As successful a composer as he is instrumentalist, Jörg Widmann is one of the most exciting artists of his generation. Trained at Juilliard School in New York, he frequently accepts invitations to perform with major orchestras around the world. As a soloist, he has worked with well-known conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Kent Nagano, Christoph Eschenbach and Christoph von Dohnanyi. In previous seasons he has played concerts with orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, NDR Radio Philharmonic Hanover and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Jörg Widmann is Artist in Residence at the National Symphony Orchestra Taiwan as clarinettist, conductor and composer in equal measure. His work is also a feature of the 2018/19 Orchestre de Paris season. His compositions have received many awards and have been performed by conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle with an array of orchestras; the Vienna and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras, the New York Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and many more. During the 2017/18 season, Jörg Widmann was, as Artist in Residence, the first Gewandhaus Composer in Leipzig’s history. He is also a much sought-after chamber musician. Musicians such as Sir András Schiff, Daniel Barenboim, Elisabeth Leonskaya, Mitsuko Uchida and the Hagen Quartet are all among is regular musical partners.

Born in Freiburg in 1983, David Afkham is in high demand as a guest conductor with some of the world’s finest orchestras and opera houses. He is currently in his fifth season as Principal Conductor of the National Orchestra of Spain. Recent and future guest conducting highlights include debuts with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Czech Philharmonic and returns to the Chicago Symphony, the Münchner Philharmoniker, the HR Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt and The Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen.

Afkham is much-admired for his concert performances of major opera works. Highlights in recent seasons have included Wagner‘s ›The Flying Dutchman‹, Strauss’ ›Elektra‹ and Bach’s ›St. Matthew’s Passion‹. In 2014, David Afkham made a noted opera debut with Verdi’s ›La Traviata‹ at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, later taking the production on tour through Great Britain and Ireland. In 2017, he conducted Ginastera‘s ›Bomarzo‹ at Teatro Real in Madrid in a production that received unanimous critical acclaim. Opera projects in the 2018/19 season include Humperdinck’s ›Hansel and Gretel‹ at the Frankfurt Opera and Wagner’s ›The Flying Dutchman‹ at the Stuttgart Opera. Afkham, who took up his studies at Freiburg’s University of Music aged just 15 and later graduated from the Liszt School of Music in Weimar, is also the recipient of a number of music prizes. He was the winner of the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition 2008 in London and in 2010 was the inaugural recipient of the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award.