The ›New York Times‹ describes him as »the hottest artist on the classical music planet«. There is no doubt that this Chinese-born pianist is one of the most outstanding classical musicians worldwide.

As pianist, pedagogue and philanthropist, he is also an engaged ambassador for the arts in the 21st century who, on the one hand performs concerts for audiences of millions – such as at the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony or sell-out concerts in international concert halls – and on the other, performing for a few hundred children in public schools. In addition to his long-standing partnerships with the world’s finest orchestras and conductors, Lang Lang always seeks out exchanges with artists of other genres – exemplified by performances with Metallica at the Grammy Awards or with jazz titan Herbie Hancock. Lang Lang’s boundless drive to win new audiences for classical music has earned him enormous recognition, also in the form of many awards.

For many years, Lang Lang has also made a capacious contribution to children’s musical education. For example, with the ›Lang Lang International Music Foundation‹, founded in 2008 and whose goal it is to train the top pianists of the future and inspire young people to discover classical music. In 2013, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon appointed Lang Lang as UN Peace Envoy, to promote education worldwide. Lang Lang himself began learning the piano aged 3. As a teenager, he studied in the USA. He became an overnight star when, aged only 17, he stepped in at the last minute at the  ›Gala of the Century‹ and performed Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto. Lang Lang gave his debut performance with the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen in 2016. This year’s concert with the star pianist is part of a small joint tour the artist and the orchestra are undertaking.

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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 has been the acclaimed, globally celebrated performances of the Beethoven cycle, 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. Since autumn 2021, the focus has been on Joseph Haydn’s twelve London symphonies, and since 2024, an intensive exploration of Franz Schubert’s symphonies.

Paavo Järvi has been Music Director of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich since the start of the 2019/2020 season. He is also the founder and Artistic Director of the Estonian Festival Orchestra and the Pärnu Music Festival, which he established in 2011. He regularly appears as a guest conductor with major orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the London Philharmonia Orchestra, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras 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.