Alon Kariv was born in 1999 and began taking piano lessons at the age of seven. Now a graduate of Tel Aviv University and the Juilliard School in New York, he has won numerous awards. In 2025, he was the winner of the ‘KlavierOlymp’ at the Kissinger Sommer international music festival – a milestone for this musician given that this prestigious competition selects only six of the world’s finest young pianists individually, all of whom must already have won prizes at other major competitions.

Despite his young age, Alon Kariv has already performed on numerous international stages with renowned orchestras including the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. In the USA, he has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall in New York and Lincoln Centre; in Europe, he has toured the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Poland and Slovenia. Conductors who have invited this young pianist to perform include Zubin Mehta, Ivor Bolton and Karl-Heinz Steffens, amongst many others. This season, Alon Kariv made his debut with Avner Biron conducting the Israel Camerata Jerusalem and toured Eastern Europe with Julian Rachlin and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.

David Danzmayr is now in his fifth season as Music Director of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra. In addition, this conductor is also Music Director of the innovative ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, which is made up of musicians from across the United States. He also works regularly with the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra which he led as principal conductor from 2016 to 2019. Among the highlights of his tenure were several European tours including concerts at the Musikverein Wien and the renowned New Year’s Concert at the Festspielhalle in Salzburg.

Danzmayr has already appeared as a guest conductor throughout North America. His most recent and forthcoming engagements include the symphony orchestras of Seattle, St Louis, Atlanta, Vancouver and Dallas, as well as the orchestras of Detroit, Baltimore, Houston and San Diego. In Europe, he maintains ties with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Sinfonieorchester Basel and the Mozarteum Orchestra, as well as with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. This conductor also works regularly with the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen with whom he will undertake a summer festival tour in 2026.