The violinist Lisa Batiashvili has been praised by critics, colleagues and audiences alike for her virtuosity and »profound sensitivity« (Financial Times). This award-winning musician has built close relationships with some of the world’s best orchestras, conductors and soloists. From 2019 until 2021 Batiashvili will be Artistic Director of the Audi Summer Concerts in Ingolstadt.

Highlights of the 2018/19 season include the concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Boston, Chicago and BBC Symphony Orchestras as well as tours with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Camerata Salzburg, the Accademia Nazionalie di Santa Cecilia and as part of a trio with Gautier Capuçon and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. This violinist has also thrilled audiences as Artist in Residence with the Munich-based Konzertdirektion Hörtnagel.

As a Deutsche Grammophon exclusive artist, Lisa Batiashvili has most recently released the album ›Visions of Prokofiev‹ with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, which was awarded the 2018 Opus Klassik Award and which has been nominated for the Gramophone Award 2018. Previous recordings include the violin concertos by Tchaikovsky and Sibelius with Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin.

Having studied with Ana Chumachenco and Mark Lubotsky, Lisa Batiashvili gained international recognition as the youngest participant to take part in the Sibelius Competition at 16 years of age.  She was named Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America in 2015, was named Gramophone’s Artist of the Year in 2017 and in 2018 received an honorary doctorate from the Sibelius Academy of the University of Arts in Helsinki.

Lisa Batiashvili plays a 1739 Joseph Guarneri ›del Gesu‹ violin, on generous loan from a private collector.

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.