Eugen Jochum was a German conductor, best known for his interpretations of the music of Anton Bruckner, Carl Orff, and Johannes Brahms, among others.
Mariss Ivars Georgs Jansons was a Latvian conductor best known for his interpretations of Mahler, Strauss and Russian composers such as Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich. During his lifetime he was often cited as among the world's leading conductors; in a 2015 Bachtrack poll, he was ranked by music critics as the world's third best living conductor. Jansons was long associated with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra as music director.
Peter Ruzicka is a German composer and conductor of classical music. He was director of the Hamburg State Opera, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Hamburg and the Salzburg Festival. Ruzicka was managing director and Intendant of the Salzburg Easter Festival and is professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. The list of his compositions includes numerous orchestral and chamber music works as well as the opera "Celan", about the poet Paul Celan, which was premiered in Dresden in 2001. His opera "Hölderlin" had its premiere at the Berlin State Opera in 2008. Ruzicka's third opera "Benjamin", about the philosopher Walter Benjamin, was written in 2015/16 for the Hamburg State Opera and premiered in 2018.
Masaaki Suzuki is a Japanese organist, harpsichordist and conductor, and the founder and music director of the Bach Collegium Japan. With this ensemble he is recording the complete choral works of Johann Sebastian Bach for the Swedish label BIS Records, for which he is also recording Bach's concertos, orchestral suites, and solo works for harpsichord and organ. He is also an artist-in-residence at Yale University and the principal guest conductor of its Schola Cantorum, and has conducted orchestras and choruses around the world.
The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra is a German radio orchestra. Based in Munich, Germany, it is one of the city's four orchestras. The BRSO is one of two full-size symphony orchestras operated under the auspices of Bayerischer Rundfunk, or Bavarian Broadcasting (BR). Its primary concert venues are the Philharmonie of the Gasteig Cultural Centre and the Herkulessaal in the Munich Residenz.
Udo Zimmermann is a German composer, musicologist, opera director and conductor. He worked as a professor of composition, founded a centre for contemporary music in Dresden, and was director of the Leipzig Opera and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. He directed a contemporary music series for the Bayerischer Rundfunk and a European centre of the arts in Hellerau. His operas, especially Weiße Rose, on a topic he set to music twice, have been performed internationally and recorded.
Ingo Metzmacher is a German conductor and artistic director of the festival KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen in Hanover.
Alexander Frey is an American symphony orchestra conductor, virtuoso organist, pianist, harpsichordist and composer. Frey is in great demand as one of the world's most versatile conductors, and enjoys success in the concert hall and opera house, and in the music of Broadway and Hollywood. Leonard Bernstein referred to him as "a wonderful spirit".
Alexander Markovich Melnikov is a Russian pianist.
Johannes Moser is a German-Canadian cellist. He began studying the cello at the age of eight and became a student of David Geringas in 1997.
Bruno Weil is a symphonic conductor. He is principal guest conductor of Tafelmusik, the period-instrument group based in Toronto, Music Director of the Carmel Bach Festival in California, and artistic director of the period-instrument festival "Klang und Raum" in Irsee, Bavaria. He has served as General Music Director of Augsburg (1981–1989), and of Duisburg (1989–2002). He currently serves as Professor of Conducting at the State Academy for Music and Theater in Munich.
Jörg Widmann is a German composer, conductor and clarinetist. In 2018, Widmann was the third most performed contemporary composer. Formerly a clarinet and composition professor at the University of Music Freiburg, he is composition professor at the Barenboim–Said Akademie. His most important compositions are the two operas Babylon and Das Gesicht im Spiegel, an oratorio Arche, his string quartets and the concert overture Con brio. Widmann wrote musical tributes to Classical and Romantic composers. He was awarded the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art in 2018.
Howard Arman is an English choral conductor and opera director. He won the Handel Prize of the Handel Festival, Halle, in 1996, shaped the festival's orchestra and conducted operas of George Frideric Handel. He is a conductor of the Theater and Philharmonie Thüringen, also the Luzerner Theater. Since 2017 he is the Director of the Bayerische Rundfunk Chor.
Jan Vogler is a German-born classical cellist who lives in New York City.
Roman Kofman is a Ukrainian composer, conductor, music educator and People's Artist of Ukraine (2003). Kofman was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2008 and is the winner of the ECHO Klassik Prize (2007). He was nominated and entered the short list of Shevchenko National Prize in 2011.
Hanns-Martin Schneidt was a German conductor, harpsichordist, organist and academic. He held teaching positions in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Tokyo, was Generalmusikdirektor in Wuppertal, artistic director of the Münchener Bach-Chor and the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra, and founded Bach ensembles in Berlin and Tokyo.
Con brio is a concert overture by Jörg Widmann influenced by Beethoven. It is a commission by the Bayerischer Rundfunk.
Konstantía Gourzí is a Greek composer and conductor. She is professor of ensemble conducting and new music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich.
Patrick Hahn is an Austrian conductor, pianist and composer. He was appointed as the General Music Director of the Wuppertaler Bühnen und Sinfonieorchester GmbH, becoming the youngest GMD in Germany, starting in the 2021/22 season.
Johannes Skudlik is a German organist and conductor.
