Press Enter to search
Frank Dupree, winner of the International Classical Music Award and Opus Klassik, is one of the most dynamic pianist-conductors of his generation. Celebrated for his infectious energy and genre-defying creativity, he performs worldwide both as a soloist and play/direct artist, leading major orchestras as well as his own jazz ensemble, the Frank Dupree Trio. His acclaimed recordings of Nikolai Kapustin’s piano concertos have been praised internationally, with The New York Times calling them “one of the most entertaining and put-on-repeat recordings of the year.”
As Artistic Partner of the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn since 2023, Dupree performs each season as conductor and soloist. In 2024–25, he makes his solo debut with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Antonio Pappano, and appears with the hr-Sinfonieorchester, Gothenburg Symphony, and others across Europe. His schedule also includes returns to major German and Swiss orchestras, alongside chamber performances at venues such as the Tonhalle Zürich, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and Konzerthaus Wien.
A frequent guest at leading festivals and halls including Verbier, Lucerne, the Philharmonie de Paris, and the Royal Albert Hall, Dupree moves fluidly between classical and jazz worlds. With his Trio, he explores the fusion of these genres, and collaborates closely with rising stars such as Kian Soltani, Vivi Vassileva, and Noa Wildschut.
Dupree’s recordings continue to focus on the music of Nikolai Kapustin, with recent and upcoming releases on Capriccio earning widespread critical acclaim. Born in 1991 in Germany, he studied piano and conducting in Karlsruhe and was mentored by Péter Eötvös and Hans Zender. His artistry, combining virtuosity with imagination, places him among the most innovative musicians of his generation.
Sunwook Kim came to international recognition when he won the prestigious Leeds International Piano Competition in 2006 at just 18, becoming the youngest winner in 40 years and the first Asian winner in the competition’s history. Since then, he has built a reputation as one of the finest pianists of his generation, appearing as a concerto soloist in the subscription series of many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Chicago Symphony, and the NHK Symphony.
Kim enjoys close artistic partnerships with renowned conductors such as Daniel Harding, Paavo Järvi, Myung-whun Chung, Marek Janowski, Sir Mark Elder, and Jakub Hrůša. Recent highlights include an extensive tour across Europe and Korea play-directing Beethoven concerti with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, with performances at Lotte Concert Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, Salle Philharmonique de Liège, Halle aux Grains in Toulouse, and the Barbican in London. Additional concerto engagements have included performances with the London Symphony Orchestra (with Michael Tilson Thomas), the Los Angeles Philharmonic (both with Nathalie Stutzmann and as part of the Seoul Festival curated by Unsuk Chin), and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic under its Music Director Karina Canellakis. In November 2025, he will appear as soloist with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko for their Korean tour. In recital, Kim performs regularly at venues such as Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall (London International Piano Series), the Philharmonie de Paris and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in the “Piano 4 Étoiles” series, the Piano aux Jacobins Festival, Aix Festival, La Roque d’Anthéron International Piano Festival, as well as the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Kioi Hall in Tokyo, Symphony Hall Osaka, and Seoul Arts Centre. He also collaborates frequently with Janine Jansen, including a recent tour of Italy with performances in Venice, Milan, Cremona, and Turin, as well as concerts in Düsseldorf and Lugano with an all-Brahms and Schumann programme.
Kim’s debut recital album was released on the Accentus label in October 2015, featuring Beethoven’s Waldstein and Hammerklavier Sonatas. This was followed by a recording of Franck’s Prelude, Chorale and Fugue paired with Brahms’s Sonata No. 3. He has since released further recordings of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas (No. 8 “Pathétique,” No. 14 “Moonlight,” No. 23 “Appassionata,” and Nos. 30–32), and his most recent chamber music release features the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas with Clara-Jumi Kang. His discography also includes several concerto recordings: with the Staatskapelle Dresden under Myung-whun Chung he recorded Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (2019) and Six Piano Pieces (2020). For Deutsche Grammophon, he has recorded with the Seoul Philharmonic under Myung-whun Chung, including Unsuk Chin’s Piano Concerto (2014)—a critically acclaimed release that received awards from BBC Music Magazine and the International Classical Music Awards—and Beethoven’s Concerto No. 5 (2013). In 2023, the Berliner Philharmoniker released a box set of Unsuk Chin’s works, featuring her Piano Concerto performed by Kim and conducted by Sakari Oramo.
Born in Seoul in 1988, Kim completed an MA in conducting at the Royal Academy of Music and was later named a Fellow (FRAM) of the institution in 2019. In addition to Leeds, he has won major international awards including First Prize at the 2004 Ettlingen Competition (Germany) and the 2005 Clara Haskil Competition (Switzerland). In 2013, Kim was selected by the Beethoven-Haus Bonn as the first beneficiary of its newly established mentoring programme.
After a preparatory 2019/2020 season, during which he conducted the opening concert and led a tour of major Russian cities (February 2020), Danish conductor Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider became the seventh Music Director of the Orchestre National de Lyon (ONL) in September 2020. Two years later, his initial four-year term was extended by three additional years, running through June 2027.
Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider’s appointment to the ONL marks a major milestone in an outstanding career where the baton and the violin bow have long gone hand in hand. In addition to his close ties with the London Symphony Orchestra, he is a frequent guest with many of the world’s leading ensembles, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Bamberg Symphony, and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also establishing himself as an opera conductor: following his triumphant debut at the Semperoper Dresden with The Magic Flute, he was immediately invited back for Der Rosenkavalier. In the 2020/2021 season, he made his debut at the Royal Danish Theatre in a new production of The Magic Flute.
Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider is also one of the foremost violinists of our time and continues to maintain a busy schedule of solo and recital performances. He has recorded the great concertos of the repertoire with conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta, Mariss Jansons, Riccardo Chailly, Colin Davis, and Alan Gilbert. He has also recorded the complete works for violin and piano by Brahms with Yefim Bronfman, and the complete Mozart violin concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra, which he directed from the violin — The Strad praised these recordings as “quite possibly one of the most beautiful violin sounds ever committed to disc.”
Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider performs on a 1741 Guarneri del Gesù violin, the “Kreisler”, on generous loan from the Royal Danish Theatre, made possible through the support of the Velux Foundations, the Villum Foundation, and the Knud Højgaard Foundation.
Maria de la Paz returned to tango after leaving Argentina. For the past ten years, she has regularly traveled between her two horizons: the childhood of the New World and her life as a musician in old Europe. In Switzerland, she met Alexandre Cellier, a passionate explorer of world music and musical encounters. Her instrument of choice is the piano, but the musical journey continues with unusual instruments such as the Hang and the Fujara, and surprising improvisations may emerge from instruments built on stage or from everyday objects—borrowed from her garden or a household that suddenly becomes enchanted.
Swiss-Bulgarian pianist, artist and pedagogue Victoria Harmandjieva obtained her Concert and Virtuosity Diplomas with First Prize in Dominique Merlet’s piano class at the Haute École de Musique de Genève.
Invited to perform at renowned European festivals such as Piano en Saintonge, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, and the Verbier Festival, she also teaches piano at the Conservatoire de Musique de Vevey Montreux Riviera.
As an artist, she develops original multidisciplinary creations, collaborating with conductors Roland Hayrabedian and Franck Villard, writers Alberto Manguel, Marie-Claire Gross and Craig E. Stephenson, stage directors Gian Manuel Rau, Olivier Balazuc and Lorenzo Malaguerra, contemporary artist Michaël Cailloux, chocolatier Olivier Fuchs, singer Maria de la Paz, jazz pianist Thierry Lang, and the Gallimard publishing house in Paris.
Scottish-Indian guitarist Samrat Majumder is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University under Manuel Barrueco. In May 2025, he was named the inaugural Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) 40th Anniversary Artist at Wigmore Hall, also becoming a joint YCAT–Concert Artists Guild Artist for 2025. During the 2025/26 season, Samrat will perform across the UK, including his Wigmore Hall debut and a concerto appearance with the de Havilland Orchestra. A multiple prize winner, he has earned first prizes at the Concours International de Guitare d’Antony (2025, also Audience Prize), Deutscher Gitarrenpreis, International Martinez Guitar Competition Iserlohn, and LIGITA International Guitar Competition in 2024. He is a D’Addario Artist, Classical Guitar Ambassador for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and founder of a mentorship programme for young Indian guitarists.
Munich soprano Anna-Lena Elbert maintains a vibrant international career spanning repertoire from the Renaissance to today. She has appeared with the Munich Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Hofkapelle Stuttgart, Budapest Festival Orchestra, and others. A passionate advocate for new music, she collaborates closely with Gordon Kampe, Jan Müller-Wieland, and Konstantia Gourzi, creating leading roles at the Bavarian State Opera and Salzburg Festival. Highlights include Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos) with Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre at major European festivals. Also devoted to early music, she is a frequent interpreter of Bach and Handel, performing at Leipzig and Schaffhausen Bachfests, and records Johann Ludwig Bach cantatas with Johanna Soller. In 2025/26 she debuts as Osira in J. C. Bach’s Zanaida and in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Jonathan Cohen.
Born in 1992 in Sarlat, pianist Ismaël Margain studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Nicholas Angelich, Roger Muraro, and Michel Dalberto, later working under the guidance of Maria João Pires. A prize-winner at the 2012 Long-Thibaud Competition and nominated at the Victoires de la Musique Classique, he now performs across Europe and the Americas. Equally at home as a soloist and chamber musician, he appears at major festivals including Deauville, Piano aux Jacobins, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, alongside artists such as Renaud Capuçon and Edgar Moreau. A laureate of the Fondation Banque Populaire and the Fondation Singer-Polignac, he records for Naïve, with recent albums devoted to Chopin, Fauré, and Mozart (Fantasy, 2024).