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An artist greatly in international demand, Mariana Flores has established herself as one of the most versatile and passionately engaged singers of her generation, as much at ease in Baroque and Mozartian repertoire as in the popular music of Argentina and of Latin America in general. A native of Argentina, she began her studies at the National University of Cuyo in Mendoza, before moving to Basel to study Baroque music at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis: today she follows the advice of her teacher Fernando Cordeiro Opa. Mariana has notably taken on the roles of goddesses, witches and heroines in major operatic productions at leading opera houses and concert halls throughout Europe, America and Australia. She recently triumphed at the Opéra Royal in Versailles in the title role of La Finta pazza by Francesco Sacrati, and in Canada with a concert tour of tangos by Astor Piazzolla. She is featured on numerous award-winning recordings, including the 2021 release of d’India’s Lamenti & Sospiri, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and Sacrati’s La Finta pazza in 2022.
In 2023, she released Alfonsina, a highly personal album of Argentine folk songs recorded with Quito Gato, a repertoire she has been touring with ever since. More recently, she can be heard in Amore Siciliano, an emblematic Cappella Mediterranea program released by Alpha, which will continue to be distributed in 2025, as well as Handel’s Dixit dominus and Colonna’s Mass in E Minor by Ricercar.
In 2024, Mariana Flores returns to the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence to sing Amore and Minerva in Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, directed by Pierre Audi, before taking part in Seasons, Fabrice Murgia’s audacious creation at the Cité Bleue, combining cinema, theater and singing, in which she performs both Baroque and contemporary pop music. In November and December, she sings Bach’s Mass in B minor on an international tour of Canada and Brazil, which she will repeat at the prestigious Verbier Festival in summer 2025.
Mariana Flores’ artistic season in 2025 will be rich and international, with the revival of the musical theater creation Amour à Mort directed by Jean-Yves Ruf at the Opéra national de Lorraine, numerous recitals and her roles in Monteverdi’s operas l’Orfeo and l’Incoronazione di Poppea on tour in Germany, Canada and New York, but also in Cavalli’s Pompeo Magno, premiered at the Bayreuth Festival and followed by a very successful tour, and Mozart’s Requiem at the Radio France auditorium. With lutenist and guitarist Mónica Pustilnik, she is preparing the recording of “Muse e Sirene”, a program focusing on 17th-century women composers.
Although her resemblance to Catherine Deneuve can’t be denied, it is indeed the spirit of Jacqueline Maillan—the great French comedic actress who excelled in playing exuberant, strong and powerful women in vaudeville—that inhabits Catherine D’Oex. A regular performer at the famous drag cabaret Chez Maman in Brussels, she boldly and freely sings ‘le grand répertoire de la chanson populaire française’ without taking herself too seriously.
With an innate musicality and overwhelming talent, Seong-Jin Cho has established himself worldwide as one of the leading pianists of his generation and most distinctive artists on the current music scene. His thoughtful and poetic, assertive and tender, virtuosic and colourful playing can combine panache with purity and is driven by an impressive natural sense of balance.
Seong-Jin Cho was brought to the world’s attention in 2015 when he won First Prize at the Chopin International Competition in Warsaw, and his career has rapidly ascended since. In January 2016, he signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. An artist high in demand, Cho works with the world’s most prestigious orchestras including Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, New York Philharmonic and The Philadelphia Orchestra. Conductors he regularly collaborates with include Myung-Whun Chung, Gustavo Dudamel, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Andris Nelsons, Gianandrea Noseda, Sir Simon Rattle, Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Highlights of Seong-Jin Cho’s 2022/23 season include performances of the Brahms piano concerti at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden with Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He notably returns to the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, to the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Andris Nelsons and performs the world premiere of Thierry Escaich’s new piano concerto with the Czech Philharmonic and Semyon Bychkov. A highly sought-after touring soloist, Cho embarks on several international tours, including those with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle to Japan and Korea, with the Dresden Staatskapelle and Myung-Whun Chung in Dresden and in Korea. He also performs with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, touring throughout Germany in Spring 2023.
An active recitalist very much in demand, Seong-Jin Cho appears in many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls including the main stage of Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Berliner Philharmonie, Konzerthaus Vienna, Prinzregententheater München, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Walt Disney Hall Los Angeles, Festival International de piano de la Roque d’Anthéron, and Verbier Festival. During the coming season he is engaged to perform solo recitals at the likes of Carnegie Hall, Boston Celebrity Series, Walt Disney Hall, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Liederhalle Stuttgart, at Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Berliner Philharmonie, Musikverein Wien and he debuts in recital at the Barbican London. Cho also returns, three times this season, to Japan where he first appears in recital performances in Nagoya, Tokyo and Yokosuka in August 2022.
Seong-Jin Cho’s latest recording is his solo album entitled The Handel Project, released in February 2023, and in August 2021, he released Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Scherzi with the London Symphony Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda for Deutsche Grammophon. He had previously recorded his first album with the same orchestra and conductor featuring Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 as well as the Four Ballades. His solo album titled The Wanderer was released in May 2020 and features Schubert’s “Wanderer” Fantasy, Berg’s Piano Sonata op. 1 and Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor. A solo Debussy recital was also released in November 2017, followed by a Mozart album with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Yannick Nézet-Séguin in 2018. All albums have been released on the Yellow Label and have garnered impressive critical acclaim worldwide.
Born in 1994 in Seoul, Seong-Jin Cho started learning the piano at the age of six and gave his first public recital aged 11. In 2009, he became the youngest-ever winner of Japan’s Hamamatsu International Piano Competition. In 2011, he won Third Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow at the age of 17. From 2012-2015 he studied with Michel Béroff at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. Seong-Jin Cho is now based in Berlin.
Roberto Fonseca is a Cuban pianist, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and bandleader. Havana-born and based, he has released nine solo albums, collaborated across genres, been nominated for a Grammy Award and toured the world several times over. Along the way he has achieved the aim with which he began his professional career in the early 1990s: “Wherever people are, I want them to hear my music and say, ‘This is Roberto Fonseca’.”
Born in Havana in 1975, the son of a drummer father and dancer/singer mother, Fonseca started playing drums aged four and the piano aged eight. His tastes were always eclectic: hard rock. American jazz. Funk and soul. Music made in Africa and Brazil. Classical music. Reggaeton, electronica, hip-hop. The music of Cuba: Fonseca’s deep AfroCuban roots underpin a sound that builds bridges between the ancient and modern and takes Cuban music – all music – forward.
Fonseca was 15-years-old when he made his live solo debut at the Jazz Plaza Festival in Havana. He graduated from the Institute Superior del Arte and joined award-winning jazz outfit Temperamento, his collaborators for 15 years.
Fonseca’s 1999 solo debut, Tiene Que Ver was followed by 2000’s No Limit: AfroCuban Jazz, and Elengó (2001). He composed the soundtrack for Black, a film by French director P. Maraval, and produced an album for hip-hop act Obsesión. In 2001 Fonseca joined that famed ensemble, the Buena Vista Social Club ®, taking over from Ruben Gonzalez (1919 – 2003) then touring with singer Ibrahim Ferrer (1927 – 2005) then with evergreen diva Omara Portuondo.
After co-producing and playing on Ferrer’s posthumously released Mi Sueño: A Bolero Songbook (2006), Fonseca unleashed his 2007 jazz-roots solo album Zamazu, a landmark work involving 20 guest collaborators. 2009’s Akokan featured Cape Verdean vocalist Maya Andrade and American guitarist Raul Midon. 2010’s Live in Marciac was recorded at the eponymous festival town in southwest France.
Tastemakers eyed him: iconic French designer Agnes B began kitting Fonseca out in sharp suits and his trademark leather Byblos hats in 2006. British-based impresario Gilles Peterson asked him to arrange and co-produce the groundbreaking 2010 Havana Cultura project. Fonseca’s music has graced several upmarket advertising campaigns.
In 2012 came his Grammy-nominated masterwork Yo, a turbocharged album aided by 15 musicians from Cuba, the US and Africa. Among them, Malian singer-songwriter and guitarist Fatoumata Diawara, with whom Fonseca embarked on an acclaimed live collaboration that resulted in 2015’s At Home, also recorded live at the Jazz in Marciac festival.
2016’s ABUC told the story of Cuban music past, present and future with a sprawling cast of over 30 guests, and was released in the same year that Fonseca became Artistic Director of the Inaugural Jazz Plaza Festival in Santiago de Cuba.
Fonseca’s headline live appearances have ranged from the world’s most prestigious concert halls to his twice-weekly residency at Havana jazz club Zorro y el Cuervo (Fox and the Crow). There Fonseca and his trio – drummer Raúl Herrera and double bass player Yandy Martínez Rodriguez – develop and explore new compositions, so shaping much of Fonseca’s new album Yesun.
Released on Wagram on 18 October 2019, Yesun features guests including Grammy-winning saxophonist Joe Lovano, lauded French-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf and rising star Cuban rapper Danay Suarez alongside retro-modern keyboards, electronic beats and AfroCuban rhythms. Having long proved himself exceptional (in June 2019 he was awarded the distinguished Ordre des Arts Letters from the French Ministry of Culture), Roberto Fonseca is making the music he has always wanted to make.
Multi award-winning French cellist Gautier Capuçon is celebrated internationally for his expressive musicianship and exuberant virtuosity. His 2021/22 season includes invitations with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Alain Altinoglu, the Cleveland Orchestra and Michael Tilson Thomas, and the Mariinsky and Valery Gergiev. He is Artist-in-Residence at the Paris Philharmonie as well as the Wiener Konzerthaus. Current new music collaborators include Lera Auerbach, Richard Dubugnon, Danny Elfman and Thierry Escaich. Committed to supporting young musicians, Capuçon founded the Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris and is ambassador for the Orchestre à l’École association, featured during his annual French odyssey Un Été en France. He records exclusively for Erato (Warner Classics) and plays a 1701 Matteo Goffriller cello, ‘L’Ambasadeur’.
Dance music was always about having fun. It’s an ethos that has not escaped Cesar Merveille, the Paris-born enchanter whose ascent through the ranks of house and techno has been powered by an irrepressible joie de vivre, matched only by a desire to be challenged by everything he does.
Encouraged by creative freedom during his formative years, Cesar learnt to listen to his instincts and keep a healthy dose of soul in everything he turned his hand to.
The following years, spent immersed in London’s underground, soon found Cesar holding residencies for such fabled parties as Lo-Kee and the T-Bar. It was his later partnership with Cadenza that propelled really Cesar to the world stage, providing a platform for his music to reach a broad audience and enabling him to command dancefloors big and small the world over.
Such exposure has also given rise to new artistic ventures, most notably working with long-time friend Ryan Crosson on the “DRM” project. The full-length album from the pair came to light on Visionquest, providing space for them to explore textures and moods unconstrained by the dancefloor’s demands.
From his current base in Berlin, Cesar has embraced the natural workflow of hardware production, immersing himself in a studio powered by machines and intuition. His new label Roche Madame is a product of this, channeling the creative energy of musical allies to give rise to new collaborations. Inspired by a secret family location off the coast of Brittany, the label is both a tribute to his roots and a celebration of the here and now, a moment that Cesar is forever living in.
Born in Tel Aviv, violinist Guy Braunstein studied with Chaim Taub before moving to New York to work with Glenn Dicterow and Pinchas Zukerman. At a very young age, he performed as a soloist and chamber musician and accumulated a wide range of prestigious partners, accompanying the greatest international orchestras and conductors. In 2000 he became the youngest concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, a position he held for 12 years before leaving to pursue his solo career. Artist-in-Residence with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra for the 2017/18 season and with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for the 2019/20 season, he is also developing a rich career as a conductor, touring regularly. The Israeli plays a rare violin by Francesco Ruggieri (1679).
Sunnyboy Dladla is one of the most sought-after Rossinian tenors of his generation. Known for his “crisp, clearly focused, brightly timbred, radiantly present” voice, Dladla combines an active opera career with frequent concert performances.
In the 2022-2023 season, he performed at the Edinburgh Festival in Carmina Burana under Sir Donald Runnicles and at the Opernhaus Zurich in G. Benjamin’s Lessons in Love and Violence. He also took on roles at Staatsoper Hannover, including Count Almaviva (Barbiere di Siviglia), Peter Quint (The Turn of the Screw), and Leopold (La Juive).
The 2023-2024 season featured his house debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona as Don Ramiro (La Cenerentola) and a role debut as Oraspe (Aureliano in Palmira) at the Rossini Opera Festival. He performed Carmina Burana with the London Symphony Orchestra under Gianandrea Noseda and reprised Count Almaviva at Staatsoper Hannover.
Dladla has been featured on several recordings, including Mose in Egitto (Bregenzer Festspiel) and Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Dutch National Opera). Since joining Staatsoper Hannover in 2020, he has performed leading roles such as Ferrando (Cosi fan Tutte), Cassio (Otello), and Tempo (Il Trionfo del Tempo e di Disinganno).
Internationally, Dladla has appeared at the BBC Proms with Sir Simon Rattle, performed Mozart’s Requiem with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and made his U.S. debut in Handel’s Messiah with the National Symphony Orchestra. Other notable concerts include Carmina Burana with the Toronto Symphony and at the Grand Teton Festival.
A frequent interpreter of Count Almaviva (Barbiere di Siviglia), Dladla has performed this role at the Rossini Opera Festival, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Staatsoper Stuttgart, among others. His repertoire also includes Don Ramiro (La Cenerentola) and Paolino (Il Matrimonio Segreto), showcasing his mastery of coloratura roles.
Born in Piet-Retief, South Africa, Sunnyboy Dladla earned his degree at the University of Cape Town and later obtained a master’s degree from the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste. His rich career continues to highlight his remarkable vocal talent and stage presence across the world.
Maria Bayankina was born in the village of Zyryanovsky, Sverdlovsk Oblast, and spent her childhood in Izhevsk.
Graduated from the vocals faculty of and completed a postgraduate study at the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music (class of Evgenia Shevelyova). During her years as a student she collaborated with the Petit Opera artistic group, participating in performances of Purcell’s operas King Arthur, The Tempest, Dido and Aeneas and The Fairy-Queen. In 2011 she was awarded a grant from the Wagner Foundation, which affords young artists the opportunity to visit Bayreuth. That same year, she became a soloist with the Mariinsky Academy of Young Opera Singers.
In January 2013 she made her Mariinsky Theatre debut as Tsaritsa Militrisa in the opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan.
Since the 2019–2020 season she has been a soloist with the Mariinsky Opera.
In November 2019 she made her company debut at the Bolshoi Theatre in the opera The Idiot.
Kent Nagano is considered one of the outstanding conductors for both operatic and orchestral repertoire. His first major successes came with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1984, when Messiaen appointed him assistant to conductor Seiji Ozawa for the premiere of his opera Saint François d’Assise. European appointments were soon to follow: Music Director of Opéra National de Lyon (1988 – 1998) and Music Director of the Hallé Orchestra (1991 – 2000). Nagano became the first Music Director of Los Angeles Opera in 2003 having already held the position of Principal Conductor for two years. Since 2015, he has been General Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and Chief Conductor of the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, and from 2006 to 2020, he served as Music Director of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, of which he was appointed Conductor Emeritus in 2021. Kent Nagano last performed at the Verbier Festival in 2022.