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. Born in 1980 and 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 of the Uster 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 symphony orchestras, in Berlin, Vienna, London, Munich, Chicago and Paris, among others. Beginning in the 2022-2023 season, he becomes the ninth Music Director in the history of the OSM.

Three-time GRAMMY Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn is renowned for her virtuosity, expansive interpretations, and creative programming, as well as her dynamic approach to music-making and her commitment broad global access to music. Hahn's sixteen feature recordings have received every critical prize in the international press and have met with equal popular success.   Hahn honours mainstream violin literature while delving into the unexpected. She gave international premieres of six new partitas for solo violin commissioned from Antón García Abril, and developed “In 27 Pieces: the Hilary Hahn Encores,” a multi-year commissioning project to revitalize the duo encore.   She is known for instigating free – and sometimes surprise – concerts for parents and babies, a knitting circle, a community dance workshop, a yoga class, and art students, while serving as Artist-in-Residence with major orchestras. She encourages music lovers to combine live performances with their interests outside the concert hall.   Hahn is an avid writer; she posts entries to her website, hilaryhahn.com, and publishes articles in mainstream media. Her YouTube channel, youtube.com/hilaryhahnvideos, features interviews with colleagues, and her violin case has become her traveling companion and commentator on Twitter and Instagram, at @violincase.