Combining liveliness with delicacy, Seong-Jin Cho’s piano playing is as colourful as it is virtuosic; his natural musicality and extraordinary talent distinguish him as an unmistakeable artist on the contemporary music scene. Born in 1994 in Seoul, he began learning the piano aged six and gave his first solo recital aged 11. In 2009 Seong-Jin Cho was the youngest prize-winner at the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan, winning third prize at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Piano Competition only two years later. He went on to study at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and achieved worldwide acclaim on winning the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 2015.

Now resident in Berlin, this young pianist gives concerts with some of the most well-known ensembles. Some of the highlights of his 2020/21 season include a re-invitation to the Berlin Philharmonic and his debut with the Munich Philharmonic. More recent and forthcoming highlights include concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony and the New York Philharmonic Orchestras. Seong-Jin Cho also gives guest appearances with his solo recitals in some of the world’s greatest concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Konzerthaus Wien as well as at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and the Rheingau Music Festival. Seong-Jin Cho is an exclusive artist with Deutsche Grammophon and his previously released albums have already received international acclaim from the critics. His latest album of Chopin’s 2nd Piano Concerto and the four Scherzos is due for release in August 2021.

Duncan Ward has been Chief Conductor of the Philzuid since 2021. Highlights of recent seasons have included his conducting engagements at the opening ceremony of the Salzburg Festival with the Mozarteum Orchestra which was broadcast live on television, his debut with the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. In autumn 2022, this British conductor gave his Metropolitan Opera debut with Mozart’s ›Die Zauberflöte‹. The season before, he gave his debut at the Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg with a new production of ›Così fan tutte‹. Duncan Ward will return to the London Symphony Orchestra for two projects in the 2023/24 season. Other symphonic highlights include collaborations with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and the Kammerakademie Potsdam.

Duncan Ward has a passion for a very broad repertoire and as well as working with period instrument specialists such as the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, he also enjoys working with contemporary music ensembles such as the Ensemble Intercontemporain. Duncan Ward has been closely associated with the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen for many years. For example, he conducted the orchestra at the Schleswig-Holstein and the Swiss Klosters Festivals in summer 2021. Ward has also been involved in many international social projects since his youth, including in India and South Africa.