Thomas Hampson, America’s foremost baritone, has received international honors for his artistry and cultural leadership. Long recognized as one of the most innovative musicians of our time, his operatic repertoire is over 80 roles, and his discography comprises more than 170 albums, including multiple nominations and winners of the Grammy Award, Edison Award, and the Grand Prix du Disque. This season, Thomas makes highly anticipated role debut as Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, under the baton of Zubin Mehta. In future seasons, he will create the role of Jan Vermeer in the world premiere of Stefan Wirth’s Girl with a Pearl Earring at Opernhaus Zürich.

Notable engagements on the concert stage include opening the Oslo Philharmonic’s season in August 2020 with their new Chief Conductor, Klaus Mäkela. At the Pierre Boulez Saal, he returns as Artistic Curator for the ›Schubert Week‹ with the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin. Hampson also debuts a new series part of his long-term project ›Song of America‹ entitled ›A Celebration of Black Music.‹ The three-concert series features Hampson and numerous guest singers performing songs and works largely by black American composers as part of the digital Hamburg International Music Festival.

Kristjan Järvi was born in Tallinn, Estonia. He emigrated to the United States as a child and grew up in New York City. He graduated from Manhattan School of Music as a pianist followed by undertaking conducting studies at the University of Michigan. He began his career as Assistant Conductor to Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Järvi is renowned worldwide for inventive programming and cross-cultural/cross-genre repertoire. Kristjan Järvi holds four principle engagements, including Music Director of the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra; Chief Conductor Gstaad Festival Orchestra; Founder and Music Director Absolute Ensemble; and Founding Conductor Baltic Youth Philharmonic.

Kristjan Järvi has ongoing guest conducting engagements with the London Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Bayerische Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, NHK Symphony Japan among many others.

As a recording artist Järvi has more than 30 albums to his credit. He has been honored with a Swedish Grammy for ›Best Opera Performance‹, German Record Critics Prize for ›Best Album‹, a Grammy nomination and a BBC Record Award nomination.