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 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.