The youngest ever winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition, Akiko Suwanai enjoys a prestigious international career performing in concert and recital in the major cities of Europe, North America and Asia. Recent highlights include performances with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the NHK Symphony Orchestra. Recently she has toured with the NDR Sinfonieorchester (under Christoph von Dohnányi), the London Symphony Orchestra (under Valery Gergiev), the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (under Claus Peter Flor), The Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen and the Orchestre de Paris (under Paavo Järvi). Akiko also collaborates with renowned conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Andrew Davis, Lorin Maazel, David Robertson, Susanna Mälkki, Neeme Järvi, Sakari Oramo and Seiji Ozawa.

Akiko Suwanai studied at the Toho Gakuen School of Music with Toshiya Eto, at the Columbia University and the Juilliard School of Music with Dorothy DeLay and Cho-Liang Lin, and also at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin with Uwe-Martin Haiberg.

Suwanai has a broad repertoire ranging from Bach to contemporary composers. Her extensive discography with Universal Music has garnered much critical acclaim. Her latest CD entitled ›Emotion‹ was recorded with pianist Itamar Golan. She has won numerous prizes and awards, such as the International Paganini Competition in Italy, the International Japan Competition and the Queen Elisabeth International Competition in Belgium. Since the end of 2012, Akiko Suwanai has been Artistic Director of the NIPPON International Music Festival.

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.