Turkish pianist and composer Fazıl Say is one of a rare breed of exceptional musicians and crossover artists. He studied the piano in Ankara, Düsseldorf and Berlin. His talent as a composer was promoted early on by his first piano teacher Mithat Fenmen, who encouraged the young Fazıl Say to start his piano practice every day with improvisations on everyday themes.

His piano playing is characterized by virtuosity and temperament, wilfulness and assertiveness, as well as exceptional musicality and a broad musical horizon. His intensive interpretations can sometimes be rather unconventional. His composition style is influenced by a mix of classical and oriental music with elements of jazz.
Fazıl Say won first prize in the Young Concert Artists international auditions in New York. This led to engagements with all the major American and European orchestras and numerous renowned conductors, interpreting a broad repertoire of works ranging from Johann Sebastian Bach via the Classical and Romantic periods to contemporary music, including own compositions for the piano.

He has been ›Artist in Residence‹ at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Konzerthaus Berlin, at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, the Hamburger Elbphilharmonie concerts and the Paris Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.

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‹.