Born in St. Petersburg in 1972, Arcadi Volodos began his musical training studying voice and conducting and did not begin serious training at the piano until 1987 at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He pursued his studies further at the Moscow Conservatory Galina Egiazarova, then in Paris and Madrid.

His New York debut in 1996 marked the beginning of a meteoric career. Volodos has performed throughout the world in recital with many of the most eminent orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orkest Amsterdam, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. He has played under such conductors as Lorin Maazel, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, among others, and regularly appears in acclaimed piano recitals at major concert halls around the world. The beginning of the 2013/2014 season sees concerts with the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly in Leipzig, Vienna, London and Paris.

Arcadi Volodos’ boundless virtuosity along with his unique sense of phrasing, colour and poetry have made him a lyrical narrator of in-depth musical tales.

Estonian conductor and Grammy Award winner Paavo Järvi has been Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen since 2004. One of the many highlights of this collaboration has been the acclaimed, globally celebrated performances of the Beethoven cycle, for which Järvi received numerous awards including the ›Echo Klassik Conductor of the Year‹ award and the prestigious annual ›German Record Critics‹’ award. Their Beethoven project was followed by an intensive exploration of the symphonic works of Schumann and Brahms; both cycles also received numerous awards. Since autumn 2021, the focus has been on Joseph Haydn’s twelve London symphonies, and since 2024, an intensive exploration of Franz Schubert’s symphonies.

Paavo Järvi has been Music Director of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich since the start of the 2019/2020 season. He is also the founder and Artistic Director of the Estonian Festival Orchestra and the Pärnu Music Festival, which he established in 2011. He regularly appears as a guest conductor with major orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the London Philharmonia Orchestra, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 2015, he was named ›Artist of the Year‹ by both the British magazine Gramophone and the French magazine Diapason. This was followed in 2019 by the Opus Klassik award for ›Conductor of the Year‹. Other awards include a Grammy Award for his recording of Sibelius’ Cantatas with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and the title ›Commandeur de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres‹, awarded by the French Ministry of Culture. In 2015, Paavo Järvi also received the Sibelius Medal in recognition of his work in bringing this Finnish composer’s music to a wider audience, and in 2012 he received the Hindemith Prize for Art and Humanity. As a committed supporter of Estonian culture, Paavo Järvi was awarded the Order of the White Star by the President of Estonia in 2013.