Alexander Melnikov completed his studies with Lev Naumov at the Moscow Conservatory, concentrating even from a very early age on historical performance practice. Today, this Russian pianist performs regularly with renowned early music ensembles such as the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Musica Aeterna, the Academy for Ancient Music in Berlin and the Orchestre des Champs Elysées. He is equally a much sought after soloist with ensembles such as the Royal Concertgebouw, the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, the Philadelphia Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic and the NHK Symphony.  In addition, he has also worked with conductors such as Mikhail Pletnev, Paavo Järvi, Thomas Dausgaard and Valery Gergiev.

Melnikov‘s intensive involvement with chamber music is a vital facet of his work, typically with the cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras and his longtime duo partner Isabelle Faust. Their recording of the complete set of Beethoven violin sonatas, which has not only been nominated for a Grammy but which has also been awarded a Gramophone Award, is considered a reference recording. Melnikov’s recordings of Shostakovich’s op. 87 Preludes and Fugues have also been named by the BBC Music Magazine as one of the most important recordings of all time. Since 2017/18, Alexander Melnikov’s ›The Man with the Many Pianos‹ project has presented a programme played on various historical instruments and which reflects the styles of the respective periods. A highlight of the 2018/19 season is his residency at London’s Wigmore Hall.

With his compelling interpretations of Mozart, Jérémie Rhorer took the international music scene by storm almost twenty years ago. Since then, this French conductor and composer has successfully moved between opera and symphonic music. Rhorer was already performing at a high level as a child and went on to study conducting with Emil Tchakarov, Karajan’s renowned assistant, before finally finding his artistic calling whilst studying composition with Thierry Escaich.

Through Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, which he founded in 2005 and continues to lead to this day, Rhorer is regarded as one of the pioneers of historically informed performance practice for the Classical and Romantic repertoire, exploring a path stretching from Haydn and Mozart through Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms to Bruckner, and from Gluck and Berlioz to Verdi and Wagner –  always with the aim of reviving the timbres and theatricality, in keeping with the spirit of the work.

Guest engagements regularly take him to renowned orchestras worldwide as well as to Europe’s leading opera houses and festivals in Vienna, Amsterdam, Zurich, Brussels, Salzburg, Berlin, Madrid, Rome, Venice and Florence, with a repertoire expanding from Mozart to Schoenberg.

In 2025, Jérémie Rhorer received the Honor of Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture.

This sought-after conductor has been working closely with the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen for many years. Their current collaboration focuses on works by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.