Born in 1986 in Munich, the cellist Valentin Radutiu learned to play cello from his father. He went on to study with Clemens Hagen, Heinrich Schiff and David Geringas in Salzburg, Vienna and Berlin. For his »exciting individual, high-energy playing; his enchanting cantabile in the high register and his clearly contoured, masculine timbre in the lower register,« the Süddeutsche Zeitung praised him as »one of the greatest cello talents of our time« and Valentin Radutiu is indeed one of the most distinguished cellists of his generation.

Valentin Radutiu is prize winner of several national and international competitions, including ›Jugend Musiziert‹ and the Dotzau Competition in Dresden and won first prize in the international Karl Davodov Competition in Riga. In 2011 he was awarded the German Business Music Prize – one of the most important new generation prizes for young musicians in Germany. In 2012, Valentin Radutiu won second prize at the International Enescu Competition in Bucharest. Since the 2012/13 season Valentin Radutiu has received the support of the Bayer Kultur Project ›stART‹ which offers intensive and individual assistance to its musicians.

Valentin Radutiu has performed with the Camerata Salzburg, the MDR Symphony Orchestra and the Bucharest Symphony Orchestra, among several others. He has performed in well-known concert halls in Munich, Berlin, Hong Kong, Bucharest and Riga as well as in several renowned festivals. With his long-term pianist Per Rundberg, Radutiu has recorded and released several CDs and his debut CD, released in 2011, contains recordings of works by Lalo, Ravel and Magnard as well as the exemplary first complete recording of the entire works for cello and piano by George Enescu.

Radutiu plays a 1685 Cremona cello by Francesco Ruggieri.

Jérémie Rhorer is one of the most versatile and intellectually challenging conductors of his generation. As founder and musical director of the orchestra Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, this French conductor is continuing artist-innovator tradition through his exploration of 18th and 19th century repertoire performed on historical instruments. He is also a renowned composer and winner of the Prix Pierre Cardin. For more than ten years, Jérémie Rhorer has developed a close relationship with the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, where he has conducted a wide range of standard, rarely performed and contemporary operas. Rhorer has also conducted major international orchestras such as the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

As a sought-after opera conductor, he has also conducted productions at the Wiener and Bayerische Staatsoper, the Teatro Real in Madrid and the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and is regularly invited to Europe’s most prestigious festivals. Highlights of the current season include his debuts with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Bordeaux-Aquitaine and at Zürich Opera House with a new production of Offenbach’s rare opera ›Barkouff‹. In recent years, Rhorer and Le Cercle de l’Harmonie have initiated an innovative residency at the Grand Théâtre de Provence in Aix-en-Provence with an educational programme for new audiences. Jérémie Rhorer has been a regular guest at The Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen for years. Together they are currently working on a special Tchaikovsky cycle, which will be presented on tour in Germany and Europe this year and in the coming years.