Kent Nagano is acclaimed as an outstanding conductor for both operatic and orchestral repertoire. He has been General Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and Chief Conductor of the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg since September 2015. In addition, he serves as Artistic Director of the Wagner Readings, a project that aims to revisit Wagner's Tetralogy from a performance practice perspective, in collaboration with the Concerto Köln Chamber Orchestra and the Dresden Festival Orchestra. Kent Nagano is a patron of the Herrenchiemsee Festival, and was appointed Honorary Conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (2006), of the Concerto Köln (2019), and of the OSM (2021). The many highlights of Kent Nagano’s collaboration with the OSM as Music Director from 2006 to 2020 include the inauguration of the Orchestra’s new concert hall, the Maison symphonique de Montréal in September 2011. Nagano and the OSM have toured in Canada including Northern Quebec, and internationally in Japan, South Korea, Europe (latest tour in 2019), Latin America and the USA. In July 2018, Kent Nagano conducted Krzysztof Penderecki’s St. Luke Passion with the OSM on the occasion of the Salzburg Festival opening concert. Maestro Nagano's recent recording releases include a 3-CD box set of works by Olivier Messiaen (BR Klassik label, 2021). He also published his second book, 10 Lessons of my Life (Berlin Verlag, 2021) in which he recalls ten highly personal encounters in his life, each bringing important lessons that transcend his career path. Previously, in 2015 Kent Nagano published Erwarten Sie Wunder! (Berlin Verlag), a passionate appeal for the relevance of classical music in today’s world. This book was also published in English (Expect the Unexpected, McGill-Queen's University Press, 2019) and in French (Sonnez, Merveilles, Éditions du Boréal, 2015).

Storyteller A literature graduate of the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and the son of a chartered accountant, Fred Pellerin became an “accidentally pleasing storyteller” through the lulling effect of stories told to him by his grandmother, his neighbour Eugène, and his father. Pellerin’s stories centre on his native village of Saint-Élie-de-Caxton “where leprechauns and fairies crash into windshields at night.” He collects anecdotes, gossip, and rumours and processes them all into tales for grown-ups. Fred Pellerin has given over 3000 live performances in the French-speaking world and already has six storytelling shows to his credit, each featuring a notorious character from his village as the hero. In addition to five original collaborations with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, he has also written three film screenplays. As well as being a storyteller, Pellerin is a singer who has sold close to 400,000 albums, which have garnered numerous Félix awards.