Lars Vogt has rapidly established himself as one of the leading pianists of his generation and is an internationally sought-after soloist and chamber musician. He first came to public attention when, aged 20, he won second prize at the 1990 Leeds International Piano Competition.

In recent years, Lars Vogt has enjoyed a rapid rise to fame internationally in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia, working with such conductors as Riccardo Chailly, Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph Eschenbach, Claudio Abbado, Kurt Masur, Sir Simon Rattle and Franz Welser-Möst. He has appeared at guest concerts for example with the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Orchestre de Paris, the London Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra as well as the orchestras in Cleveland, Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Lars Vogt’s versatility is reflected in his repertoire, which includes works from the Classical and Romantic periods, through to compositions from the 20th century. Apart from his career as a soloist, Mr Vogt continues to develop his new role as conductor. In 1998 he founded his own festival in Heimbach/Eifel. Known as ›Spannungen‹, this has become a major venue for high-profile chamber music concerts.

Estonian conductor and Grammy Award winner Paavo Järvi has been Artistic Director of The Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen, his only German orchestra, since 2004. One highlight of the collaboration were the celebrated concerts of the Beethoven cycle, which received critical acclaim worldwide. Järvi received numerous awards for the recordings, including the ›Echo Klassik‹ as ›Conductor of the Year‹ and the prestigious ›Annual Prize of the German Record Critics‹.

Following the Beethoven project, he and the orchestra tackled the symphonic works of Schumann and Brahms, which received similarly enthusiastic reviews. Paavo Järvi is also Principal Conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Advisor to the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and the Järvi Summer Festival in Pärnu, Estonia, and since 2019/20 Artistic Director of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. He regularly makes appearances as guest conductor with orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras, the Staatskappelle Dresden and the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago and the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra. In 2015, he was named ›Artist of the Year‹ by the renowned British magazine Gramophone and the French magazine Diapason. In 2019, he received the ›Opus Klassik‹ as ›Conductor of the Year‹.