Martin Helmchen has established himself as one of today’s most in-demand and sought-after pianists, characterised by the originality and intensity of his interpretations, alongside his excellent tonal sensitivity and technical abilities. As a soloist, he has performed in recent years with some of the world’s most renowned orchestras on this side and the other side of the Atlantic, including the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras, the Concertgebouworkest, the Orchestre de Paris as well as with the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the New York Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra. Martin Helmchen also enjoys regular collaborations with renowned conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Manfred Honeck, Andrew Manze or Paavo Järvi and many others.

Chamber music has a special significance for the pianist. Close chamber music partners include his wife Marie-Elisabeth Hecker, Julian Prégardien, Antje Weithaas, Carolin Widmann and Frank Peter Zimmermann, with whom Helmchen will perform at recitals this autumn in London, Luxembourg and Monaco. Further highlights of the 2022/23 season included concerts with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, with whom Helmchen presented three different projects. Martin Helmchen is also an exclusive artist with Alpha Classics. In 2020 he received the prestigious Gramophone Music Award for his recording of Ludwig van Beethoven’s complete piano concertos.

Jérémie Rhorer is one of the most versatile and intellectually challenging conductors of his generation. As founder and musical director of the orchestra Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, this French conductor is continuing artist-innovator tradition through his exploration of 18th and 19th century repertoire performed on historical instruments. He is also a renowned composer and winner of the Prix Pierre Cardin. For more than ten years, Jérémie Rhorer has developed a close relationship with the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, where he has conducted a wide range of standard, rarely performed and contemporary operas. Rhorer has also conducted major international orchestras such as the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

As a sought-after opera conductor, he has also conducted productions at the Wiener and Bayerische Staatsoper, the Teatro Real in Madrid and the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and is regularly invited to Europe’s most prestigious festivals. Highlights of the current season include his debuts with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Bordeaux-Aquitaine and at Zürich Opera House with a new production of Offenbach’s rare opera ›Barkouff‹. In recent years, Rhorer and Le Cercle de l’Harmonie have initiated an innovative residency at the Grand Théâtre de Provence in Aix-en-Provence with an educational programme for new audiences. Jérémie Rhorer has been a regular guest at The Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen for years. Together they are currently working on a special Tchaikovsky cycle, which will be presented on tour in Germany and Europe this year and in the coming years.