Paul Lewis is internationally regarded as one of the leading musicians of his generation. His numerous awards have included the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year, three Gramophone awards, the Diapason D’or de l’Annee, and the Preis Der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. He has been awarded honorary degrees by Southampton and Edge Hill Universities, and was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2016.

He performs regularly as soloist with the world’s great orchestras, including the Boston Symphony, London Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Royal Concertgebouw, in collaboration with such conductors as Sir Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Harding and Paavo Järvi. He is also a frequent guest at the world’s most prestigious festivals, including Lucerne, Mostly Mozart (New York), Tanglewood, Salzburg, Edinburgh, and London’s BBC Proms.

Paul Lewis studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London before going on to study privately with Alfred Brendel. In October 2015, he was appointed joint Artistic Director of the Leeds International Piano Competition.

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.