Energy, elegance and spirit – that is what particularly distinguishes Andrés Orozco-Estrada as a musician. He was principal conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra from September 2014 to July 2021 and said goodbye in June 21 with a major concert at the Alte Oper, about which the Frankfurter Rundschau wrote:
"The image of a balance of human impeccability, communicative passion and the highest professionalism emerged. An orchestra, it was understood, wants to enjoy its work and at the same time make serious mu- sical progress, and of course that sounds easier than it is. But it is precisely the combination of dancelike playfulness and an unconditional search for perfection that obviously distinguishes the Colombian’s work."
He led the Houston Symphony Orchestra as Music Director from 2014-2022 and was also Chief Conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra (2020-2022).
Orozco-Estrada regularly conducts Europe’s leading orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Kon- inklijk Concertgebouworkest, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Orchestre National de France, as well as major U.S. orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has also conducted concerts and opera performances at the Berlin State Opera and the Salzburg Festival with outstanding success.
After his farewell concerts in Houston, where he will conduct Gustav Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, Orozco- Estrada will conclude the 2021/22 season with his Filarmonica Joven and a major European tour. The or- chestra will perform at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Kölner Phil- harmonie and the Wiener Konzerthaus, among others.
Guest conducting engagements in the coming season will take him to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the NDR Elbphilharmonieorchester, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, and the Israel Philharmonic.
He will also return to the podium of the hr-Sinfonieorchester and the Staatsoper Berlin, where he will con- duct the revival of La Traviata.
A tour with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe will take him to the Canary Islands as well as to the Mo- zartwoche Salzburg. A concert week and a master class for conductors with the Orquesta Sinfónica Freix- enet de la Escuela Reina Sofía are also planned.
His CD releases on the Pentatone label have received much attention: with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, he made recordings of Stravinsky’s Firebird and Rite of Spring, which were praised by critics as "hauntingly beautiful" (Gramophone). His concert recordings of Richard Strauss’s operas Salome and El- ektra have also enjoyed great success. With the Houston Symphony, he released a “zestful” Dvořák cycle “with warm colours” (Pizzicato). He has also recorded all Brahms and Mendelssohn symphonies.
Born in Medellín (Colombia), Andrés Orozco-Estrada began his musical education by playing the violin, re- ceiving his first conducting lessons at the age of 15. In 1997 he moved to Vienna, where he was accepted into the conducting class of Uroš Lajovic, a student of the legendary Hans Swarowsky, at the renowned Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst. In October, Orozco-Estrada will take up his professorship in orchestral conducting at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna.
www.rbartists.at www.orozco-estrada.com
One of the most versatile conductors of his generation, Łukasz Borowicz regularly leads the major European orchestras in the core Germanic repertoire as well as important Russian, Polish, Czech and Hungarian works. He conducts opera and has received numerous prizes for his over 80 recordings. From 2007 to 2015 he was Chief Conductor of the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Warsaw, and in 2006 he was appointed Chief Guest Conductor of the Poznań Philharmonic, a title he retains.
In the 18/19 season Borowicz makes his debuts with Paris Opera (Les Huguenots), Hungarian National Orchestra and Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, and leads a new production of Halka by Stanisław Moniuszko at Polish National Opera. He performs on tour with the Poznań Philharmonic, and returns to the Warsaw Philharmonic, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, Janáček Philharmonic and Orchestre symphonique et lyrique de Nancy, as well as the orchestras in Katowice, Szczecin, Gdańsk and Łódź. Ongoing recording projects include a multi-disc recording of Anton Bruckner’s sacred music with RIAS Kammerchor and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin for Accentus, as well as a release of Hugo Alfven’s five symphonies with the Deutsche Symphonieorchester Berlin on CPO. He also records an album of cello concertos by exiled Jewish composers with Raphael Wallfisch and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
Łukasz Borowicz has appeared as guest conductor with SWR Sinfonieorchester, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Hamburger Symphoniker, MDR Sinfonieorchester, Luzerner Symfonieorchester, Orchestre National de Lille, Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group and a number of other orchestras and ensembles, including all the major Polish symphonies. Last season he made his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln and Bamberger Symphoniker. He has led concerts at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and Kissinger Sommer Festival, and has an ongoing relationship with the Beethoven Easter Festival in Warsaw, which has seen eleven rarely played operas recorded and released to date.
Borowicz made his operatic debut at Polish National Opera with Don Giovanni, which has been followed by over 130 performances at the house, including new productions of Orfeo ed Euridice, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, The Rite of Spring and Romeo and Juliet. In the 19/20 season he will direct a new production of Halka at Theater an der Wien. Further operatic credits include premieres of Zauberflöte, Rusalka, Dido and Aeneas, Blubeard’s Castle (Łódź), Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin, Halka and King Roger (Kraków), Eugene Onegin (Nantes) and King Roger (Bilbao).
A prolific recording artist with over 75 albums to his name, Borowicz’s recordings have been awarded three Diapason d’Or prizes. Symphonic recordings include the complete violin concertos by Grażyna Bacewicz for Chandos, the complete symphonic works by Andrzej Panufnik for CPO, and several titles for Hyperion. The final installment of the Panufnik cycle was selected as an Editor’s Choice by Gramophone magazine, and Borowicz received the ICMA Special Achievement Award in 2015 for his pioneering work on the cycle. In 2018 he received another ICMA award for his recording of Quo Vadis by Feliks Nowowiejski. His collaboration with Piotr Beczała on Deutsche Grammophon’s recording Heart’s delight – Songs of Richard Tauber was met with wide critical and public praise.
Born in Warsaw in 1977, Łukasz Borowicz graduated from the Frederic Chopin Music Academy, where he studied under Bogusław Madey. He received a doctorate in conducting under Antoni Wit. He has received the Polityka Passport Award (2008), Coryphée of Polish Music Award (2011), Norwid Award (2013) and Tansman Prize honouring an outstanding musical personality (2014).
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<em>Heroic performances from the LPO and Łukasz Borowicz</em>
— Bachtrack (May 2018)
<em>I had not previously seen the Polish conductor perform but I was impressed – by the unfussy attentiveness to score and soloist in Penderecki’s Concerto and by the lithe freedom of his interpretation and rendering of Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony (1944).</em>
— Seen and Heard International (May 2018)
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Jukka-Pekka Saraste has established himself as one of the outstanding conductors of his generation, demonstrating remarkable musical depth and integrity. Born in Heinola, Finland, he began his career as a violinist before training as a conductor with Jorma Panula at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. An artist of exceptional versatility and breadth and renowned for his objective approach, he feels a special affinity with the sound and style of late Romantic music. He maintains a particularly strong connection to the works of Beethoven, Bruckner, Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Sibelius and is internationally celebrated for his interpretations of Mahler.
In April 2022, Jukka-Pekka was named as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. He will begin his tenure in summer 2023. From 2010 to 2019, he served as Chief Conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne. During his term, the orchestra built a reputation both at home and abroad, touring Austria, Spain, the Baltics, and Asia. The symphonic cycles of Sibelius, Brahms and Beethoven were exceptionally well received. Previously, from 2006 to 2013, Jukka-Pekka Saraste was Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. He was subsequently appointed Conductor Laureate, the very first such title bestowed by the orchestra. Earlier positions include the principal conductorships of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, where he is now Conductor Laureate, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He also served as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Advisor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. He founded the Finnish Chamber Orchestra, where he remains the Artistic Advisor. Last but not least, Jukka-Pekka Saraste is a founding member of the LEAD! Foundation, a mentorship programme for young conductors and soloists. Based in Finland, the foundation has run projects in Stockholm, Lausanne, Dortmund and Sofia. In 2020, it also created the Fiskars Summer Festival, an international platform for both Finnish and international artists to pass on their knowledge and experience to the next generation of conductors
from all around the world. The second edition of the festival took place in the summer of 2021.
Jukka-Pekka Saraste’s guest engagements have led him to the major orchestras worldwide, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Munich Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Dresden, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Staatskapelle Berlin, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris and the leading Scandinavian orchestras. In North America, he has conducted the Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, New York Philharmonic, as well as Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal. In recent years, Jukka-Pekka Saraste has developed a strong profile in opera and, following concert performances of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, Schönberg’s Erwartung and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, had great success at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna with a new scenic production of Mendelssohn’s Elijah, directed by Calixto Bieito, and Korngold’s Die tote Stadt at the Finnish National Opera. In the
2020-2021 season, he conducted a new staging of Reimann’s Lear at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.
Jukka-Pekka Saraste´s extensive discography includes the complete symphonies of Sibelius and Nielsen with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and several well- received recordings with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra of works by Bartók, Dutilleux, Mussorgsky and Prokofiev for Warner Finlandia. His CDs with WDR Symphony Orchestra for Hänssler have likewise earned him much critical praise.
They include Schönberg’s Pelleas and Melisande, Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol, Brahms’ complete Symphonies as well as Mahler’s 5th and 9th Symphony and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8. The complete cycle of Beethoven’s symphonies, released in 2019 to high critical acclaim, can be regarded as a legacy of his tenure in Cologne.
Jukka-Pekka Saraste has received the Pro Finlandia Prize, the Sibelius Medal, and the Finnish State Prize for Music. He holds honorary doctorates from York University, Toronto and Sibelius Academy, Helsinki.
Music Director of Prague State Opera and newly appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor at the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, German conductor Karl-Heinz Steffens is recognized as a conductor of great distinction in both the operatic and symphonic worlds. As a sought-after guest conductor, he has worked with major orchestras, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Zurich Tonhalle and the Israel Philharmonic, the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hannover, Leipzig and Stuttgart. Last season he continued his relationship with the Philharmonia in London following his Brahms cycle with them and returned to the Orchestre National de Lyon and the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg. During his time as Music Director of the Rheinland-Pfalz Philharmonic, the orchestra received the ECHO award for Best Orchestra in 2015 for their recording of works by B.A. Zimmermann and in 2016-17 they were nominated prizewinners of the Best Concert Program of the Season by the German Music Publishers’ Association. Their recording of works by George Antheil was designated Concert Recording of the Year by the Opus Klassik awards. In the opera house, he has appeared several times at the Teatro alla Scala and is regularly invited to the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden. While Music Director of the Norwegian National Opera, he led the Norwegian premiere of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, amonng others. Prior to his conducting career, he was a highly respected solo clarinetist who also held several orchestral positions culminating in the successive posts of Principal Clarinet with the Bavarian Radio and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras. Karl-Heinz Steffens has recently been awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz in Germany for his services to music.
Born in Verona in 1987, Andrea Battistoni is one of the rising young talents on the international music scene. He holds the positions of Principal Conductor of the Teatro Carlo Felice of Genova, Arena di Verona and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2006, he has conducted in major opera houses, including the Deutsche Oper of Berlin, the Bavarian State Opera of Munich, Semperoper of Dresden, Mariinsky Theatre of St. Petersburg, Palau de les arts of Valencia, the Royal Opera of Stockholm, and in his native Italy, he has led performances at the Arena di Verona, Teatro San Carlo of Naples, Parco della Musica of Rome, Teatro La Fenice of Venice, Teatro Verdi of Trieste, Teatro Lirico of Cagliari and Teatro Massimo of Palermo. In the concert hall he has led the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, La Scala Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. At the age of 24, he became the youngest conductor ever to conduct at La Scala of Milan. He believes passionately that Art belongs to everybody and often brings this message to wide audiences outside concert halls and opera theatres: he conducted the La Scala Philharmonic in the Forum Assago in Milan in front of 8,000 people and led the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI at the Piazza Castello in Turin for an audience of over 25,000. In 2012, his first book Non èÌ musica per vecchi (It Isn’t Music for the Old) was published. Andrea Battistoni began his musical education at the age of seven and studied with Gabriele Ferro, Gianandrea Noseda and Maurizio Barbacini. He graduated from the Verona Conservatory with a degree in Composition and has had many of his symphonic, chamber and theatre works performed across Europe.
Yaron Gottfried is one of the most prominent musicians of his generation in Israel, a multidisciplinary artist who bridges classical,contemporary and jazz music. Gottfried held the position of Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Netanya Kibbutz Orchestra for 11 years between 2002-2013 with great success, presenting fresh innovative programs, packed halls, rave reviews and over 120 concerts in a season.
He graduated his studies at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem under Maestro Mendi Rodan.
Gottfried’s conducting repertoire spans from the renaissance period to contemporary music.
Gottfried is a frequent guest at Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, In October 2016 He was invited to substitute for Maestro Zubin Mehtaand conduct all eleven season opening concerts with major artists such as Yefim Bronfman, Khatia Buniatishvili , Prague philharmonic choir among others.
In January 2015 he led the IPO replacing Maestro Valery Gergiev at short
notice with an Israeli premier of Shostakovich 4th Symphony; the concert received rave reviews from the critics.
In September 2015 he performed a German premier with WDR Funkhausorchester of his “Pictures at an Exhibition-Remake“ for jazz trio and orchestra after Mussorgsky.
In October 2015 he lead the IPO Annual Gala event in an all-Gershwin program. In January 2015 he led the IPO replacing Maestro Valery Gergiev at short notice with an Israeli premier of Shostakovich 4th Symphony; the concert received rave reviews from the critics.
Highlights of the 2016-17 season include concert series with the Maggio musicale Fiorntino orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, San Jose Youth Philharmonic, Beijing Symphony orchestra, Raanana Symphonette , Tel Aviv Soloists Orchestra, Leading a new production of <em>Orfeo ed Euridice</em> with the Israeli Opera with Macao symphony, Leading the opening concert of the Rubinstein competition and the premiere of four of his new compositions, Piano Trio, Nocturne for trumpet and Orchestra, Mongolian Suite for symphony Orchestra and a new Song Cycle.
Gottfried was awarded the “Israeli Prime Minister’s Award for Composers 2014,” and he is regularly invited to conduct and perform his works with major orchestras, festivals and halls worldwide such as: Israel Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony (IBA), Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Jerusalem, Raanana Symphonette, Sinfonietta Beer Sheva, China Philharmonic, Beijing Symphony, Chengdu Philharmonic, Manila Philharmonic, WDR Funkhausorchester, Potsdam Chamber Orchestra and Chorus, Tbilisi Symphony, Thüringen Symphony, Budapest Concert Orchestra, Debrecen Philharmonic, Kodaly Philharmonic, Brazos Valley Symphony, La Crosse Symphony, Portland Chamber Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, Salta Symphony, L’Auditori – Barcelona Symphonic Band and Tallinn Festival Orchestra, among others. He is regularly invited as a guest artist to perform at major halls in China such as “Forbidden City Concert Hall“ (FCCH), Beijing Concert Hall, Beijing NCPA as well as festivals in China, Italy, Denmark, Georgia and Estonia.
Gottfried’s unique approach to rhythm and sound is deeply reflected in his compositions which represent a fusion between genres and styles. His works are published by Sikorski Music Publishers. His “Pictures at an Exhibition-Remake“ was released in May 2014 on a new CD with GPR Records and is distributed by Naxos USA. The album received great reviews from Fanfare Magazine and in the Israeli press. Among his works are concertos, orchestral works, vocal works and orchestral arrangements. His “Baroque Jazz Project” for jazz trio and orchestra has been performed over 50 times, receiving high acclaim all over the world with many orchestras. A new tango album which he musically produced and arranged for international artist Yasmin Levy was released by Harmonia Mundi in September 2014.
Gottfried is the Head of Composition and Conducting Department at Rimon School for Contemporary Music and Jazz.
The Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation selected Maestro Gottfried as its chosen artist for 2003-2007. He is a member of the prestigious MacDowell Colony in the USA and 1st prize winner of the Young Artists Conductors competition held by the Israel Philharmonic and the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, and 1st prize winner of the Red Sea Jazz Festival Composition Competition. Gottfried’s deep musical interests in jazz led him to perform with major jazz artists such as: Eddie Gomez, Eddie Daniels, Didier Lockwood, Dave Liebman, Ira Sullivan, Randy Brecker, Georgie Fame, Kitty Margolis, Benny Golson and Jimmy Heath to name a few.
Kirill Petrenko has been chief conductor and artistic director of the Berliner Philharmoniker since August 2019.
Previously, he was general music director of Bayerische Staatsoper for seven years after first engagements in his career had taken him to the Vienna Volksoper, Meininger Staatstheater and the Komische Oper Berlin.
He has appeared as a guest at the Wiener Staatsoper, the Semperoper in Dresden, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Opéra Bastille in Paris. In 2013, he headed a new production of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival, which he conducted until 2015.
In the opening concert of his first season at the helm of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Kirill Petrenko conducted Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony – not least as a programmatic declaration of intent for the exploration of the core Classical-Romantic repertoire with which he intends to begin each season in the future. Unjustly neglected composers such as Josef Suk and Erich Wolfgang Korngold play an important role in his concerts. Kirill Petrenko has frequently conducted world premieres of symphonic works and operas in addition to key works of the 20th century and has also committed himself to contemporary music during his tenure in Berlin: following on from a piece by Anna Thorvaldsdóttir, a number of works have been commissioned from contemporary composers.
By directing projects of the Karajan Academy and concerts of the National Youth Orchestra of Germany, he is dedicating himself to the training of young musicians and introducing young people to different aspects of music.
At the Easter Festival in Baden-Baden, he will continue to conduct operas as well as concerts. Outside Berlin, Kirill Petrenko can also be seen on tour with the Berliner Philharmoniker, at festival venues such as Salzburg and Lucerne, the European music capitals and soon in Asia – and of course in the Digital Concert Hall.
In addition to concert recordings with music by John Adams and Gustav Mahler (Symphony No. 6), both as part of comprehensive presentations of the composers’ works, a CD/SACD edition has already been released with symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Franz Schmidt as well as Rudi Stephan’s Music for Orchestra; Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 Pathétique is still available as a single edition. Further releases of selected performances are in preparation.
Lahav Shani is Music Director of the Israel Philharmonic from 2020. Since his conducting debut with the orchestra in October 2013, he has conducted the Israel Philharmonic every season. His close relationship with the orchestra began in his youth, when he performed as a pianist in a Youth Concert and in 2007 he appeared as soloist under the baton of Zubin Mehta. He then went on to play regularly with the orchestra as a pianist and double bassist.
Lahav Shani rose to fame after winning the prestigious Gustav Mahler International Conducting Competition in Bamberg, in 2013. Since 2016 he has served as Chief Conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the youngest conductor to hold the position in the orchestra’s history. In 2017-2020 he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
His appearances as guest conductor include concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra of London, Orchestre de Paris, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Swedish Philharmonic and Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra. He also works regularly with the Staatskapelle Berlin, both in opera productions and in symphonic concerts.
Born in Tel Aviv in 1989, Lahav Shani began his piano studies aged six with Hannah Shalgi,
before continuing his studies at the Thelma Yellin High School and subsequently with Prof. Arie Vardi at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, Tel Aviv University. He completed his studies at the Academy of Music Hanns Eisler, Berlin, where he studied conducting with Prof. Christian Ehwald and piano with Prof. Fabio Bidini. He was mentored by Daniel Barenboim during his studies.
In July 2018 he made his piano recital debut at the Boulez Saal in Berlin. He has appeared as solo pianist under the baton of Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta and Valery Gergiev with many orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw, Vienna Philharmonic, Mariinsky Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin and Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra. He also has considerable experience performing chamber music and is a regular performer at the Verbier Festival, and
has also appeared at the Aix-en-Provence Easter and Jerusalem International Chamber Music
Festivals.
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