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.

After being awarded first prize at the 2005 Leeds Conductors Competition, Alexander Shelley was acclaimed as »the most exciting and gifted young conductor to have taken this highly prestigious award«.

Previously, Shelley studied at the Royal College of Music and the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf, where he founded the ›Schumann Camerata‹ orchestra with great success.

Since winning the Leeds competition, he has been in demand from orchestras around the world including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra Caracas, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (HR), the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Houston Symphony Orchestra. In 2009, Alexander Shelley was appointed General Music Director of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, where he has celebrated significant successes in Nuremberg and touring.

In Germany, Alexander Shelley enjoys a close relationship with The Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen. Since 2007, he has conducted the annual ›Community Opera‹ in Osterholz-Tenever, and has been Artistic Director of The Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen’s ›Future Lab‹ since 2009. He is also a regular and popular guest at the subscription series in the Glocke Bremen.

Most recently he conducted the Kammer­philharmonie at the final concert of the ›Tonali 13‹ competition in Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle.