Originally from Romania, Valentina Farcas was born in Bucharest. After her 2006 debut at the Salzburg Festival as Blonde in Mozart’s ›Entführung aus dem Serail‹ this young soprano became an overnight star. She studied at the Folkwang College of Music in Essen, after which she went on to enjoy permanent engagements first of all at the Meininger Theatre and later at the Comic Opera in Berlin. This singer has worked with renowned conductors such as Jeffrey Tate, Bertrand de Billy, Kirill Petrenko, Ivor Bolton and Thomas Hengelbrock in some of the world’s biggest concert halls.

Her repertoire includes a great many roles which she has already performed on the international stage e.g. Sophie from ›Rosenkavalier‹ at the Semper Oper in Dresden and the Theatre of the Champs-Élysées, Susanna from ›The Marriage of Figaro‹ at the Chinese National Opera in Beijing, the title role in ›Lucia di Lammermoor‹ at the Palm Beach Opera and Bellini’s Giulietta in Warsaw and at the Bremen Musical Festival. In addition to her opera engagements, Valentina Farcas can also be heard on the concert stage. She has sung in Mendelssohn’s ›A Midsummer Night’s Dream‹ with Fabio Luisi at the Vienna Musik Verein and in the St Matthew Passion with Jaap van Zweden in Hongkong. Her performance in St Peter’s Cathedral will be her debut with the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen.

The Latvian State Choir ‘Latvija’ from Riga is considered an outstanding vocal ensemble and a beacon project of the Latvian cultural landscape, reaching far beyond its physical borders. In 2017 it celebrated its 75-year anniversary as one of the world’s leading professional choirs. The vocal abilities of the 52 singers make the choir a universal instrument, sought after by some of the world’s top orchestras such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen as well as by conductors such as Mariss Jansons, Andris Nelson, Naeme Järvi, Parvo Järvi, Vladimir Ashkenazy and David Zinman.

The Latvian vocal ensemble’s repertoire is broad, stretching from Jazz and Film Music to a-cappella programmes, concertante operas and large-scale choral works with orchestra. It was the Latvija choir which worked together with Sir Simon Rattle on recording the film music for the film ›Perfume‹. The state choir is also well-known for its receptiveness to innovative projects; collaborations with Sigur Rós and Kristjan Järvi’s electro-acoustic group ‘Absolute Ensemble’ and also recordings for computer games and films feature prominently. Some of the most important landmark performances in the choir’s recent diary have been The Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Lincoln Centre in New York and also the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow.

Estonian conductor and Grammy Award winner Paavo Järvi has been Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen since 2004. One of the many highlights of this collaboration has been the acclaimed, globally celebrated performances of the Beethoven cycle, for which Järvi received numerous awards including the ›Echo Klassik Conductor of the Year‹ award and the prestigious annual ›German Record Critics‹’ award. Their Beethoven project was followed by an intensive exploration of the symphonic works of Schumann and Brahms; both cycles also received numerous awards. Since autumn 2021, the focus has been on Joseph Haydn’s twelve London symphonies, and since 2024, an intensive exploration of Franz Schubert’s symphonies.

Paavo Järvi has been Music Director of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich since the start of the 2019/2020 season. He is also the founder and Artistic Director of the Estonian Festival Orchestra and the Pärnu Music Festival, which he established in 2011. He regularly appears as a guest conductor with major orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the London Philharmonia Orchestra, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 2015, he was named ›Artist of the Year‹ by both the British magazine Gramophone and the French magazine Diapason. This was followed in 2019 by the Opus Klassik award for ›Conductor of the Year‹. Other awards include a Grammy Award for his recording of Sibelius’ Cantatas with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and the title ›Commandeur de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres‹, awarded by the French Ministry of Culture. In 2015, Paavo Järvi also received the Sibelius Medal in recognition of his work in bringing this Finnish composer’s music to a wider audience, and in 2012 he received the Hindemith Prize for Art and Humanity. As a committed supporter of Estonian culture, Paavo Järvi was awarded the Order of the White Star by the President of Estonia in 2013.

»Few artists … have such a smooth, dark, inviting voice«, according to ›The New York Times‹ describing this singer celebrated by the Wiener Staatsoper, New York Metropolitan Opera and La Scala Milan for his opera and recital performances. Matthias Goerne is one of today’s most versatile and sought-after baritones and has collaborated with almost all renowned conductors and orchestras. Most recently he was Artist in Residence at the New York Philharmonic as well as at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. He is also an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London.  Among last season’s much acclaimed performances were those with Jaap van Zweden and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, Cristian Măcelaru and the Orchestre National de France and Antonio Pappano and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Matthias Goerne has also reached the peak of international acclaim as an ambassador for German Lieder. For his many recordings, this sought-after singer has received numerous awards, including a Grammy, the German Record Critics’ Prize and an Echo Klassik for ›Singer of the Year‹. At the beginning of 2023, his latest album ›Schubert Revisited‹ was released on the Deutsche Grammophon label, including some of his previously unheard orchestral arrangements of Schubert’s songs, performed in collaboration with the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen. Matthias Goerne has been associated with the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen for many years. A recent highlight was the joint performance of Brahms’ ›Requiem‹ in Bremen Cathedral.