary of Rossini’s birth, he conducted in Pesaro Festival and in Rome the first modern edition of the Messa di Gloria (recorded live by Warner Fonit), that did again in 1995 in Vienna with the Wiener Symphoniker.

He recorded for DGG Paganini Capricci and Concertos for violin with Charles Dutoit , for Philips several recordings (Bach Sonatas and Partitas, Max Bruch works for violin and orchestra with Kurt Masur, Čajkovskij, Dvořák and Sibelius Concerts with Colin Davis, Mendelssohn Concert with Charles Dutoit, Brahms and Beethoven Concerts with Kurt Masur). He also recorded for ASV, Dynamic, EMI, Sony Classical, Collins Classic and Foné. Among these recordings are: Beethoven Concerto in D major and 2 Romances with Accademia della Scala Orchestra conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini for Sony Classical; Brahms Sonatas for violin and piano, Schubert Quartets, Paganini Capricci and Homage to Heifetz and Homage to Kreisler for FONÉ playing the legendary violins from the Cremona collection; for Dynamic Accardo played Paganini’s violin. Recently Foné re-masterised the Mozart Complete works for violin in 13 CDs in high quality technology.

Accardo has been awarded in Italy with Abbiati Prize by the Italian Musical Critics in recognition of the exceptional standard of his playing and interpretation and with the Italian highest honour “Cavaliere di Gran Croce”. In 1996 the Beijing Conservatoire named him “most honourable Professor”, in 1999 he was named”Commandeur dans l’ordre du mérit culturel” in Monaco and in 2002 he received “A Life for the Music” Award, and this year he was awarded by the Kennedy Center of New York with the Gold Medal in the Arts.

In 1996 Accardo recreated the Orchestra da Camera Italiana (OCI), whose members are the best pupils of Cremona “Walter Stauffer Academy” and recorded two CDs with them: The virtuoso violin in Italy and Masterpieces for violin and strings for Warner Fonit Cetra. In 1999 Accardo and OCI recorded the complete Paganini Concerti for violin and orchestra for EMI Classics, the “Concerto per la Costituzione” and in 2003 the complete Astor Piazzolla works for violin in 3 SACDs for Foné.

Accardo and OCI do every year many concerts together especially in Italy, where they play every season for the most important concert Societies and Theaters.

Starting in 2007 he realized until now for Foné the second recording of J. S. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, the third recording of Paganini’s 24 Capricci (Urtext) and the third recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with OCI (Urtext).

Salvatore Accardo plays a violin Guarneri del Gesù “Reade”- 1734.

Born in Moscow in 1969, Boris Berezovsky studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Eliso Virsaladze and privately with Alexander Satz. He made a stunning debut in London in 1988 at the Wigmore Hall and in 1990 won the Gold Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow where he played with Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Jessye Norman and the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Yuri Temirkanov.

In 1991 Boris Berezovsky made his American debut at Fort Worth in Texas and in France at the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris.

Since then, he has performed regularly in recital series and venues worldwide : London, Paris, Rome, Zurich, Munich, Salzburg, Amsterdam, Montréal, Vienna, Bern, Budapest, Prague, Tokyo; Berlin Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Paris Philharmonie, Royal Festival Hall in London, Palace of Fine Arts in Brussels, Konzerthaus in Vienna, Megaron in Athens. In 2006, he was awarded “Best Instrumentalist of the year” by the BBC Music Magazine Awards. 29^th November 2016 saw his return to New York Carnegie Hall.

He is also invited to numerous festivals such as the ones of Gstaad, La Roque d’Anthéron, Verbier, Bergamo Brescia, Salzburg, Folle Journée de Nantes and Folle Journée Japan.

He works as concerto soloist with the Orchestre National de France, Royal Concertgebouw, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Dresden Staatskapelle, Mariinsky Theatre, Santa Cecilia Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra as well as the symphonic orchestras of Dallas, Bolchoï and Birmingham and the philharmonic orchestras of Berlin, Saint-Petersburg, Los Angeles, New York, Monte-Carlo, Munich, Radio France; with the conductors Antonio Pappano, Yuri Temirkanov, Alexander Vedernikov, Leif Segerstam, Dmitri Kitaenko, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Leonard Slatkin, Dimitri Liss and Kurt Masur…

In chamber music, Boris Berezovsky has played with Vadim Repin, Julian Rachlin, Alexandre Gindin, Michael Collins, Henri Demarquette, Michael Guttman, Alexandre Melnikov, Alexander Kniazev and Dmitri Makhtin as well as the Borodine, Britten, Endellion and Takacs quartets. For many years, he was the faithful partner of Brigitte Engerer.

Last season, he performed the concertos of Brahms, Stravinsky, or Beethoven in a format of which he has become fond: concerts with orchestra, without conductor. Mirare released his latest album, recorded with the Russian State Symphony Orchestra ‘Evgeny Svetlanov’ without conductor and dedicated to the Brahms and Stravinsky concertos, on 26 January 2018. Following this in November 2018, guest of the Svetlanov Universe Festival, he triumphed with the Russian State Symphony Orchestra ‘Evgeny Svetlanov’, with Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. He also achieved the same success in Budapest with the Concerto Budapest in the No. 1 concertos of Brahms, No. 1 of Prokofiev and No. 2 of Shostakovich.

In June 2018, his recital at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées made resounding waves. Resmusica called the pianist “sovereign in everything he touches” and a “discreet artist in relation to some others, but how much higher than many of them.”

2019-20 will see a recital tour of France, featuring performances in Toulouse, Nancy, Annecy and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris. He will appear again at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and Yuri Temirkanov, and will return to the St Petersburg Philharmonie with the orchestra to perform two Chopin concertos, without conductor. Continuing on in the configuration of concertos without a conductor, he will tour in Spain with the Russian State Symphony Orchestra.

Boris Berezovsky has recorded works by Chopin, Schumann, Rachmaninov, Ravel, Mussorgsky, Balakirev, Liadov, Tchaïkovsky, Shostakovitch, Medtner, Liszt, Beethoven and Mendelssohn trios alongside Dmitri Makhtin and Alexander Kniazev, for labels including Teldec Classics International, Philips, Mirare, Simax and Warner Classics. Many of these esteemed recordings have received awards from Diapason d’or, Choc de la Musique, Gramophone and Echo Classic.

In 2014 he was appointed Artistic Director of the “Music of the Earth” Festival in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

Some musicians are destined to forge artistic paths that will open up new horizons for future generations. Yuri Bashmet is undoubtedly one of them, since it is he that established the viola as a leading instrument on the contemporary concert stage. Born in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don in 1953, Yuri Bashmet studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Vadim Borisovsky and Feodor Druzhinin. On winning first prize in the International Music Competition in Munich, he embarked on an unparalleled world career in 1976. He has performed as a soloist with the world’s leading orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de France. Contemporary composers, among them Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina, Edisson Denissow, Mikael Tariverdijev, John Tavener, Giya Kancheli and Alexander Tchaikovsky, have composed and dedicated a total of over 50 works for and to him.

Yuri Bashmet took up the conducting baton in 1982. In 1992, he founded the Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra comprising highly talented young graduates of the Moscow Conservatory. Together, Yuri Bashmet and the soloists of this group became the first Russian ensemble to win a Grammy Award in 2008. Yuri Bashmet has been the artistic director and principal conductor of the New Russia State Symphony Orchestra since 2002. Film and television broadcasters in several different countries have documented his artistic work, and he himself is the creator and host of the TV programme Station of Dreams.

Yuri Bashmet enjoyed a longstanding artistic friendship with Svjatoslav Richter and, following Richter’s death, took over from him as artistic director of the renowned “December Nights” festival in Moscow. Bashmet is also the founder and chairman of the Yuri Bashmet International Viola Competition in Moscow, and likewise founded an international charitable fund, which led to creation of the Dmitri Shostakovich Prize awarded for special artistic achievement. Its winners include Gidon Kremer, Thomas Quasthoff, Viktor Tretjakov, Valery Gergiev, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Olga Borodina, Irina Antonova, Natalja Gutman, Yevgeny Kissin, Maxim Vengerov, Alexei Ratmansky, Yefim Bonfman, Denis Mazuyev and Tan Dun. Further to these achievements, Yuri Bashmet has participated in a great number of important charitable events.

Norwegian violinist Henning Kraggerud is Artistic Director of the Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra. His extraordinary reach as an artist is a result of his versatility and passion for music, as well as the genuine quality to his playing and the beauty of his performances. His teaching and educational writings provide fascinating insights into his multi-faceted approach to music-making, while his composing, arranging and improvising – frequently bringing his own works into the concert hall – recall the spirit of the old masters such as Josef Suk and Eugène Ysaÿe.

In the 18/19 season, Henning is Artist in Residence with the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra in Norway and the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra in Poland. His eminence as a soloist and play/director have led to invitations time and again to many of the world’s most significant orchestras, most recently the Toronto Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Danish National Symphony, Tonkünstler Vienna, BBC Scottish Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony and Macao orchestras. Highlights of the current season include debuts with the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss am Rhein, Orchestra della Toscana, Royal Danish Opera orchestra and Kuopio Symphony. Henning also returns to Helsingborg Symphony and Vancouver Symphony orchestras and appears with Camerata Salzburg and Janine Jansen at the Salzburg Mozartwoche and on tour in Germany.

Henning is a prolific composer whose works are performed by many prominent musicians and orchestras around the globe. His largest-scale work to date is entitled Equinox: 24 Postludes in All Keys for Violin and String Orchestra. Commissioned, premiered and recorded by the Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra with Henning as soloist, the work was composed as a musical counterpart to a story specially written by world-famous author Jostein Gaarder, and has been hailed as “a fascinating composition to return to over and over again” (MusicWeb International). In 2017, Henning composed a violin/piano version of Equinox, which was premiered in Norway in 2018 with pianist Clare Hammond and Jostein Gaarder narrating.

Henning’s output as a composer also includes Preghiera, commissioned and performed by the Brodsky Quartet in 2012, and The Last Leaf, given its first performance in 2014 by the Britten Sinfonia, as well as cadenzas for two of Haydn’s cello concertos commissioned by Clemens Hagen in 2015 and Victimae Paschali for choir and orchestra commissioned by the Trondheim Chamber Music Festival. In 2017, the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra commissioned and performed Topelius Variations for string orchestra, which Henning performed again later that year in an extensive national tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

With his ever-present spirit of discovery, Henning gave the 21st century premiere of the Johan Halvorsen Violin Concerto with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra at the 2016 Risør Chamber Music Festival. Originally premiered in 1909, the concerto was subsequently considered lost until its re-discovery over 100 years later. Henning went on to play the work with the Oslo and Bergen Philharmonic orchestras, and in 2017 released a recording on the Naxos label with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra and Bjarte Engeset, leading BBC Radio 3’s Record Review to comment, “It’s difficult to imagine more ardent advocates for this sleeping beauty of a piece”. In the current season, Henning gives the first ever performances of the work in Poland with the Poznan Philharmonic and in Finland with the Kymi Sinfonietta.

Henning regularly performs on both violin and viola at major festivals and venues; recent collaborations have taken place at Wigmore Hall, King’s Place, Bruges Concertgebouw, Berlin Konzerthaus and Budapest’s kamara.hu festival, with artists such as Steven Isserlis, Joshua Bell, Lawrence Power, Leif Ove Andsnes, Håvard Gimse, Kathryn Stott, Natalie Clein, Christian Ihle Hadland, Christian Poltéra and Jeremy Menuhin. In the 18/19 season, Henning tours the UK with Adrian Brendel and Imogen Cooper, including a return to Wigmore Hall.

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