The Lithuanian accordion superstar Martynas Levickis transcends entrenched conventions and clichés as an international figure on the classical music scene. He is characterised by his extraordinary ability to keep his finger on the pulse – and not just in music. In addition to his internationally acclaimed virtuosity, he is a visionary: preserving as well as reinterpreting the accordion and its traditions.

During his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London, he won the television programme ›Lithuania´s Got Talent‹ (2010) and, later the same year, the Coupe Mondial. This was followed by his debut album ›Martynas‹ on decca and, in 2023, he won the OPUS KLASSIK as ›Instrumentalist of the Year‹ for his album ›Autograph‹ (accentus). Engagements have taken him from Asia to Europe and the USA. He takes great pleasure in working with musical partners such as Iveta Apkalna, Benjamin Appl, Andris Nelsons, the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the Stuttgart Kammer Orchester. He regularly fills stadiums in the Baltic States with his very own Mikroorkéstra.

The ARTE film ›Martynas Levickis und das Akkordeon‹ was broadcast in 2024.

Audiences were treated to a sensation when he wowed them at the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen’s open-air summer festival ›Summer in Lesmona‹.

Omer Meir Wellber is one of the leading conductors of opera and orchestral repertoire. He is music director of the Teatro Massimo Palermo and a regular guest conductor with renowned orchestras such as the Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Wiener Symphoniker, the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich and many others. From the 2025/26 season, he will become Hamburg’s General Music Director of the Philharmonische Staatsorchester and General Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Hamburgischer Staatsoper.

From 2018 to 2022, Omer Meir Wellber was Principal Guest Conductor at the Semperoper Dresden. Highlights of his time as Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic from 2019 to 2022 included concerts at the BBC Proms. In 2022, Wellber was the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival’s portrait artist, where he performed on the conductor’s podium as well as on the accordion, harpsichord and piano. In addition to his many international engagements, Wellber continues to maintain close ties with ensembles in his native Israel, for example as Music Director of the Raanana Symphonette, with which he is particularly committed to music education. As well as conducting, he is also active as a writer. His novel ›Die vier Ohnmachten des Chaim Birkner‹ was published in autumn 2019. Wellber has already toured with the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen on several occasions.