His horn playing is a joy, according to ›BBC Music Magazine‹ and ›The Times‹ praises Ben Goldscheider as simply »superb«. This London-born horn player has performed recitals and concerts in major venues across Europe, from the Concertgebouw to Vienna’s Musikverein, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie and London’s Wigmore Hall. In 2022, this soloist made his BBC Proms concert debut with Kazuki Yamada and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He has also appeared as soloist with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Britten Sinfonia, the Royal Philharmonic, the Tapiola Sinfonietta and the Sinfonie Orchester Berlin. Ben Goldscheider is also a dedicated chamber musician and has worked with Daniel Barenboim, Martha Argerich, Sergei Babyan, Elena Bashkirova, Sunwook Kim and Michael Volle at festivals in Verbier, Salzburg, Jerusalem, Berlin and Buenos Aires.

Goldscheider is a member of the Boulez Ensemble and principal horn of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. He studied with with Radek Baborák at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin where he graduated in 2020 with distinction. In the 2023/24 season, several world premieres of newly commissioned works for horn are on his programme, including the Horn Concerto by Huw Watkins, which he will perform in his debut with the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen.

In recent years, Duncan Ward has established himself as one of the most exciting and versatile conductors of his generation, whose lively interpretations of the classical repertoire are praised as much as his interpretations of 20th century masterpieces. He has been chief conductor of the Philzuid (South Netherlands Philharmonic) since 2021. He also regularly conducts orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Finnish Radio Symphony and other renowned orchestras. His great passion for a very wide-ranging repertoire also leads to collaborations with ensembles for historical instruments such as Les Siècles or Balthasar Neumann as well as with specialists for contemporary music such as the Ensemble Modern or the Ensemble Intercontemporain.

The current season’s symphonic highlights include debuts with the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Osaka Philharmonic, Orchestre Symphonique du Quebec and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra. In 2022, the conductor made his North American debut at the Metropolitan Opera with Mozart’s ›Die Zauberflöte‹. Duncan Ward opened the 2024/25 season with a critically acclaimed debut at the English National Opera and a new production of Britten’s ›Turn of the Screw‹. Since his youth, this versatile musician has been involved in many international social projects, including in India and South Africa. He has maintained a close relationship with the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen for many years.