»A young cellist whose emotionally resonant performances of both traditional and contemporary music have earned her international recognition… Weilerstein is a consummate performer, combining technical precision with impassioned musicianship,« stated the MacArthur Foundation, when awarding American cellist Alisa Weilerstein a 2011 MacArthur Fellowship. Her debut recording of the Elgar and Elliott Carter cello concertos with Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin was named BBC Music magazine’s ›Recording of the Year 2013‹.

The American-born cellist Alisa Weilerstein has attracted attention worldwide for her natural virtuosity, intensity of her playing and the spontaneity and sensitivity of her interpretations. In 2010, she was invited by Daniel Barenboim and the Berlin Philharmonic to play the Elgar concerto in the orchestra’s annual Europakonzert which that year took place in Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre. She has appeared with all of the major orchestras throughout the United States and Europe with conductors including Gustavo Dudamel, Christoph Eschenbach, Paavo Järvi, Zubin Mehta, Yuri Temirkanov and Semyon Bychkov. She has also appeared at major music festivals throughout the world as a soloist, recitalist and as a chamber musician.

Weilerstein, whose honours include Lincoln Center’s 2008 Martin E. Segal Prize and the 2006 Leonard Bernstein Award, is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music and Columbia University.

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 was the Beethoven cycle, acclaimed worldwide by audiences and critics alike, 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. From autumn 2021, the focus was on Joseph Haydn’s twelve London symphonies, and since 2024, an intensive exploration of Franz Schubert’s symphonies.

Järvi has been Music Director of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich since the start of the 2019/20 season. He is also the founder and Artistic Director of the Estonian Festival Orchestra and the Pärnu Music Festival. From the 2028/29 season, Järvi will take up the post of Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor to the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He also regularly appears as a guest conductor with leading orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic, 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.