Turkish pianist and composer Fazıl Say is one of a rare breed of exceptional musicians and crossover artists. He studied the piano in Ankara, Düsseldorf and Berlin. His talent as a composer was promoted early on by his first piano teacher Mithat Fenmen, who encouraged the young Fazıl Say to start his piano practice every day with improvisations on everyday themes.

His piano playing is characterised by virtuosity and temperament, wilfulness and assertiveness, as well as exceptional musicality and a broad musical horizon. His intensive interpretations can sometimes be rather unconventional. His composition style is influenced by a mix of classical and oriental music with elements of jazz.
Fazıl Say won first prize in the ›Young Concert Artists‹ international auditions in New York. This led to engagements with all the major American and European orchestras and numerous renowned conductors, interpreting a broad repertoire of works ranging from Johann Sebastian Bach via the Classical and Romantic periods to contemporary music, including own compositions for the piano.

He has been ›artist in residence‹ at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Konzerthaus Berlin, at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, the Hamburger Elbphilharmonie concerts and the Paris Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.

The Mexican conductor Alondra de la Parra owes her international breakthrough to her rousing concerts and her commitment to music by Latin American composers. She is the official cultural ambassador of her homeland Mexico and to date has conducted over one hundred of the world’s most renowned orchestras, including the Orchestre de Paris, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphoniker and the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich. Between 2017 and 2019, Alondra de la Parra was also General Music Director of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, making her the first ever female chief conductor of an Australian orchestra.

She became known to a wide audience due to her many live concert broadcasts and appearances, in particular through the web and television editions of the Deutsche Welle’s ›Musica Maestra‹ in which Alondra de la Parra was not only a protagonist but also appeared as the reporter. In the 2019/20 season, the concert she conducted in the Frauenkirche with the Staatskapelle Dresden was broadcast on ZDF, as indeed was her celebrated return to the Orchestre de Paris, which was broadcast live on ARTE. Further highlights of the last season include a world premiere of the new production about Carlus Padrissa – T.H.A.M.O.S. – at the Salzburg Mozart Week, together with the Camerata Salzburg and the Catalan theatre group La Fura dels Baus, as well as her debut at the Easter Festival in Aix-ex-Provence.

This artist has enjoyed a close and regular working relationship with the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen for many years.