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).

Dubbed “Young star of the piano” (Classica) and “Liszt reincarnated” (Fanfare), Alexandre Kantorow was the first French pianist to win the Gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition as well as the Grand Prix, awarded only three times in the competition’s history. He made his debut at 16 at the festival La Folle Journée in Nantes and has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras ever since. In solo recital, Kantorow appears in major concert halls, and he regularly performs chamber music with artists such as Renaud Capuçon, Daniel Lozakovich and Matthias Goerne. His recordings, exclusively for BIS, have won multiple prizes including the Diapason d’Or, Trophée Radio Classique and Victoires de la musique. Other recognitions, too numerous to name, include the Musical Revelation of the Year Prize (Professional Critics Association) in 2019. Born in France of French-British parentage, Kantorow studied with Pierre-Alain Volondat, Igor Lazko, Frank Braley and Rena Shereshevskaya.