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

Bertrand Chamayou

Bertrand Chamayou is one of today’s most strikingly brilliant pianists, heralded for his revelatory performances at once powerfully virtuosic, imaginative and breathtakingly beautiful. He is recognised as a leading interpreter of French Romantic repertoire in particular, shining a new light on familiar as well as lesser known repertoire. At the same time Bertrand possesses a driving curiosity and is deeply passionate about new music, having worked with composers including Pierre Boulez, Henri Dutilleux, György Kurtág, Bruno Mantovani, Thomas Adès, Michael Jarrell and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

In October 2019 he was awarded the Gramophone Award for Best Concerto Album for his striking Saint-Saëns album, adding to the long list of accolades for his discography. Bertrand continues to perform at the highest level around the globe during the 2019-20 season, including his residency at Gstaad Menuhin Festival and a tour with Orchestre des Champs-Élysées. He also appears on the jury of the Long Thibaud Crespin Competition 2019.

www.bertrandchamayou.com

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

Víkingur Ólafsson

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

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

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

Festival de Pâques, Aix en Provence

From 4-19 April 2020, Aix-en-Provence will once again become the centre of classical music, welcoming the greatest orchestras, conductors and soloists of today. Co-directed by Renaud Capuçon and Dominique Bluzet, the young festival has become a remarkable success story in only seven years, attracting the cream of today’s legendary artists as well as providing a platform for future stars. With almost 30,000 spectators in 2019, it is one of Europe’s most successful cultural events and the largest festival in France wholly supported by private funding.

The 2020 festival features a remarkable line-up of today’s greatest musicians including Martha Argerich, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Valery Gergiev, John Eliot Gardiner, Vladimir Jurowski, Bertrand Chamayou, René Jacobs, Marc Minkowski, Denis Kozhukhin, Isabelle Faust, Juan Diego Flórez, Philippe Jaroussky and Renaud Capuçon himself.

www.festivalpaques