Mozart and Elgar: Love Metaphors

^{Summer 2025}

Rafael Payare’s prodigious musicianship, technical brilliance and charismatic presence on the podium have made him one of the world’s most sought-after conductors. A graduate of the celebrated El Sistema music education program in Venezuela, Mr. Payare began his formal conducting studies in 2004 with José Antonio Abreu. Since winning the prestigious Malko International Competition for Young Conductors in Denmark in 2012, Maestro Payare’s career has advanced rapidly. Since 2015, he has served as Principal Conductor of the Castleton Festival, founded by his mentor the late Lorin Maazel. He was Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Ulster Orchestra from 2014 to 2019 and in 2019, took up the position of Music Director of the San Diego Symphony. In recent years, Rafael Payare has conducted many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including those of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Zurich, Berlin, Vienna, London, Munich, Chicago and Paris. He has also made important opera debuts at the Glyndebourne Festival, Stockholm’s Royal Swedish Opera, the Royal Danish Opera, and most recently at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In the 2022-2023 season, Payare became the ninth Music Director in the history of the OSM.

To consult:
rafaelpayare.com
Long biography

Beth Taylor, One of today’s most electrifying mezzo-sopranos, appears regularly in events and venues such as the Salzburg Festival, BBC Proms, Glyndebourne, Berlin Festival, the opera houses of Zurich, Berlin, Frankfurt and Lyon, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie de Paris, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and the Palau de la Musica of Barcelona and of Valencia. Her repertoire includes Bradamante (Alcina), Cornelia (Giulio Cesare), Arsace (Semiramide), La Cieca (La Gioconda), Anna (Les Troyens), Erda (Das Rheingold), Mahler’s Second Symphony, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and Bach’s B minor Mass. She has worked with Maestros Gardiner, Gardner, Marcon, Metzmacher, Nelson, Pichon and Runnicles. Beth Taylor is a grand finalist of the 2023 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition and the recipient of the 2022 Elizabeth Connell Award. 

German pianist Martin Helmchen is widely admired for his tonal sensitivity, technical finesse, and deeply personal interpretations. For over two decades, he has appeared on the world’s major stages and is among today’s most sought-after pianists. He was awarded the Gramophone Classical Music Award in 2020.

In the 2024/25 season, he served as Artist in Residence with the Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra and performs with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, and others. Recitals will take him to venues including Konzerthaus Berlin, Beethovenfest Bonn, and the Rudolfinum Prague.

He has collaborated with leading orchestras such as the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, Concertgebouworkest, Staatskapelle Dresden, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and Cleveland Orchestra, under conductors like Blomstedt, Gilbert, Honeck, Hrůša, Järvi, Mäkelä, and Nelsons.

A passionate chamber musician, his partners include Marie-Elisabeth Hecker, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Antja Weithaas and Augustin Hadelich. He co-directs the Fliessen International Chamber Music Festival and appears at festivals such as BBC Proms, Lucerne, and Marlboro.

Helmchen records for Alpha Classics. His recent releases include Bach’s Six Partitas and Schumann’s Novelletten. He studied with Galina Iwanzowa, Arie Vardi, and Alfred Brendel, and teaches chamber music at the Kronberg Academy.