Omer Meir Wellber is one of the leading conductors of opera and concert repertoire. Since the 2025/26 season, he has been General Music Director of the Hamburger Staatsoper and the Hamburg Philharmonisches Staatsorchester. To mark the start of his tenure, he staged Schumann’s ›Das Paradies und die Peri‹ in collaboration with director Tobias Kratzer. The programmes with the Hamburg Philharmonisches Staatsorchester centre on the ‘»multi-faceted idea of a play«, complemented by ›Die Blaue Woche‹ festival; six chamber concerts and ten philharmonic concerts into which contemporary commissioned works are woven. Until 2024, Wellber was Music Director of the Teatro Massimo Palermo where he was awarded the Special Prize of the Italian Association of Music Critics. Prior to that, he was Music Director of the Volksoper Wien, Principal Guest Conductor of the Semperoper Dresden and Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, where he conducted at the BBC Proms, among other engagements.

In 2022, Wellber was the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival’s featured artist, appearing there both as a conductor and as a performer on the accordion, harpsichord and piano. He regularly works with renowned orchestras such as the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Wiener Symohoniker and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. This conductor has enjoyed a close artistic friendship with the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen for many years, as well as an intensive collaboration on numerous joint projects. He has toured with the orchestra on several occasions, including at the Rheingau Music Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Festival Internacional Santander in Spain and various others.

Through his uniquely captivating performances, Rolando Villazón has firmly established himself as one of the most celebrated and popular singing stars in the music world and one of the leading artistic voices of our time. The tenor first appeared on the international music scene in 1999 as the winner of several prizes at Plácido Domingo’s Operalia competition. In the same year, he made his European debut as Des Grieux in Massenet’s ›Manon‹ in Genoa. Since then, this singer has appeared as a star guest in almost all leading opera houses and concert halls as well as at festivals around the world. He is also a successful director, novelist, artistic director and TV/radio personality and hosts a daily programme on KlassikRadio Deutschland.

Most recently, this singer celebrated his debut as the title character in Mozart’s ›Idomeneo‹ in David McVicar’s production at the Staatsoper Berlin under the direction of Alessandro de Marchi. On the concert stage, Rolando Villazón and the lautten compagney BERLIN will present their new concert programme this season at the Merano Festival, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Dresden Music Festival, in Salzburg and at many other venues. As Artistic Director of the International Mozarteum Foundation, Rolando Villazón continues to curate the programmes of the seasonal concerts and the internationally acclaimed Mozart Week and takes the festival on tour to Colombia. Rolando Villazón has been an exclusive artist with Deutsche Grammophon since 2007 and has sold over 2 million albums worldwide and which have been honoured with numerous awards. At the beginning of 2017, he was appointed Ambassador of the Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg, where he currently also serves as Artistic Director.

The South African soprano Golda Schultz is internationally recognised as one of the most talented and versatile artists on the classical music scene. As a radiant stage personality, this singer is equally at home in leading opera roles and as a soloist with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors. Trained at the Juilliard School in New York and in the opera studio of the Bayerischen Staatsoper, Golda Schultz now enjoys great success on both sides of the Atlantic and impresses with her captivating charisma at the Salzburg Festival as well as at the Metropolitan Opera, the Wiener Staatsoper and the Glyndebourne Festival Opera.

Opera highlights of the 2024/25 season include her role as Anne Trulove in ›The Rake’s Progress‹ at the Opéra National de Paris and Contessa Almaviva at the Bayerischen Staatsoper, as Agathe in ›Der Freischütz‹ at the Semperoper Dresden and as Pamina at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Her most recent appearances on the concert stage include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Andris Nelsons and the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with Gianandrea Noseda and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and many more. Concert highlights included her return to the BBC Proms for Fauré’s Requiem with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Stéphane Denève as well as Strauss’ ›Vier letzte Lieder‹ with Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. Golda Schultz and pianist Jonathan Ware have performed together as acclaimed concert partners at venues including the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, London’s Wigmore Hall and the festivals in Edinburgh, Aix-en-Provence and Lucerne.

French baritone Ludovic Tézier is one of the world’s leading singers in his field. After studying in Marseille and Paris, he enjoyed his first successes in Lucerne, Toulouse and Lyon, from where his international career took off. Since then, he has made regular guest appearances on the world’s major stages – from the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Wiener Staatsoper to the Opéra National de Paris, La Scala in Milan and the Royal Opera House – as well as at the Salzburg Easter and Summer Festivals, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Chorégies d’Orange, the Savonlinna Opera Festival and the Arena di Verona Opera Festival.

Ludovic Tézier is known for his interpretation of the great Verdi roles such as Macbeth, Rigoletto, Simon Boccanegra and Renato, to name but a few. He also has an extensive repertoire, which includes the title roles of Hamlet and Eugene Onegin as well as the roles of the Conte in ›Le Nozze di Figaro‹, Wolfram in ›Tannhäuser‹, and Barnaba in ›La Giocondo‹, and many more. In addition to his busy schedule on the major opera stages, Ludovic Tézier is also a much sought-after concert singer and performs with leading international orchestras. He regularly gives recitals in which he devotes himself primarily to French and German lieder.