Alice Sara Ott

German-Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott has established herself as one of the most exciting musical talents of today. As well as high profile engagements with some of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, Ott is becoming increasingly known for her creative collaborations, with artists such as Francesco Tristano and Olafur Arnalds.

The Guardian commented after her recent performance with the London Symphony Orchestra that she “gave the kind of gawp-inducing bravura performance of which legends are made.”

In 2018 Ott released her new album, Nightfall, on Deutsche Grammophon, marking her tenth year as an exclusive recording artist for the label. The deeply personal album features works by Satie, Debussy and Ravel, and is currently being toured by Ott internationally.

In addition to a busy season of international appearances, Ott boasts a number of original creative collaborations which showcase her skills as a designer and illustrator. She is creative advisor to German luxury brand, JOST, for whom she has designed a line of premium leather bags featuring origami elements, and has also designed a range of stickers for Japanese messaging service LINE, which has already reached millions of users. Ott has been global brand ambassador for Technics, the hi-fi audio brand of Panasonic Corporation. She also collaborates with the French luxury jewellery house, Chaumet, part of the LVMH group, as well as German couture brand Marc Cain, for whom she was recently the subject of a short film by Vogue Germany.

www.alicesaraott

Barbara Hannigan

Embodying music with an unparalleled dramatic sensibility, soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan is an artist at the forefront of creation. Her remarkable performances have been called ‘astonishing’, ‘phenomenal’ and ‘fearless’, and she was named ‘une femme-caméléon’ by Le Figaro.

As a singer and conductor, the Canadian musician has shown a profound commitment to the music of our time and has given the world première performances of over 85 new creations. Her artistic colleagues include Christoph Marthaler, Sir Simon Rattle, Sasha Waltz, Kent Nagano, Vladimir Jurowski, John Zorn, Andreas Kriegenburg, Andris Nelsons, Reinbert de Leeuw, David Zinman, Antonio Pappano, Katie Mitchell, Kirill Petrenko, and Krszysztof Warlikowski.

In 2017 Barbara Hannigan created ‘Equilibrium Young Artists’, a mentoring initiative for young professional musicians. Equilibrium launched officially in 2018, with 21 participants hand-selected by Hannigan and with whom she worked intensively on, among other works, Mozart’s Requiem, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, and The Rake’s Progress. The latter saw Hannigan make her debut as an opera conductor.

Barbara Hannigan’s 2019-20 season marks the beginning of her role as Principal Guest conductor at Gothenburg Symphony. She also has engagements with London Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Münchner Philharmoniker, Danish National Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra, and will be artist in residence at Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Hannigan will première the role of Gerda in Bayerische Staatsoper’s production of Hans Abrahamsen’s The Snow Queen and will return to the role of Lulu at Hamburgische Staatsoper. She also continues with Equilibrium in the upcoming season with partner orchestras including Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.

www.barbarahannigan.com

www.equilibrium-youngartists.com

Bryce Dessner

www.brycedessner

Nelson Goerner

“The master goldsmith at the piano” Le Monde

Master of the Romantic repertoire and one of today’s foremost interpreters of Chopin, Debussy and Schumann, Argentine pianist Nelson Goerner recently brought his “interpretations of sublime inspiration” [Daily Telegraph] to London’s Wigmore Hall as part of a rich season of international appearances.  The celebrated Argentinean pianist and award-winning “poet of the piano” already boasts an impressive discography, recording exclusively for Alpha Classics and the Chopin Institute’s own label.

Autumn 2019 sees Goerner release two major new albums featuring substantial bodies of work, including the towering and rarely recorded Variations and Fugue Op. 23 by Ignacy Jan Paderewski  (27 September, Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina) as well as Johannes Brahms’ mighty Variations on a Theme by Paganini (24 October, Alpha Classics). Two works monumental in character, full of musical invention, emotional depth and immense technical challenges. Alongside the Variations and Fugue he programmes another great Romantic composer: Godowski, with his arrangement of a waltz by Johann Strauss, blisteringly virtuosic yet full of Viennese elegance.

Nelson Goerner appears at London’s Wigmore Hall on 26 November and Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Elysées on 9 December 2019.

“Du très grand art” Tribune de Genève

www.nelsongoerner.com

Víkingur Ólafsson

www.vikingurolafsson.com
www.reykjavikmidsummermusic.com/en

Patricia Kopatchinskaja

Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja is one of the most thrilling artistic forces on the global classical music scene today. A musician of the highest-level artistry, integrity and originality, she is increasingly in-demand for her vital and dynamic performances.

Her recording of Schubert’s Death and the Maiden – interspersed with other music – won the GRAMMY Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble performance in 2018.

www.patriciakopatchinskaja

Michael Barenboim

Violinist Michael Barenboim is one of the most talented artists of his generation and has performed with some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras and conductors, including the Wiener Philharmoniker, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra under Pierre Boulez and Münchner Philharmoniker conducted by the late Lorin Maazel. A former student of Pierre Boulez, Barenboim is recognised for his versatile approach to repertoire with a particular focus on 20th Century works.

In January 2017 Barenboim released his debut solo recital album, of works by Bach, Bartók and Boulez, to positive reviews across the board. The Strad commented:

“This unusual programme demands the kind of disciplined virtuosity that Michael Barenboim has in spades. His performances, flawlessly reproduced, are utterly persuasive and compelling…….strikingly authoritative accounts…….Barenboim is surely destined for the top”

Barenboim’s next album, of virtuosic works for solo violin from the likes of Berio, Paganini and Sciarrino, picked up superb acclaim upon release in 2018, including BBC Music Magazine Instrumental CHOICE of the month: “This is visionary programming, breathtakingly realised.”

Born in Paris, Barenboim grew up in Berlin in a multicultural environment, and has been Concertmaster of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra since 2003.

www.michaelbarenboim.com

Colin Currie

The world’s leading classical percussionist has been the driving force behind new percussion music for 20 years. An artist at the peak of his powers, Colin Currie has irreversibly transformed the landscape for percussion soloists, challenging today’s foremost composers to write new works.

In September 2014 Colin took centre stage at London’s Southbank Centre – where he is Artist-in-Residence – for the spectacular and unprecedented four-month percussion festival: Metal, Wood, Skin: The Colin Currie Percussion Festival. At the heart of the festival were major new works commissioned for Currie by Steve Reich, Louis Andriessen and James MacMillan. The result was a landmark event in the percussion world.

Colin continues to give world premiere performances across the globe, both as a soloist and as a member of the Colin Currie Group, which he founded to perform the works of Steve Reich.

In 2018 he launched his own record label, Colin Currie Records, beginning with a recording of Steve Reich’s Drumming and followed in November 2018 by Scene of the Crime, with Håkan Hardenberger. Distributed by LSO Live and its partners worldwide, Colin Currie Records is a platform for the soloist’s diverse projects, celebrating the extraordinary developments for percussion music over the past century.

www.colincurrie.com
www.colincurriegroup.com
www.southbankcentre.co.uk/colincurrie

Johannes Pramsohler

The entrepreneurial Baroque violinist Johannes Pramsohler founded his own chamber ensemble, Ensemble Diderot, in 2008. Over the years the ensemble has become increasingly recognised for its faithful interpretations and world-premiere recordings of little-known Baroque masterpieces. It dedicates itself to the exploration and performance of the Baroque trio sonata repertoire of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and performs on original instruments.

After several album releases on the label founded by Pramsohler, Audax Records, Ensemble Diderot recently released the world premiere recording of Meister’s Il Giardino del Piacere. The album of Meister’s spectacular trio sonatas completes a project originally started by Reinhard Goebel’s Musica Antiqua Köln. Ensemble Diderot worked closely with the early music legend, Goebel, on the album release.

Widespread critical acclaim for the project already includes Chamber ‘Choice’ of the month in BBC Music Magazine.

Pramsohler’s latest release is an album of French Sonatas, with harpsichordist Philippe Grisvard (“The dream team” – Early Music Review), featuring several world premieres.

In April 2019 Pramsohler and Ensemble Diderot release The London and Paris albums – two recordings that shine a light on the Baroque trio sonata in each capital city. Both albums feature several world premiere recordings of Baroque music.

www.johannespramsohler
www.ensemblediderot
www.audax-records