In 1972 he graduated with top honors from Toho Gakuen School of Music, and was awarded First Prize at the Mainichi Music Competition. He enrolled the following year at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, and began touring places like Europe and Japan as a member of Collegium Aureum. In 1975, he graduated from the conservatory with the Premier Prix, and won First Prize in the flauto traverso category at the Bruges International Music Competition. Entering Holland's Royal Conservatory of Music in the Hague in 1977, he graduated in six months with a high honors soloist diploma. His collaborations are varied and international, including soloist performances in the Japanese concerts of Frans Bruggen leading the Orchestra of the 18th Century, the Kuijken Brothers, and Trevor Pinnock's English Concert; as well as in chamber music concerts with Trevor Pinnock and Rachel Podger (1999 and 2001). He is highly regarded not only for his musicianship but also for his scholarship, and he has been invited by the Bach Archive Leipzig to give lectures and seminars in addition to concerts. 

His work as a flutist within Japan is also quite distinguished, and he takes part in many recitals, ambitious concerts, programs, and chamber series. Arita is best know for his mastery of many different incarnations of the flute, as it has changed over the course of the 400 years since the Renaissance.
 
Also active as a conductor, he leads the Tokyo Bach-Mozart Orchestra, a group he founded in 1989 and conducted in their debut concert. He received attention with the same orchestra in 2006 for commemorating the 25th anniversary of Mozart's birth by both conducting and performing in an ambitious program featuring all of the composer's works for flute and orchestra presented in one evening. He affected the group's further evolution in 2009, remaking them as the first Japanese original instruments group focused on Romantic music, under the name "Classical Players Tokyo". He is dedicated to crossing the boundaries between period instruments and modern instruments, tireless in his search for new musical directions. His guest conducting engagements include the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, the Kyoto Chamber Orchestra, and the Kitakyushu Hall Ensemble .

His 1985 release Flute Music of the German Baroque (UCCA-3160) was awarded the Art Work Prize of the Agency for Cultural Affairs and also received Record Academy prizes in two separate categories. His album La Flute de Pan (COCQ-83281?83282) won top prize of the Agency for Cultural Affairs in 1999. Other releases include Trance Century (CD:AVCL-25004、DVD AUDIO:AVAL-25404), and many other compact discs on Archiv, Denon Ariale, and avex-CLASSICS. He received wide acclaim for his 2009 release of an album of Bach flute sonatas, performed on a modern flute. His most recent recording is of Chopin's Piano Concertos No. 1 and No. 2 with Ikuyo Nakamichi and the Classical Players Tokyo.

In 1989 he received the 21st Suntory Music Award.

He is a professor, and the Director of Period Music Research  at Showa Academia Musicae, Distinguished Professor  at Toho Gakuen School of Music, and Music Director of the 18th Century Music Festival Association's Early Music Festival in Fukuoka.

     Ayako Takagi was born in Toyota City in Aichi prefecture, Japan. She started playing the piano at the age of three and the flute at the age of eight. She studied at The Music High School attached to The Faculty of Music,Tokyo University of the Arts,  and subsequently at Tokyo University of the Arts, where she concluded an undergraduate and a master program. She studied flute under, Chie Nishimura, Kazuyoshi Hashimoto,  Gerard Noack、Tetsuya Kosaka、Narumi Murakami、Chang-Kook Kim、Paul Meisen and studied chamber music under Koji Ozaki.

  Her talent has been highly appreciated since her student days, winning her numerous contests and awards: 1st place, Mainichi National Music Contest for Students hosted by the Mainichi Newspaper (1995); "Encouragement Award", Kobe International Flute Contest (1997); a scholarship from NTT Docomo during her college days winning her "Antaku Award" (1997); winner, Takarazuka Vega Contest (1999); winner and "Audience Award", Japan Flute Convention Contest (1999); 1st place (flute division) and "Special Award", 17th Japan Wind Instrument Contest (2000); 1st place (flute division), 70th Japan Music Contest (2001); "Fresh Artist Award", Nippon Steel Corporation Music Award (2001); 3rd place, Jean-Pierre Rampal International Flute Contest (2005); 3rd place, the Kobe International Flute Contest (2005).

    On the other hand, she started performing professionally while still in college. She has performed with principal orchestras in Japan, along with "I Solisti Filarmonici Italiani", "Stuttgarter Kammerorchester", "Ensemble Archi di Milano", "St.Petersburg Academic Symphony Orchestra ", "Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra". In the autumn of 2004, she made her first debut in Paris, performing with "Ensemble orchestral de Paris". Her Japanese tour following the event also marked a success, along with numerous recitals and chamber music she performed actively in various locations.  In 2010, marking her 10th year anniversary, she performed in commemorative recitals in the fall.

     Ayako Takagi's recording career is also active, making her first CD debut in March 2003, releasing both "Sicilian Flute Masterpiece collection", "Plays YUMING on Flute" contemporaneously. Subsequently she released "Gentle Dreams ? Flute Music of the 20th Century" and "I Need To Be In Love ~ plays Carpenters" together, followed by "Southern Thoughts", a collection of South American pieces from classics to Bossa nova; "Air Blue ? A Blue Margin", a collection of flute solos from the 17th century  to contemporary music; "Italia", the first concerto album performed with the Solisti Filarmonici Italiani recorded in Italy; "Earth", a collection of masterpieces for flute with themes centering on earth,  nature and breath of life; "To the Sea", a duo album with the guitarist, Shinichi Fukuda. Her Cd's have been highly appreciated as well as leaving excellent sales results. In 2010, commemorating her 10th anniversary, she released "The Best" (Columbia Japan), and "Mozart: Concertos for Flute and Orchestra" (Avex Classics), which are being very well received.

Currently she is a lecturer at the Tokyo University of the Arts and a part-time lecturer at Musashino Academia Musicae , Nihon University College of Arts.

The desire by the renowned Berlin critic Frederik Hansen of the 'Tagesspiegel' in 2008 came true: "The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra has been bereaved of one of their most remarkable instrumentalists ? the music world has won a Maestro burning for action. We hope to hear from him again soon!" Indeed, Karl-Heinz Steffens conducting career has developed at remarkable speed. He has already been re-invited by orchestras like Bamberg Symphony, the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Berlin (RSB), Cologne (WDR), Frankfurt (HR) and Leipzig (MDR) and Dresden Philharmonic and gave his debuts with the Munich Philharmonic, Dusseldorf Symphony, Bochum Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, Orchestre National de Belgique, St. Petersburg Symphony and Jerusalem Symphony.

Invitations will also take him to the Bayerisches Staatsorchester Munchen (to one of their rare concerts as one of only four conductors aside Kent Nagano and Zubin Mehta), Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg, Bern Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra Taiwan and NHK Symphony Tokyo.

Daniel Barenboim invited Karl-Heinz Steffens to give his official debut at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin in September 2008 with FIDELIO which resulted in re-invitations for TOSCA in 2009/10 and for TRAVIATA in 2010/11. Barenboim himself appeared as soloist with the Staatskapelle Halle in October 2008, conducted by Steffens. Upon initiation by Steffens, Hansgunther Heyme will stage a new RING between 2010-2013 in Halle and in Ludwigshafen, culminating in a complete cycle in both cities in 2013, conducted all by Steffens.

Already with substantial experience in the operatic field, his engagements include Tosca on the Seebuhne, Benedict Mason's Playing Away and the Austrian premiere of Weinberg's Das Portrait at the Bregenzer Festspiele; Die Fledermaus at the Volksoper Wien; La Traviata and Le Nozze di Figaro at Theater Meiningen; Carmen in Varna, Bulgaria; the world premiere of Akos Banlaky's Prinz, Held und Fuchsin in Vienna; and the Czech premiere of Michael Jarrell's Cassandra at the Brno National Theatre.

Orchestras he has worked with include the BBC Symphony and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestras; the Basel, Kyoto, Sapporo, Norrlandsoperan, Tyrolean and Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestras; the Graz, Zagreb and Jena Philharmonic Orchestras; and the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Century Orchestra Osaka and Bamberger Symphoniker. Upcoming engagements include a return to Japan for debuts with the Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagoya Symphony orchestras as well as a return visit to the Tonkunstlerorchester.

Born in 1981, he studied piano and clarinet before taking conducting lessons with Michail Angelov. He was accepted to Leopold Hager's class at the Universitat fur Musik in Vienna at the age of 18 and soon came to the attention of Seiji Ozawa who invited him to the Tanglewood Music Festival. He subsequently acted as his assistant in Vienna. He conducted the ORF-Sinfonieorchester upon graduation and went on to become Assistant Conductor of the Tonkunstlerorchester, a post he held until 2009.

Rossen Gergov is a Laureate of the first Evgeny Svetlanov International Conducting Competition (held by the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra) in May 2007. His recording of works by David Chesky with the Symphony Orchestra of the Norrlandsoperan was nominated for a Grammy in 2008 and he has also recorded for the BBC, the Bayerische Rundfunk and the ORF in Austria.

Conductor Alondra de la Parra has gained widespread attention for her spellbinding and vibrant performances, making her one of the most compelling conductors of her generation. She holds the distinction of being the first Mexican woman to conduct in New York City, and is an official Cultural Ambassador for Mexican Tourism. She has been heralded by Plácido Domingo as "an extraordinary conductor. Upcoming highlights include performances with the Grosses Orchester Graz, Tokyo Philharmonic, the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, MDR Leipzig and Orchestre National de Lyon. She has recently been named Music Director of the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra.

"De la Parra's conducting style must be seen to be believed," raved the San Antonio News Express. "Her electric, precise and energetic fluidity generated arches of breathtaking, glowing expression. The driving Beethoven rhythms pulled the audience to its feet at the end. If people still wore hats, they would have been tossed toward the theater's night-sky ceiling."

Born in New York City in 1980, De la Parra moved to Mexico with her parents at age two. She began playing the piano at age seven and the cello at 13, and it was that year that she decided she wanted to be a conductor. At 15, she went to boarding school in England to study music and achieved her A-levels there. After returning to Mexico, she studied composition at Centro De Investigación y Estudios Musicales (Center of Music Studies, CIEM) in Mexico City before moving to New York City at age 19, and attending the Manhattan School of Music where she studied piano with Jeffrey Cohen and conducting with Kenneth Kiesler.

Alondra de la Parra founded the New York-based Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas (POA) in 2004 when she was 23. Her mission was to create an orchestra that would serve as a platform to showcase young performers and composers from the Americas, giving music from the Americas an unquestioned place in the standard orchestral repertoire. POA has been a remarkable success story, and now tours Mexico frequently, presents an annual concert season in New York City, and has its summer home at the Music Festival of the Americas in Stowe, Vermont. In 2010, De la Parra and POA performed during Mexico's national celebration of the country's Bicentennial at the Columna a la Independencia (El Ángel). The celebration was attended by hundreds of thousands and broadcast internationally to an estimated 200 million households around the world.

De la Parra's debut recording Mi Alma Mexicana ("My Mexican Soul") with POA was released by Sony Classical in 2010. The 2-CD set celebrates the 2010 Mexican Bicentennial with 200 years of Mexican orchestral music, some of it never before commercially available. The disc was among the top 10 on the US Billboard Classical Chart when it was released, and in Mexico earned "Disco de Platino " (Platinum Record) status in less than two months - a first for a classical recording in Mexico in more than a decade. .

Over just the past five years De la Parra has been featured on NBC's Today Show, in Crain's New York Business as one of their "40 under 40 New York's Rising Stars," singled out in The Daily Beast as one of the "Young Rockstars of the Conducting World," graced the cover of Caras magazine, been the subject of a major feature in The New York Times, recognized by Poder magazine as one of their "Top 20 under 40," and named as one of six "Young Artists on the Rise" in Symphony magazine.

Frequently in demand as a guest conductor, Alondra de la Parra has led the symphony orchestras of Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, Phoenix, Columbus, San Antonio, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Miami's New World Symphony, Canada's Edmonton Symphony, Germany's Kammerakademie Potsdam, Moritzburg Festival Orchestra and Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, Denmark's Tivoli Symphony, the Russian National Orchestra, Brazil's Sao Paulo Symphony, the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de Mexico, Mexico's Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa and Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional, Venezuela's Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra, the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Aguascalientes, Uruguay's Montevideo Philharmonic, the Singapore Sun Festival Orchestra where she collaborated with actor Geoffrey Rush, and the Washington National Opera in a gala concert with Plácido Domingo. In addition, since 2005 she has been Music Director of the Music Festival of the Americas in Stowe, Vermont.

Alondra de la Parra makes her home in Mexico City. She holds a B.A. in piano performance and an M.M. in conducting from the Manhattan School of Music.

Douglas Bostock has established himself as a conductor with a distinctive style, a great communicator and leading exponent of Carl Nielsen's orchestral works. Whilst commanding a wide repertoire his interpretation of British and Czech music has received particular recognition. His fresh and historically informed approach to the Viennese Classical style has been praised by critics, orchestras and audiences alike. Douglas Bostock is also an avid champion of contemporary music and is often involved in collaboration with composers and premiere performances.

Residing in Germany, guest conducting engagements in the UK include the BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the London Philharmonic, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, and Royal Scottish National Orchestras. Bostock has appeared in most European countries and has conducted e.g. the Prague Symphony, Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, Brno State Orchestra, Staatsphilharmonie Halle, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, North Germany Philharmonic, Erfurter Philharmonie, Jenaer Philharmonie, the Odense, Alborg, Arhus and South Jutland Symphony Orchestras, as well as extensively with leading orchestras in the USA, Canada and Mexico. In Japan guest conducting engagements have taken him to the New Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo City Symphony, Kanagawa Philharmonic, Geidai Philharmonia and Gunma Symphony.

Douglas Bostock enjoys working with young musicians and is frequently invited to conduct and teach at colleges in Europe and Asia, e.g. Royal Northern College of Music, Royal Danish Academy of Music and Musikhochschule Zurich. He is Visiting Professor at the National University Arts (Geidai), Tokyo and Senzoku Gakuen College of Music in Japan.

A prolific recording artist, Douglas Bostock has almost 80 CDs to his name, reflecting his diverse expertise in music of all styles, and including many previously less well-known and previously unrecorded works. His major recording cycles of the complete orchestral music of Carl Nielsen and the symphonies of Robert Schumann on Classico have won particular international acclaim. The British Symphonic Collection on Classico is another ongoing recording project that has attracted the attention of critics and music lovers all over the world.

Principal Conductor, ORCHESTRA SINFONICA DI MILANO "G. VERDI"

With an extraordinarily diverse repertoire, innovative programming and charismatic performance style, John Axelrod continues to increase his profile as one of today's leading conductors and is sought after by orchestras throughout the world.

After a successful five-year tenure as Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and Theater, and the election as Music Director of the l'Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire (ONPL), based in Nantes and Angers with more than 10,000 subscribers, in April 2011 John Axelrod was appointed Principal Conductor of Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano "G.Verdi", beginning with the 2011-2012 season for a minimum three-years commitment.

In 2009, John Axelrod was named Music Director of the "Hollywood in Vienna" Film Music Gala Concert with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna. Performed every year in the Vienna Konzerthaus, the red carpet concert event and symposium honours the contribution of Vienna's composers to the development of the Hollywood Sound and celebrates the many composers who have been influenced by that legacy.

Since 2000, John Axelrod has conducted over 130 orchestras, most of which include multiple repeat engagements, emphasizing both his success and European credibility in the core classical repertoire.  Such prestigious European orchestras include Berlin's Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester, NDR Hamburg Symphony, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Dresdner Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de Lyon, Royal Philharmonic of London, London Philharmonic, London Philharmonia Orchestra, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI of Turin, Orchestra Filarmonica del Teatro La Fenice, Orchestra del Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Danish National Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Gulbenkian Symphony Libson, Radio Symphonie Orchester in Vienna, Salzburg Mozarteum, and Sinfonia Varsovia, among many others.   His international profile as guest conductor in the U.S. and Asia features engagements with the Washington National Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic (at the Hollywood Bowl), Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony (at the Ravinia Festival), NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, Kyoto Symphony and the Shanghai Symphony.

The soloists with whom John Axelrod often collaborates include, among others: Julia Fischer, Martin Grubinger, Daniel Hope, Patricia Kopatchinskaya, Lang Lang, Lisa Batiashvili, Rachel Kolly d'Alba, Lilya Zilberstein, Sabine Meyer, Fazil Say, Han-Na Chang as well as such vocalists as Thomas Hampson, Elina Garança, Rinat Shaham, Veronique Gens, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Dietrich Henschel, Ana Maria Martinez and Ramon Vargas.  John Axelrod also toured Europe and the USA in 2009 at the specific invitation of Lang Lang and Herbie Hancock, and after its success, reprised the tour in Paris at Salle Pleyel and Teatro alla Scala in 2011.

His opera activity includes the premiere performances of Bernstein's Candide directed by Robert Carsen at Paris's Théâtre du Châtelet and Milano's Teatro alla Scala, Wagner's Tristan and Isolde for Angers/Nantes Opéra directed by Oliver Py, and the new production of Krenek's Kehraus um St. Stephan at the Bregenz Festspiele. In past seasons at the Luzerner Theater he conducted new productions of Kaiser von Atlantis, Rigoletto, Rake's Progress, Don Giovanni, The Three Penny Opera and Idomeneo all for the Lucerne Festival, and Il barbiere di Siviglia, Evgenij Onegin, L'elisir d'amore and Falstaff.

As Principal guest conductor of Sinfonietta Cracovia, Mr. Axelrod has appeared in Europe's leading concert halls, seen on ARTE television, and performed on the grounds of Auschwitz in the Emmy Award winning 2007 BBC Holocaust Memorial Film.

Strongly committed in the promotion of contemporary repertoire, Mr. Axelrod premiered many new compositions, including works by Michael van der Aa, Karim al-Zand, Marc-André Dalbavie, Avner Dorman, Pascal Dusapin, Michael Gordon, Wojciech Kilar, Gabriel Prokofiev, Wolfgang Rihm, Kaija Saariaho, Marco Stroppa, Jörg Widmann, among others.

Mr. Axelrod's recordings include Gorecki's 3rd Symphony with the Danish National Symphony for SonyClassical, Wolfgang Rihm's newly-commissioned piano concerto Sotto Voce II (together with Sotto Voce I) for Kairos Label with the Luzerner Sinfonie Orchester and the pianist Nicolas Hodges, Fazil Say's 1001 Nights in a Harem with Patricia Kopatchinskaya and the Luzerner Sinfonie Orchester for Naïve, 2 discs featuring works by Franz Schreker and his students Ernst Krenek and Julius Burger for Nimbus, and a live recording from the 2006 Lucerne Festival of Bernstein's Third Symphony ('Kaddish'), Schoenberg's Survivor from Warsaw, and Weill's Berliner Requiem, all with the Luzerner Sinfonie Orchester also for the Nimbus label; Dvořák's Ninth Symphony with the Württemburgischer Philharmonie Reutlingen for the Genuin label; Works by Wladyslaw Szpilman with the Berlin Radio Orchestra for SonyClassical; and Rolf Wallin's percussion concerto Das war schön! with Martin Grubinger and the Oslo Philharmonic for the Ondine label.

Mr. Axelrod graduated in 1988 from Harvard University. Trained by and in the tradition of Bernstein, he studied at St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1996 with Ilya Musin, and with the American Symphony Orchestra League conductors program.

(Royal Festival Hall, London, 4th February 2005 - www.musicweb.uk.net)

During recent seasons Takuo Yuasa has conducted at London's Royal Festival Hall, Vienna's Konzerthaus, Frankfurt's Alte Oper, Stuttgart's Liederhalle and the Sibelius Hall in Lahti, Finland.  His complete concert cycles of the symphonies by Brahms and Schumann in Kobe, Japan, were recorded live for release there on CD and in October 2007 Takuo Yuasa received the prestigious Iue Cultural Award, created by Toshio Iue the founder of SANYO, for his exceptional contribution to music and for his international artistic achievement.  This personable and highly regarded Japanese conductor regularly performs throughout Europe and the Far East.  In Japan he has held the position of Principal Conductor with the Gumma Symphony Orchestra and in the United Kingdom he has been Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and of the Ulster Orchestra in Northern Ireland.  He has a successful recording career as an exclusive Naxos artist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and others. He attracts fine reviews ("... Yuasa's accounts [of Webern's orchestral pieces] have the spare, skeletal feel and expressive economy that makes them very rewarding indeed.  An outstanding achievement." Classics Today) in a wide range of repertoire which covers Britten, Macmillan and Rawsthorne, Webern and Schoenberg, Honegger, Vieuxtemps, Macdowell, Schubert, Rimsky-Korsakov, Part, Gorecki, Glass and Nyman with a newly emerging strand of Japanese composers who include Mayuzumi, Ohki, Bekku, Yashiro, Moroi, Akutagawa and Yamada.  This versatility is recognised by orchestras around the world who engage him to conduct standard core repertoire as well as less well-known pieces by major composers.

Takuo Yuasa conducts the Orchestre National de France, Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfonica do Porto Casa da Musica and Aarhus Symfoniorkester in season '10/11 amongst other engagements. He conducts several major Japanese orchestras including the Japan Philharmonic, Osaka Philharmonic and New Japan Philharmonic orchestras with recent engagements there including a concert with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in its own subscription series and the complete symphonies by Brahms and Schumann with the Osaka Century Orchestra.  He is also Associate Professor, Performing Arts Centre, Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music where he is closely associated with the Geidai Philharmonia Orchestra and the university's wonderful new Sogaduko Concert Hall.   Outside Japan he has conducted the Oslo Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, London Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Brabants Orkest, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquestra Nacional do Porto, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony and Queensland Orchestras and in the UK he has been a frequent visitor to the Halle Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra whilst his musicianship and infectious leadership attracts several European music conservatoires and the national youth orchestras of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Eire to engage him to conduct a new generation of performers.

Takuo Yuasa was born in Osaka where he studied piano, cello, flute and clarinet. At eighteen he left Japan to study in the USA at the University of Cincinnati where he completed a Bachelor Degree in Theory and Composition.  Recommended by Istvan Kertesz and Janos Starker, he moved to Europe to study conducting with Hans Swarowsky at the Hochschule in Vienna (where was also a member of the ORF Choir), then with Igor Markevich in France and with Franco Ferrara in Siena before he became assistant to Lovro von Matacic, working with him in Monte Carlo, Milan and Vienna.  Since winning a Special Award at the Fitelberg International Conducting Competition in Katowice, Poland, Takuo Yuasa has frequently conducted the major orchestras there, including the Warsaw National Philharmonic and Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestras.

Born in Tokyo. Studied in the Conducting Department at the Tokyo College of Music.  Won the first Kondrashin International Conducting Competition in Amsterdam in September 1984 at age 26.

Following upon this success, he went on to conduct the National French Orchestra, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra
and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Between 1991 and 1995 he lead the Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra, the Limburg Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and in 1994 he brought the Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra to Japan. From 1991 to 2000, he was Chief Conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, during which time the group toured Europe in 1996, as well as delivering many fresh and magnificent performances of pieces such as Richard Strauss' Ein Heldenblen and the symphonies of Haydn.

In recent years, he has been a guest conductor of orchestras which include the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, L'Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, and the Sao Paulo State Symphony. He was Music Director of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 2008, bringing fantastic soloists like Yo-Yo Ma and Midori to perform.

In 2007 he was invited to Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto where he conducted Haydn and Rachmaninoff. He also received great acclaim for his appearance with the Mito Chamber Orchestra, where he replaced Seiji Ozawa at the last minute and led the group in a program centered on Mozart and Beethoven. 

He is prolific in opera as well, having led celebrated performances in 1989 and 1990 of Un ballo in maschera and Rigoletto at the the Sydney Opera House, and his most recent triumphs include La traviata at the Fujiwara Opera, and Orfeo ed Euridice at the Nissay Theatre. In February 2011, he made his debut at the New National Theatre conducting La traviata.

Since April 2008, he has served as Chief Conductor of the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra.

Tetsuro Ban's successful career is characterized by his extensive guest conducting across Europe, where he has been invited by around 40 orchestras and opera houses in Germany, Austria, France, Italy and elsewhere. He has conducted most of the major orchestras in Japan, including the NHK Symphony Orchestra, and opera companies such as the New National Theatre Tokyo and Tokyo Nikikai.

In winter 2008-09 he conducted a run of Die Fledermaus at the Vienna Volksoper which became the main attraction of the season, receiving great critical acclaim. The headline of the local website for opera "Operinwien" read "Gelungene Silvesterstimmung", and praised the performance saying the following.

http://www.operinwien.at/werkverz/straussj/afleder.htm

He has conducted many operas including Falstaff, Carmen, Pelleas and Melisande, The Tales of Hoffmann, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, and Orphee aux enfers, at venues like the Vienna Volksoper, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Theater Basel in Switzerland, and the New National Theatre. His conducting career, already established in Germany, has continued to attract wider attention through his concerts and operas in Europe.

Born in Kyoto, Ban studied composition with renowned composers like Ryohei Hirose at the Kyoto Municipal Art Academy. After graduation, he started his studies in conducting under professors Karl Oesterreicher, Leopold Hager, and Yuji Yuasa at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. 

Ban was 1st Kapellmeister at the Theater Biel, Switzerland during the 1992 - 93 season, 1st Kapellmeister at the Brandenburg Theater, Germany in the 1997 - 98 season and became Kappelmeister at the Komische Oper Berlin in the 1998 - 99 season. Between his appointment and July 2002, he conducted more than 170 performances of around 20 operas and concerts, including Orfeo ed Euridice in a new production by Harry Kupfer in 1999, Falstaff as directed by Andreas Homoki in 2000, and Rigoletto, in a new production by Martin Schuler in February 2001.

He was appointed General Music Director at the Theater Eisenach in Germany beginning in the 2005-2006 season, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Yamagata Symphony Orchestra from April 2007, becoming General Music Director of the Theater Regensburg starting in the 2009 - 2010 season.

He won the First Prize in the Besancon International Conductor's Competition in France in 1995, received honorable mention at the Kyoto Cultural Awards in 1996, the ABC Asahi Broadcasting Corporation International Music Award in 1997, the Kyoto City New Artist Award and the Second Hotel Okura Music Award in 2000, the 12th Akio Watanabe Music Foundation Award in 2004, and the 26th Kenichiro Todo Music Award in 2006.

General Music Director - Theater Luebeck (from August 2013)

Artistic Director - Biwako Hall (Opera Theatre)

Chief Conductor Artistic Advisor - Gunma Symphony Orchestra 

Principal Guest Conductor - Japan Century Orchestra, Osaka 

Music Director - Tokyo Mozart Players

Newly appointed as Music Director of the Theater Lübeck from 2013/14, Ryusuke Numajiri is one of the most demanded conductors in Japan.

Ryusuke Numajiri was catapulted to the forefront of attention in the music world when he won the 40th Besanşon International Conducting Competition in 1990.  He has since been invited to lead many of the world's foremost orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulous, Ensemble Orchestre de Paris, Deutsches Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Dűsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, Staadtskapelle Darmstad, Staadtskapelle Weimar, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, China Philharmonic Orchestra and NHK Symphony Orchestra.

In 1999, EMI recorded his performance of Gubaidulina's The Canticle of the Sun with the London Symphony Orchestra and Mstislav Rostropovich as soloist.

Numajiri has a particular interest in introducing contemporary repertoire to audiences. This passion has led him to conduct the Japan premieres of Philip Glass's Peace Symphony, Busoni's Piano Concerto and "Doktor Faustus", Zemlinsky's "Der Zwerg", Schönberg's Notturno, Takemitsu's Spectral Canticle, as well as works by Messiaen, Andriessen, Gecki, Ligeti, Lutoslawski, Berio, Dutilleux, Xenakis, Birtwistle, Matthews, Rott and Ichiro Nodaira - earning the praise of each composer in the process.  His knowledge of the contemporary repertoire earned him an invitation to join the jury of the Masterprize International Composing Competition in the UK in 2001 and 2002.

His tour with the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra in 2004, bringing Takemitsu's Ceremonial and Messiaen's Turangalila Symphonie to European audiences, received great critical acclaim.  In March 2006, he conducted the Deutsches Sinfonieorchester Berlin in a memorial concert for Takemitsu on the 10th anniversary of the composer's death.

Since making his debut as an opera conductor in October 1997 with Mozart's "Die Entfrung aus dem Serail", Numajiri has gone on to lead various productions.  Recent engagement highlights of operas include Zemlinsky's "Der Zwerg", "Der Rosenkavalier" (with Homoki), "Salome" (with Gruber), "Turandot", "Lulu", "La Boheme", "Tristan und Isolde" (with Heinicke) and "Tannhäuser" (with Hampe) at the Biwako Hall and "Le Nozze di Figaro", "Carmen", "Tosca" and Ikebe's "ROKUMEIKAN" (world premiere) at the New National Theatre Tokyo, "Jonny spielt auf" at Cologne Opera and "Don Giovanni" (with Konwitschny ) at Komische Oper Berlin.  He has been invited by Bayerische Staatsoper regularly. 

In 2012 he makes his debut at Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre symphonique Mulhouse, Bilbao Symphony Orchestra as well as Opera Australia with "Madame Butterfly". 

His discography includes the Gubaidulina Concerto for Cello with the London Symphony Orchestra and Mstislav Rostropovich for EMI Classics and works by Toru Takemitsu with Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra for Denon (3CDs), Messiaen's Turangalila with Japan Philharmonic, Mahler 7th with Tokyo Philharmonic, Mendelssohn 2nd "Lobgesang" with Century Orchestra Osaka, Beethoven symphonies with Tokyo Mozart Players for Exton and Japanese Orchestral Favourites with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra for Naxos.

Ryusuke Numajiri currently resides in Berlin and Tokyo.

On the music faculty at Ueno Gakuen since April 2007.

He received the Idemitsu Music Award in and the Akeo Watanabe Music Foundation Award in 2002, 17th Nippon Steel Music Award (Fresh Artist Award) in 2006, and the 6th Hideo Saito Memorial Fund Award in 2007.

Noriko was also selected by virtuoso marimbist Keiko Abe as the "best player" at the 2002 Hamamatsu International Wind Instrument Academy and Festival.

Noriko graduated with honors from Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo in 2006, and performed for the Japanese Imperial Family in the Imperial Palace. She earned a Graduate Artist Certificate from the University of North Texas in 2010.

Noriko's debut CD "DEAR MARIMBA" have received outstanding reviews including Charles Dutiot who stated Noriko's performance is "I have never heard anyone playing the marimba better than Noriko Tsukagoshi. She is totally amazing . Apart from her incredible technique she is also an extremely sensitive and intelligent musician ,who is promised to a brilliant career."

Born in Saitama, Japan, Noriko began her marimba studies when she was twelve years old. She has studied with many teachers including Momoko Kamiya, Keiko Abe, Shinichi Ueno, Kazunori Momose, Mark Ford, Ed Smith and Christopher Deane. Noriko represents Innovative Percussion as an artist/clinician.

In 1969, Kazuhiro Koizumi entered Tokyo University of the Arts, where he studied conducting with Kazuo Yamada. After being awarded first prize in the second Min-On Concert Association of Japan Conducting Competition in 1970, he went on to become Assistant Conductor at the former Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, and was one of the conductors of the New Japan Philharmonic upon its founding in July 1972. Later in October of the same year, he began studying opera conducting at the Berlin Hochschule with professor Hans Martin Rabenstein.
He continued his studies in the summer of 1973 with his participation in the Tanglewood Music Festival .
In November 1973, he was awarded First Prize at the 3rd Herbert von Karajan International Conducting Competition, and then debuted in Berlin as a conductor with the Berlin Philharmonic. 
He served as Music Director of the New Japan Philharmonic from 1975 to 1979. After a highly successful appearance with the Berlin Philharmonic at its subscription concerts in March 1975, he continued conducting around Europe to great acclaim in places like Vienna, Paris, Italy and the former West Germany. 
In January 1976, he appeared with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, performing with the legendary Anton Rubinstein and Mstislav Rostropovich, and he conducted the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival later the same year. His vast conducting credits throughout Europe include the Munchner Philharmoniker, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, and the Philharmonia Hungarica. In the US, his triumphant performance with Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival in 1978 led him to an engagement leading the group in an acclaimed subscription concert in March 1980, two years later. He has guest conducted numerous orchestras including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra. 
He was Music Director of Canada's Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra from the 1983/84 through 1988/89 seasons, and he conducted the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra from 1986 to 1989. Since 1988, he has been invited to conduct regularly by London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and they have also completed recording Tchaikovsky's Symphonies No. 4, 5, and 6 together.

Koizumi has served as the Principal Conductor of the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra from April 1989 to March 1996, the Guest Principal Conductor of the Century Orchestra Osaka from April 1992 to March 1995, the Principal Conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra from April 1995 to March 1998 and the Principal Conductor of the Century Orchestra Osaka from April 2003 to March 2008. Since April 2006 he has been  Principal Guest Conductor of the Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra, and since April 2008 both the Music Director of the Century Orchestra Osaka (current Japan Century Symphony Orchestra), and a Resident Conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.

Yoko Kikuchi was born in Japan where she studied with Kiyoko Tanaka. 

In 1996 she moved to Italy and she studied piano with Franco Scala, Antonio Ballista and Fortepiano with Stefano Fiuzzi　at the "Incontri col Maestro"International Piano Academy in Imola.

In 2002 she won first prize at International Mozart Competition in Salzburg, since then she has performed with major orchestra in Asia and in Europe. 

She has performed with many conductors including Laurence Foster ,Gerd Albrecht, Dennis Russell Davis, Eiji Oue, Ivor Bolton,Alexsander Dmitriev, HK Gruber ,Hubert Soudant, Günter Pichiler, Pedro Halffter, Christian Mandeal, Saulis Sondeckis, Christian Arming, ,Alexander Dmitriev ,among others.

She has performed with Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg,Gulbenkian Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra,Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra da camera di Mantova,Orchestra Pomeriggi Musicale di Milano,Chamber Orchestra of Auvergne, Orchestra "Haydn"di Bolzano e Trento,Nuremberger Symphoniker , Sudwestdeutsche Philharmonic Konstanz, Robert-Schumann Philharmonie di Chemnitz,Philharmonisches Orchester Plauen-Zwickau, Camerata Virtuosi of New York, Slovenia Radio Television Orchestra, Hellas Orchestra di Patrasso,Shanghai Symphony Orchestra,Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra ,  Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra,Japan Philarmonic Orchestra ,Osaka Philarmonic Orchestra Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa and others

Yoko Kikuchi's love of chamber music has led her to collaborate with many other musicians including Ensemble Wien Berlin, Philarmonic String Quintet Berlin ,Leipzig Quartet , Radek Baborak.,Daniele Damiano,Michael Collins.

Her debut CD Mozart Album was awarded the 18th Music PenClub Prize's "Best Recording by a Japanese Artist" .

In 2007 she won 'Idemitsu Awards'

In addition,she also participated in several music festivals such as  Mozart-Matinee of  Salzburg Festival ,Schleswig- Holstein Musik Festival ,Red Sea classical Music Festival, Bodensee Festival ,St.Ursanne Piano Festival,,Sintra Festival, Madeira Festival, Leiria Festival in Portogallo,Settembre Musica of Torino ,Maggio musicale Fiorentino of Florence, Mittelfest of Udine,Emilia Romagna Festival ,Palermo Festival and others in Italy

Angela Hewitt has recently performed with orchestras including The Cleveland, Toronto Symphony, Philharmonia, BBC Scottish Symphony and Oslo Philharmonic orchestras and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. She has also appeared with kammerorchesterbasel, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic and City of Birmingham Symphony orchestras, as well as the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra. Recent and future highlights include concerts with the Finnish Radio Symphony and London Philharmonic orchestras, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Brussels Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, RAI Torino, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms and a return to Verbier Festival. In 2011, Angela Hewitt performed Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and Kent Nagano in concerts to celebrate the opening of the new hall in Montreal.

Recital highlights of the 2012/13 season include concerts at Seoul Arts Center, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Bath Mozartfest and The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, as well as the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., the National Arts Centre, Ottawa, and Le Poisson Rouge, New York. In 2012/13, Angela Hewitt also launches a major project to perform Bach's The Art of Fugue in two programmes in major halls worldwide, based around concerts at the Royal Festival Hall in London as part of the International Piano Series. This follows on from the celebrated project 'Angela Hewitt's Bach Book' in 2010, where Ms Hewitt gave world premieres of six newly-commissioned works by leading composers at Wigmore Hall.

Angela Hewitt's award-winning recordings for Hyperion have garnered praise from around the world. Her ten-year project to record all the major keyboard works of Bach has been described as "one of the record glories of our age" (The Sunday Times) and has won her a huge following. She has been hailed as "the pre-eminent Bach pianist of our time" (The Guardian) and "the pianist who will define Bach performance on the piano for years to come" (Stereophile). Her discography also includes CDs of Beethoven, Schumann, Messiaen, Ravel, Chopin, Couperin, Rameau and Chabrier. Her most recent release features the Schumann Concerto with the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Hannu Lintu, while future recording plans include a series of Mozart concertos as well as solo discs of music by Debussy and Fauré.

Born into a musical family, Angela Hewitt began her piano studies aged three, performing in public at four and a year later winning her first scholarship. She then went on to learn with French pianist, Jean-Paul Sévilla. In 1985 she won the Toronto International Bach Piano Competition.

Angela Hewitt was named 'Artist of the Year' at the 2006 Gramophone Awards. She was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2000, and was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2006. She lives in London but also has homes in Ottawa and Umbria in Italy, where she invites international musicians each summer to take part in her own Trasimeno Music Festival.

Sunwook Kim just concluded 2012 with a highly successful debut with the London Symphony Orchestra, stepping in at short notice to perform Beethoven's Concerto No.4, conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Other highlights among his concerto projects in 12/13 and future seasons  include return engagements with London's Philharmonia Orchestra (Beethoven 4 with Juraj Valcuha), Manchester's Hallé Orchestra (Brahms 2 and Beethoven 4 with Mark Elder), the Bournemouth Symphony (Brahms 2 Kiril Karabits), the Helsinki Radio Symphony (Beethoven 4 with Andrew Manze) and the Seoul Philharmonic (Bartok 2 with Peter Eötvös, Beethoven 5 with Myung-Whun Chung).

Recital projects in future seasons include a Berlin debut at the Philharmonie (Kammermusiksaal), returns to the "Piano 4 Etoiles" series at Salle Pleyel in Paris, the Wigmore Hall in London, as well as the completion of his acclaimed Beethoven sonata cycle at the LG Arts Center, Seoul. Following his highly successful Japan debut tour in Spring 2012, he will also return to Kioi Hall Tokyo, Symphony Hall Osaka and Shirakawa Hall Nagoya.

Sunwook Kim is also a keen chamber musician. His chamber music projects in the 12/13 season include Brahms concerts in Berlin (Philharmonie) and Paris (Pleyel) with members of the Berliner Philharmoniker, and recitals in Italy with the German violinist Veronika Eberle.

He has appeared as a concerto soloist in the subscription series of the London Symphony Orchestra (Gardiner), Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Chung), London Philharmonic (Sinaisky), Philharmonia Orchestra (Ashkenazy), Berlin Radio Symphony (Janowski), Radio-France Philharmonic (Chung), Tokyo Philharmonic (Chung), NHK Symphony (Steffens), Hallé Orchestra (Elder), BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, and the Aspen Festival Orchestra.

Recital appearances to date include the Wigmore Hall in London, the prestigious "Paris 4 Etoiles" series at Salle Pleyel in Paris, Kioi Hall in Tokyo, Symphony Hall Osaka, Brussels Klara Festival, Brussels Summer Festival, Beethoven-Haus and Beethovenfest in Bonn, Klavier-Festival Ruhr and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele, the Dinard Festival in France, the London and Vancouver Chopin Societies, the Aspen Music Festival, New York's International Keyboard Institute, the New Ross International Piano Festival in Ireland, the Duszniki Zdrój International Chopin Festival in Poland as well as the Tongyeong International Music Festival and Kumho Rising Stars Series in Korea.

Born in Seoul in 1988, Sunwook Kim began the piano at the age of 3. He gave his debut recital aged just 10 at the Kumho Prodigy Series in Seoul, and this was followed by his concerto debut two years later.

Born in Lille in 1984, Céline Moinet studied the oboe and chamber music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in the classes of David Walter and Maurice Bourgue. In 2006 she was awarded a Premier Prix in both disciplines. She also studied the Baroque oboe with Marcel Ponseele and Xenia Löffler.

In 2004 and 2005 she completed her orchestral training as a member of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester under the direction of Claudio Abbado. After this experience, she was invited to appear as guest principal with leading German orchestras such as the NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the SWR Radiosinfonieorchester Stuttgart, the Philharmoniker Hamburg, and the orchestra of the Frankfurt Opera.

In 2006 she was appointed principal oboe of the Nationaltheater-Orchester Mannheim. Since June 2008 she has occupied the same position with the celebrated Staatskapelle Dresden. In the autumn of 2011, she was invited by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra to appear on an extended tour of Asia and Australia.

Céline Moinet performs regularly in solo and chamber repertoire. She plays the major oboe concertos with the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Prague Philharmonia, the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra, PAC orchestra in Hyogo, the New Japan Philharmonic, the Kammerorchester Basel, and the Dresdner Kapellsolisten.

At the invitation of Fabio Luisi, she has given recitals and masterclasses at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo.

Studied with his father and Saburo Sumi, then with Hideo Saito at Toho Gakuen School of Music.  He became the youngest concertmaster ever of Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in 1966.  In 1968, he went to Berlin to study with Michel Schwalbe under the support of Agency for Cultural Affairs in Japan.  In 1976, Tokunaga took up the position of a concertmaster with NHK Symphony Orchestra, and since then, he had been the most well-known representative of this orchestra for many years as a principal concertmaster and later as a solo-concertmaster.   

While he had been playing with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, he also performed numerous recitals and concertos in America and many European countries including the Contemporary Music Festival in Koln, the opening concert at Japanese-German Centre Berlin with Wolfgang Sawallisch (piano) and the chamber music concert at Carnegie Hall, all of which won the highest praise. 

Tokunaga left the NHK Symphony Orchestra in 1994 and has been dedicating himself to solo and chamber music.  He has been the Music Director of JT Art Hall since 1995.  He had also been nominated to the General Producer of the Miyazaki International Music Festival in 1996, and has been the Music Director of this festival since 2011.  Those positions prove that he has established the most important position in the chamber music field in Japan. 

His solo engagements with a number of world's leading orchestras have included the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra. 

Since 2008, he has played a series of annual recital titled <Tsugio Tokunaga's challenge>, which will continue till 2018.  

He has released many discs from FONTEC including Brahms: Violin Sonatas (Kei Ito, piano), Beethoven: Complete Violin Sonatas which compiled his 35 year of musical activity and Paganini: Caprices. 

Tokunaga is a Professor at Kunitachi College of Music, Toho Gakuen School of Music and Senzoku Gakuen College of Music.

He was awarded the Second Prize at the elementary school section of the Student Music Concours of Japan in Tokyo in 2003 and 2004.  Also awarded the Second Prize at the Menuhin Competition (Junior) in April 2006, then won the First Prize at the Hannover International Violin Competition in October 2009, as well as the Audience Prize and the Music Critics' Prize, as the youngest violinist in the history of this Competition.  The local newspaper says; "his heart-warming performance supported by high technical skill and impressive virtuosity attracted not only the International Juries and critics but also the audience".  A musical magazine <The Strada> says; "his astonishing performance gathered all attention at the Hannover Competition".  

Miura appeared at the Oleg Kagan Memorial Festival (Moscow) and the Braunschweig Classix Festival (Germany), and has performed with many major orchestras such as NDR Symphony Orchestra, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra (Poland), Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, Sapporo Symphony Orchestra and Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra. 

He is a student of Zakhar Bron, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Cho-Liang Lin and Pavel Vernikov.  Entered the Toho Gakuen Music High School in April 2009, and now is studying with Pavel Vernikov at the Vienna Conservatory on a scholarship from the Meiji Yasuda Cultural Foundation.            

Born in Kitakyushu, Japan and began studying the violin at the age of three.  She studied with Eisuke Shinozaki, Miki Shinozaki, Yu Nishiwada and is now studying with Koichiro Harada at Toho Gakuen School of Music.  Won the first prize at the 54th Student Music Concourse of Japan in Fukuoka (elementary school pupils' convention), the second prize (no first prize winner) at the 10th Classical Music Competition in Japan (elementary school pupils' convention) in 2000, and the first prize at the 56th Student Music Concourse of Japan in Fukuoka (secondary school students' convention) in 2002.

In Europe, she won the 13th Alberto Curci International Violin Competition (Napoli, Italy) in 2004 when she was 15 years old, which led her debut in Italy in 2005.  In October 2005, she was given the second prize at the Long-Thibaud International Competition as well as the Prize of the SACEM as for the best recital performer.  She played with French National Orchestra at the Gala Concert of Long-Thibaud in Paris in 2006, Lille National Orchestra in 2007, San Carlo Theatre Orchestra, La Scala Chamber Orchestra and many other Japanese orchestras.  She joined the Japan tour of Bilbao Symphony Orchestra conducted by Juanjo Mena in July 2009.  Her performance in this tour was highly acclaimed.    

Her interest in recording allowed her to be the first artist of the new label of UNIVERSAL MUSIC <UCJ Japan>, from which she released her debut album in March 2008.  Her newest CD <Bloom> was released in March 2010.

Winner of the Kitakyushu Civil Culture Honorable Award in 2005, the Fukuoka Prefecture culture Awards in 2006, and the 11th Hotel Okura Award in 2010.

Her American appearances include performances with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the Vancouver Symphony, the Saint Louis Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic among many others.

In Europe she appeared with orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony, the Orchestra Philharmonic de Radio France, the Hamburg Philharmonic, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Bamberg Symphony. Also she toured in Japan as a soloist with numerous renowned orchestras including the Gothenburg Symphony with N. Jarvi, Oslo Philharmonic with M. Jansons, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra with V. Ashkenazy, BBC Symphony with A. Davis.

She appears regularly in Japan as a recitalist and a concerto soloist with renowned venues and orchestras such as NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra to name a few.

She also performs actively in Asia, including recitals in Taiwan and concerto appearances in China with the Hong Kong Philharmonic and Wuhan Symphony, in Singapore at "Japan Art Week" with Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2009 she appeared as a soloist with the Hong Kong Symphonietta at the "La Folle Journée" Festival in Tokyo.

Reiko Watanabe actively performs works of contemporary composers.  In the fall of 2009 she gave the world premier performance of Tokuhide Niimi's Violin Concerto No.2 and in 2011 performed all 6 of his violin pieces in one evening. These concerts were highly acclaimed by critics.

As a recording artist, her debut album was the live recording of Berg's Violin Concerto and his rarely found Chamber Concerto for Violin, Piano and 13 Winds, with Dresden Staatskapelle and the late Giuseppe Sinopoli on the Teldec Label. Subsequently she recorded Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich Concertos with St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra and conductor Alexander Demitriev and the "My Favorites," a collection of short works for violin and piano.  Other highly acclaimed recordings include Bach Solo Sonatas and Partitas for Warner Music and, in 2008, the "Carmen Fantasy" on Avex. 

In 2005, for her continued excellence in performances, she was awarded prestigious "Exxon Mobile Music Award" in Japan.

Between her busy concert appearances, she has been asked to be a judge in numerous music competitions.  Since 2004, she has given a series of lectures in English on "Music and Performance" at Akita International University as a select professor. In this course, she invites renowned Japanese contemporary composers such as Akira Nishimura and Somei Satoh.

She performs on Stradivarius 1725 violin "Wilhelmj", kindly loaned by Nippon Music Foundation.

http://www.reikowatanabe.com/ 

As one of the representative violinist of Japan, he has been playing with numerous major orchestras in and out of the country. In addition, his variegated activities include performances in "The Christmas Bach Series" and "Afternoon Concerts" and performances with the Saito Kinen Orchestra. He teaches at Toho Gakuen School of Music, at the Aichi Prefectural Univeristy of Fine Arts and Music, and at the Yatsugatake Summer Course and Concerts. He has also written "A Gift from Music" and "The Violin Saw It".

In April 2005, he held a 60th Birthday Concert, conducted by Taijiro Iimori at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo, resulting in great success. During the 20th Yatsugatake Summer Course and Concerts, he held two concerts for the first anniversary of the merger of Hokuto City. Subsequently, he has performed with the Orchestra and in its chamber music programs at the Matsumoto Saito Kinen Festival. In April he was awarded the prestigious Purple Ribbon Medal for his contribution to the development of culture and arts. In addition he was awarded the Special Noguchi Award for his many years of contribution in Yamanashi prefecture and at the Yatsugatake Summer Course and Concerts in July; The Torii Award for his charity work to sustain the development of social services for the visually impaired in September.

Ida Haendel 

Kristóf Baráti was born in Budapest, Hungary, but a large part of his childhood was spent in Venezuela. He began his violin studies at the age of five and already from the age of eight he made his first solo performances with the leading Venezuelan orchestras. At the age of eleven he was invited to Montpellier to give a recital at the prestigious "Festival de Radio France". 

His studies continued in Budapest with Miklós Szenthelyi and Vilmos Tátrai in the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. During this period he got First prize at the Lipizer Competition in Italy and got Second prize in the Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris. In 1997 his career takes a new turn after getting Third prize and the audience prize on the highly prestigious "Queen Elisabeth" competition in Brussels, being the youngest finalist.

After this success he redefines his violin technique with Eduard Wulfson, who's knowledge was influenced by great violinists of the 20th century such as Nathan Milstein, Yehudi Menuhin and Henryk Szeryng. In 2010 Barati won the highly praised Paganini Competition in Moscow.

Kristóf Baráti performs in important concert halls around the world with major orchestras and conductors, such as Kurt Masur, Marek Janovski, Jiri Belohlavek, Yuri Bashmet, Yoel Levi, Andrew Manze, Zoltán Kocsis, Iván Fischer, Yuri Temirkanov and Eiji Oue. His chamber music partners have included Natalia Gutman, Gábor Boldoczki, Evgeniy Koroliov, Mario Brunello and Michel Portal. In 2009 and 2010 he recorded the first two Paganini concertos and Bach's Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo violin with Berlin Classics.

Kristóf Baráti has got numerous prizes such as Elba Festival's Best Performer and the Prima Prize and Liszt-prize, the most pestigeous prize for classical music awarded by the Republic of Hungary. 

Kristóf Baráti plays on the 1703 "Lady Harmsworth" made by Antonio Stradivarius, kindly offered by the Stradivarius Society of Chicago.

In 1974 he emigrated to the West and since then has performed all over the world with many of the leading orchestras including the Boston Symphony, Cleveland, Berlin Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Bayerischer Rundfunk, and the major British orchestras.

Boris Belkin has been featured in many television productions: a film biography of Jean Sibelius, playing the Sibelius Concerto with the Swedish Radio Orchestra and Ashkenazy; with Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic performing the Tchaikovsky Concerto; with Bernstein and the Orchestre National de France playing Ravel's Tzigane; and with Haitink and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra playing Mozart and Paganini No 1.

His first recording, Paganini No 1 with the Israel Philharmonic and Mehta, was highly acclaimed. His other discs for Decca include the Tchaikovsky and Sibelius Concertos with The Philharmonia and Ashkenazy, Strauss Concerto with the Berlin Radio and Ashkenazy, Prokofiev Concertos Nos 1 and 2 with the London Philharmonic and Kondrashin and Barshai, the Brahms Concerto with the LSO and Fischer. For Denon he has recorded the Prokofiev Concertos with the Zurich Tonhalle and Michael Stern; the Sibelius and Bruch Concertos, and Shostakovich 1 and the Glazunov Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic and Junichi Hirokami; the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the London Philharmonic and Stern; the Mozart Concerto in A major K219 and the Sinfonia Concertante with the Salzburg Chamber Soloists, and the Brahms Sonatas with Michel Dalberto.

Other conductors with whom he has collaborated include Berglund, Chung, Dohnanyi, Dutoit, Fedoseyev, Gelmetti, Herbig, Maazel, Mata, Muti, Ozawa, Rattle, Kurt Sanderling, Temirkanov, Tennstedt, and Welser-Most.

In 1997 Isaac Stern invited Mr Belkin to perform with him at the Miazaki Festival.  Boris Belkin also dedicates himself to the chamber music repertory, performing with artists such as Yuri Bashmet, Mischa Maisky and many others.

His 2006/7 season included a European tour with the Philharmonic of Saint Petersburg and Yuri Termirkanov, a tour in Japan with the NHK Orchestra and Junichi Hirokami and Vladimir Ashkenazy, and a tour in Australia with the Sydney Symphony under the direction of Gianluigi Gelmetti.  In the 2007/8 season he will perform with the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig conducted by Leonard Slatkin and with the Dresden Staatskapelle by Charles Dutoit.

Since 1987, Boris Belkin has given masterclasses at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana of Siena.  Boris Belkin performs on an instrument crafted by Roberto Regazzi of Bologna.

Highlights among her recent and forthcoming engagements include performances with Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, BBC Philharmonic, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, HR-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, Russian National Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, the NHK Symphony in Tokyo and Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, with conductors including Donald Runnicles, Paavo Jarvi, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Mariss Jansons, David Zinman, Vassily Sinaisky, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gianandrea Noseda.

She appears as a recitalist and chamber musician at festivals in Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Rheingau, Lockenhaus, Gstaad, Verbier and Lucerne. Amongst her collaborators were Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Martha Argerich, Julian Rachlin, Leif Ove Andsnes and Maxim Vengerov, and together with Anne-Sophie Mutter she has toured in Europe and the US, playing Bach's Double Concerto with Camerata Salzburg.

After her 2007 debut with London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vilde was immediately re-engaged for a concert with the orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski at the Royal Festival Hall in the 2009 season, followed by a recital at Wigmore Hall.

Her concerto recording debut as EMI Classics' Young Artist of the Year 2010 was greeted with acclaim by critics throughout the world and received the Edison Klassiek Award and a Classic BRIT Award for Best Newcomer. Her most recent recital recording was equally praised, and was selected as "Editor's Choice" by Classic FM Magazine and "Diapason d'Or" by Diapason Magazine. 

Born in 1986 in Norway, Vilde has studied at the Barratt Due Music Institute in Oslo, with Kolja Blacher at Musikhochschule Hamburg and Ana Chumachenco at the Kronberg Academy. She plays a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume violin lent by the Anne-Sophie Mutter Freundeskreis Stiftung.

Still in her teens, Hyeyoon Park has emerged as one of the most promising violinists of her generation. She is the winner of the prestigious London Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award 2011 and has also been awarded First Prize along with two special prizes at the 58th ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 2009 as a 17-year-old violinist, becoming the youngest ever winner in the history of the competition.

Hyeyoon Park made her orchestra debut at the age of nine with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Since then, she has performed with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg, MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig, Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Weimar, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra and has recently toured with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and Sir Roger Norrington in Japan.

Her upcoming concert appearances include performances with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurter Museumsorchester, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lille, Vienna Chamber Orchestra and Montreal Symphony Orchestra. She is artist in residence of the festival Kasseler Musiktage in Oktober 2011 and plays numerous recitals in Europe and Japan.

Hyeyoon Park appears regularly as a recitalist and chamber musician at international festivals such as Schleswig-Holstein, Rheingau, Bad Kissingen, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Musical Olympus, Les Violons de la Paix and Heimbach Festival. She has performed with Lars Vogt, Antje Weithaas, Gustav Rivinius, Daniel Hope, Jan Vogler and Paul Watkins.

Her exceptional talent has been demonstrated by other numerous national and international prizes. At the age of six, she was awarded the Grand Prize at the Hankookilbo Competition in Korea. In 2007, she won the first prize at the 5th International Louis Spohr Competition in Weimar, Germany along with the Best Interpretation of Paganini Caprice Prize. She additionally received Prince of Hesse prize from Kronberg Violin Masterclasses 2009.

Born in 1992 in Seoul, South Korea, Hyeyoon Park started to play the violin at the age of four and began to study at the Pre-College of Korean National University of Arts two years later. From 2003, she studied with Piotr Milewski in the Precollege of College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati in the U.S., and since 2006, she has studied at the Hochschule fuer Musik "Hanns Eisler" with Antje Weithaas in Berlin, Germany. From winter semester 2010, she studies with Christian Tetzlaff at the Kronberg Academy Masters. She has taken master classes with Gidon Kremer, Ivry Gitlis, Zakhar Bron and Thomas Brandis.

Since 2008, Hyeyoon Park plays the Lorenzo Storioni violin (Cremona, 1781) on kind loan from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.

SEASON 2011/2012

After finishing her studies at the Toho School of Music, Yale University and the Juilliard School, she won the highest prizes at both the prestigious international competition in  Munich and Geneva.

Formerly a member of the esteemed Vermeer Quartet, Ms. Imai combines a distinguished international solo career with various teaching commitments. She has appeared with numerous wolrd's prestigious orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw, the London Symphony, and the Chicago Symphony. As a keen chmaber musician, Ms. Imai has performed with various prominent artists such as Gidon Kremer, Midori, Isaac Stern, Mischa Maisky, and Martha Argerich. In 2003, she formed the Michelangelo Quartet. The quartet gained the international reputation quickly and now became one of finest quartets in the world. Ms. Imai has dedicated a large part of her artistic activities to explore the diverse potential of the viola.

She returns to Japan several times a year, to perform as soloist and notably for the annual "Viola Space" project. In 1995/1996 Nobuko Imai was artistic director of three Hindemith Festivals at the Wigmore Hall in London, at Columbia University in New York and at the Casals Hall in Tokyo. In 2009 she founded The Tokyo International Viola Competition, the first international competition in Japan exclusively for viola. An impressive discography of over 40 CDs shows her recordings for BIS, Chandos, Hyperion, Philips, Sony among others. Ms. Imai taught as a Professor at the Detmold Academy of Music from 1983 to 2003, and currently teaches at the conservatories of Amsterdam and Geneva, Kronberg International Academy, and Ueno Gakuen  University in Tokyo.

Her stunning debut as Sonja in Der Zarewitsch at the Vienna Volksoper in 1999 was followed by other successes: as Violetta in La Traviata; Anne in The Rake's Progress; Annina In Eine Nacht in Venedig. In 2007 She made her debut at the Hamburg State Opera as Donna Fiorilla in Il Turco in Italia, and covered Cecilia Bartoli at the Royal Opera House, London in 2006 with the same role. In 2007, she made her debut at Hamburg State Opera as Donna Fiorilla in Il Turco in Italia. In 2008, a role debut as Cio-cio-san in Madama Butterfly has received many triumphant reviews. At the same time, her career has continued to develop in Japan where she regularly appears with NHK Orchestra and New National Theater Tokyo.
In the field of concert and recital, Akiko Nakajima has a broad repertoire, reaching from the Bach Passions and lieder by Schubert and Wolf, to contemporary composers. She has appeared in festivals such as Festival Dei Due Mondi, Spoleto; Festwochen der Alten Musik Innsbruck; Munchener Biennale, Wiener Festwochen. Venues at which she has appeared include the Leipzig Gewandhaus; Kulturpalast Dresden; Alte Oper Frankfurt; Konzerthaus Berlin; Konzerthaus Wien; Theatre des Champs Elysees, Suntory Hall and NHK Hall in Tokyo. Her debut at the Wigmore Hall (2005) was greeted with great acclaim.

Among the celebrated conductors with whom she has appeared are; Lorin Maazel, Herbert Blomstedt, Charles Dutoit, Kazushi Ono, Myung-Whun Chung, Ondrej Lenard, Heinrich Schiff and Thomas Hengelbrock.
Akiko Nakajima's first solo CD LA PASTORELLA has been released on the Viennese label Preiser Records (PR90647) and was nominated for the Deutschen Schallplattenkritik list. FEMALE PORTRAITS (PR90691), a collection of operatic arias and duets was followed by another recording, PLAISIR D'AMOUR (CDS556) from an Italian Label, Dynamic in 2008.
Her recent engagements include Mahler 2nd with Zubin Mehta and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Abu Dhabi, the Mendelssohn's A Midsummer's Night Dream with Seiji Ozawa and Mito Chamber Orchestra, the Weill's the Seven Deadly Sins with Charles Dutoit and Miyazaki International Music Festival Orchestra, New Year Concerts in New York and Washington as well as Japan tour with Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra. Since October 2008, Akiko Nakajima works also as an assistant of the Faculty of Architecture and Design at the Vienna University of Technology.

In 1990 she moved to Hamburg and expanded her repertoire to include dramatic roles such as Preziosilla in La Forza del Destino and Eboli in Don Carlos. With Germany as her base, she has continued to sing in various places in Europe; mainly at the Hamburg Opera, the Frankfurt Opera, the Bremen Opera, and the Freiburg Opera House, with appearances also at Strasburg's Opera du Rhin, the Innsbruck opera House and the Montpellier Opera House. She performed Polish composer Henryk Gorecki's world famous Symphony No.3 "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" in Germany, USA, Holland and Japan.

Her reputation in Europe is substantiated by the illustrious conductors who have called her to sing at their batons in Japan, including Nello Santi, Eliahu Inbal, Charles Dutoit, Jean Fournet, Riccardo Chailly, Myung-Whun Chung, Ondrej Lenard, Michel Corboz, Gary Bertini, Gerhard Bosse, Seiji Ozawa, Hiroshi Wakasugi, Kazushi Ono, Eiji Oue, and Ryusuke Numajiri. She has appeared with the major Japanese orchestras, and on stages which include Nikikai, the Japan Opera Foundation, and the New National Theatre. She is said to have "an almost perfectly polished voice" and effect "utterly convincing interpretation" of her roles. Her absorption of each character, her musical precision, and her solid singing have long made her one of Japan's leading mezzo-sopranos.

She is a Professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts.

Born in Sakata city in Yamagata, Taro Ichihara studied at the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music, where he also pursued his post-graduate studies.  Having won first prize at the Japan-Italy Music Competition and the Japan Music Competition in 1979, Ichihara sang as soloist in concerts of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Handel's Messiah.  He then had the title role in Massenet's 'Werther' with Nikikai Company and made his opera debut in Tokyo.

In 1984, Ichihara was invited to sing the role of Malcolm in Verdi's 'Macbeth' with conductor Riccardo Chailly at the Salzburg Festival, in which he was the first ever Japanese singer to appear at such a prestigious festival.  He was also the first male Japanese singer to appear at L'Opéra de Paris in France to sing Macduff in 'Macbeth'.  Since then, Ichihara's activities overseas included seven consecutive season title roles in 'Un Ballo in Maschera', 'Rigoletto', 'Lucia', 'Tosca', 'Rosenkavalier' at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and many invitations from companies such as Chicago Lyric Opera, Scala in Milan, Teatro San Carlo in Napoli, Teatro Regio di Torino, Hamburg Staatsoper in Germany, Staatsoper in Cologne, Opéra National de Lyon, Opéra de Nice, Summer Festival at Orange, and Teatro Colon in Argentina.

In Japan, Ichihara appears in many opera productions mainly with Fujiwara Opera Company, New national theatre Tokyo, and in many subscription concerts with major orchestras, and his own solo recitals.  In 2003 Ichihara appeared in NHK Music Festival, performing Verdi: Requiem with Riccardo Chailly/Orchestra e Coro Sinfonico di Milano Giuseppe Verdi.  Having performed with many prestigious conductors such as the late Georg Solti, Riccardo Chailly, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Ichihara continues to attract much attention for his experienced authentic bel canto voice and his beautiful expressions that he creates.

In 1991, after participating in the Salzburg Festival in "Satyricon", he signed a contract in 1992 as a guest artist to perform in the same "Satyricon" with the Leipzig Opera and widened his activity in Germany and in Europe. Since, he has signed exclusive contracts with the opera houses of Wurzburg, Trier, Giessen / Giesen, Bonn, and Munster.

A singer in the tradition of Mozart, his refined singing together with his flexible bell-canto style has won him high acclaim among European classical music fans. In addition to singing opera, his talent as a lieder singer also claims high praise, described by the enthusiastic press as "reciting the soul of a poet".

In Japan, charming the audience with his strong and brilliant voice,  Mineo Nagata has been participating as a guest singer with numerous orchestras all over the country, starting from the New National Theatre. In 2011 March, he will be performing in the role of Radames in "Aida", conducted by Ryusuke Numajiri at Biwako Hall and the Kanagawa Kenmin Hall.

In 1993, after receiving excellent reviews for his role as a soloist in Louis Hector Berlioz's "The Damnation of Faust" conducted by of Seiji Ozawa, Ken Osawa moved to Germany. He signed an exclusive contract as principal bass soloist with the Theatre Osnabruck (originally City theatre) in Lower Saxony (Germany). He has performed in numerous cities in Germany in roles of Phillip II of Spain in "Don Carlo"; the King in "Lohengrin"; Crespel in "The Tales of Hoffmann"; Don Basilio in "The Barber of Seville"; the Hermit in "Der Freischutz"; the King in "The Love of Three Oranges", receiving excellent reviews from newspapers and specialized publications which described his voice as "refined and deeply reverberating"and praised his acting skills as "with realism".

In the fall of 1997, Ken Osawa transferred his base to Japan, where he has hitherto performed in numerous operas at the New National Theatre; Niki-Kai; with the Tokyo Philharmonic Opera Concertante ; Kanagawa Arts Foundation; Osaka Festival Hall; Biwako Hall; Mozart Theatre. His singing and acting, full of composure and dignity, has been highly recognized. He has also performed with principal orchestras in Japan with Beethoven's "Symphony No.9", active in singing oratorios and lieder, and has collaborated with the German Bach Soloists conducted by Helmut Winschermann. He is highly acclaimed for his wide range of repertoire starting from Bach to contemporary music . He is a member of the Niki-kai.

Conductors of the first rank such as Christoph Eschenbach, Valery Gergiev, Lorin Maazel, Seiji Ozawa and Simon Rattle as well as eminent pianists such as Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Leif Ove Andsnes and Alfred Brendel and are among his musical partners.

Matthias Goerne performs with leading orchestras including the foremost American orchestras such as the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony, as well as the Philharmonia, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic and Orchestre de Paris. Tours and guest appearances have led him in recent years throughout the whole of Europe, and to the US, Asia and Australia.

Since his opera début at the Salzburg Festival in 1997, Matthias Goerne has appeared on principal opera stages in the world, among others, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Teatro Real, Madrid; Paris National Opera; Vienna State Opera; and the Metropolitan Opera, New York. His carefully chosen roles range from Papageno and Wolfram right up to the title roles in Alban Bergʼs Wozzeck, Paul Hindemithʼs Mathis der Maler and Aribert Reimannʼs Lear.

Goerneʼs artistry has been documented on numerous CD recordings, many of which have received prestigious awards. He is currently recording a series of 11 CDs of selected Schubert songs (The Goerne/Schubert Edition) for Harmonia Mundi.

From 2001 through 2005 Matthias Goerne taught as an honorary professor of song interpretation at the Robert Schumann Academy of Music in Düsseldorf. In 2001, Matthias Goerne was appointed Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London. Born in Weimar, he studied with Hans-Joachim Beyer in Leipzig, and with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

Highlights in the 2011/12 season include a tour with the Vienna Philharmonic, appearances at the Vienna State Opera and the Saito Kinen Festival (Bluebeard with Seiji Ozawa) and song recitals with Christoph Eschenbach and Leif Ove Andsnes in Paris, Vienna and New York among many others.

Upon winning a prize at the 1986 International Harpsichord Competition in Bruges, she travelled to Europe to continue her studies with Scott Ross, who had been one of the judges, and finally established Paris as her base in 1990. Following on Ross's premature passing, she was sought out to carry on his work by the head producer of Erato Records, Michel Garcin, and she issued her debut CD on the label in 1991 as their first Japanese artist.

Since 1992 she has toured with the Israel Chamber Orchestra as their resident harpsichordist, and she plays extensively abroad including at festivals in France and Italy. Her collaboration with contemporary dancer Santiago Sampere, performed in Paris and Tokyo, was highly praised for its ambition, and in 2006 there was a three-hour special broadcast of her music on Radio France.

She also earns constant attention for her work within Japan, where she has devoted enormous effort to chamber music activities, in addition to appearing on radio and television, writing essays for magazines like DIME, and publishing a book entitled Suddenly Parisienne.

She also maintains a lively and active recording career, debuting with a recording of Bach's English Suites, and following with his Goldberg Variations, French Suites, Tocattas, Scarlatti's Sontates Inedites, as well as the titles Cinema Clavecin, Je L'aime, Latina, and Chaconne. Most famous is her album Sonates Inedites, for which she was authorized by her teacher  Scott Ross before his death to supplement the works necessary in finishing his major project of recording Scarlatti's complete sonatas.

In October 2003, Sone started a series of J. S. Bach performances at Hamarikyu Asahi Hall in Tokyo, ultimately totaling twelve concerts in a space of six years, playing the complete English Suites and French Suites in conjunction with the Italian Overture, the French Overture, and the first book of the Well-Tempered Clavier. Albums of the series were released by Avex Classics and won the 20th Music Pen Club Award in the category of Best Recording Product. Her most recent release was a re-recording of the Goldberg Variations, which she had first put on CD 10 years prior, in 1999.

2010 saw the start of a highly-acclaimed project in the Aeolian Hall of Tokyo's Ueno Gakuen University to perform all the harpsichord works of Couperin and Rameau.

Concurrent with her performance activities, she is presently continuing her studies under the brilliant Skip Semp?.

She was awarded the 6th Idemitsu Music Award in 1996, the first harpsichord player to receive that honor, and the Hida-Furukawa Music Award (Encouragement Prize ) in 1997. In April 2009 she became a professor at Ueno Gakuen University.

Luigi Piovano has been enjoying a constantly growing international recognition both as a cellist and as a conductor. His rapidly expanding career has placed him as soloist under the batons of such conductors as Mikhail Pletnev and Myung-Whun Chung - performing with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra - Yehudi Menuhin and Andrey Boreyko, among others.

Luigi Piovano first attracted attention on the international music circuit after his participation in the "Pollini Project", which brought forth a highly-succesful debut at the Salzburg Festival, as well as performances in Tokyo, New York's Carnegie Hall and National Academy of Santa Cecilia. In addition to regular concerts and recitals throughout Europe, the United States and Asia, as an avid and sought-after chamber musician, he has taken part in numerous prominent collaboration with such celebrated artists as Katia and Marielle Labeque, Myung-Whun Chung, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Alexander Lonquich, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Michel Dalberto, Malcolm Bilson and Antonio Pappano, with whom has been regularly performing in duo setting since 2007. He regularly performs with "Latitude 41" together with violinist Livia Sohn and pianist Bernadene Blaha.

Luigi Piovano's recordings have been released by such labels as EMI, Nuova Era, Opus 111 and Eloquentia, which recently released his recording of the Six Bach Cello Suites, a double CD dedicated to Saint-Saëns, including his two Concertos and two Sonatas and Schubert Trio op. 100 and Notturno D. 897 with Latitude 41. Other recordings include the two Brahms sonatas and, currently in production, Bach's Goldberg Variations with Trio Sitkovetsky.

Luigi Piovano's musical education began at the age of five under the tutelage of his father. By age seventeen he was awarded a diploma from the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland, graduating cum laude upon finishing his studies with celebrated cellist and pedagogue Radu Aldulescu. He then went on to receiving a diploma in cello performance and chamber music from the European Conservatoire of Music in Paris, and has gained prizes from a number of international competitions. Luigi Piovano has been increasingly engaging himself as a conductor, and has held the post of Artistic Director and Conductor of the Musici Aurei since founding the ensemble in 2002 (under the name of "Campania Chamber Orchestra"). With the ensemble he toured Japan and recorded Paisiello's piano Concertos for Naxos label and Vivaldi Four Seasons for Eloquentia. Other engagements of note as a conductor include the Tokyo Philharmonic String Ensemble, concerts in Thailandia and with several Italian orchestras and two recordings, currently in production: Britten's Violin Concerto with the American violinist Livia Sohn and the chamber orchestra versions of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with Sara Mingardo and Musici Aurei for Eloquentia. Notable collaborations from the podium have included such soloists as Francois-Joël Thiollier, Michele Campanella, Livia Sohn, Maurizio Baglini, Vesselin Stanev and Sara Mingardo. His most recent and future engagements as conductor include concerts in L'Aquila, Bari, Lecce and Palermo with such works as Beethoven Ninth, Brahms Second and Fourth, Franck Symphony in D minor. In addition to his performing and conducting career, Luigi Piovano has served as the Artistic Director of the "Estate Musicale Frentana" in Lanciano since 2008.

Mr. Piovano plays an Alessandro Gagliano dated 1710.

Born in London, she began learning harp at the age of six from Susann McDonald. She took her first steps in her international career in 1981 when she got second prize in the 1st International Harp Contest at the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome, and in 1985 when she came in first place in the 9th International Harp Contest in Israel, where she was the youngest participant.

Yoshino's solo engagements with the world's top Western and Japanese orchestras have included the Berlin Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, Zurich's Tonhalle Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Concentus Musicus Wien, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra, among others. Illustrious conductors with whom she has shared the stage include Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Zubin Mehta, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Yehudi Menuhin, Seiji Ozawa, Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Tadaaki Otaka, Michiyoshi Inoue, and Yuzo Toyama. She has also performed as a soloist with renowned ensembles such as the English Chamber Orchestra, the Philharmonic Virtuoso Berlin, Jean-Fran?ois Paillard Chamber Orchestra, the Mito Chamber Orchestra, the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra; and she has held solo recitals in numerous cities around the world, including New York, Vienna, London and Tokyo. Her performance at the Vatican in 1994 in a concert commemorating the restoration of the Sistine chapel received particularly significant attention. A frequent guest at the Salzburg, Lockenhaus, Lucerne, Gstaad, Schleswig-Holstein, Saito Kinen, Marlboro, and Mostly Mozart Festivals, Naoko Yoshino is also known as a recitalist and chamber musician.

She has in fact worked extensively in chamber music, having played with violinist Gidon Kremer; violists Veronika Hagen and Nobuko Imai; cellist Clemenst Hagen; and flutists Aur?le Nicolet, Wolfgang Schulz and Emmanuel Pahud. She also has a lively recording career, having released one album on Teldec (with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Concentus Musicus Wien), four albums on Philips Classics (two solo, one chamber with Nicolet and Nobuko Imai, one with Gidon Kremer featuring solos and duos), five albums on Sony Classics (solo, duets with Shigenori Kudo, concertos with the Philharmonic Virtuoso Berlin), and an album on Virgin Classics with the English Chamber Orchestra. She is devoted to new music as well, having performed the world premieres of Ami Maayani's Sonata No. 2, Yuzo Toyama's Fantasy, Toru Takemitsu's And Then I Knew T'was Wind, and Yuji Takahashi's Insomnia, and she is scheduled to record both the Takemitsu and Takahashi works. In March 2001, she performed the world premiere of Toshio Hosokawa's Toshio Hosokawa's harp concerto Re-turning.

In recent years, she has performed under Harnoncourt with the Concentus Musicus Wien, Blomstedt with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Boulez with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, and since being invited by Abbado in 2003, she has been performing with the top soloists from around the world who make up the Lucerne Festival Orchestra.

She received the Arion Award in 1985, the Muramatsu Award in 1987, honorable mention at the ExxonMobil  Music Awards, the Education Minister's Incentive Award for Young Artists from the Agency for Cultural Affairs, and the AVON Arts Award for women. An alumna of International Christian University.

Since, Radek Baboak has been active in performances in Europe and in the United States. Having a strong relationship with top class conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, Daniel Barenboim and James Levine, he has performed with them and with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, WDR Sinfonieorchester Koln, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Munchner Philharmoniker (Munich Philharmonic Orchestra) and the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra. Despite his young age, he is well known for his outstanding technique and mature music. His wide repertoire includes Telemann, Hayden to Mozart, Strauss, Saint-Saens, and contemporary music, while he constantly continues to widen his repertoire.

Radek Baboak has performed as a horn soloist successive times for the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic. In addition he has performed with orchestras internationally starting from the Saito Kinen Orchestra and the Mito Chamber Orchestra.
While performing as a soloist with international orchestras, he has also started his activity in chamber music with the Afflatus Quintet, a wind quintet formed with fellow musicians from his Czech Philharmonic Orchestra period and collaborates with renowned musicians such as Francois Leleux and Emanuel Pahud.

The horn maestro Hermann Baumann, respected by Baborak, commented, "His performance takes us to the festive atmosphere of the 18th century. His charming and sensitive tone resonates with extreme comfort to the ear. His performance, with its delicate and rich expression succeeds in maximizing the potential of the instrument and his interpretation creates a natural force and untainted simplicity.

The instrument he is currently playing is "Alexander 103".

Having graduated from Kunitachi College of Music in piano, Ms. Miyata studied 'Gagaku', (Ancient Japanese Court Music), and in 1979 joined the Gagaku ensemble at the National Theater of Japan. Since her debut Tokyo recital in 1983, she has been active as a soloist and stunned audiences with her performances in Paris, Amsterdam, New York, Seattle and Milan (La Scala), Vienna (Konzerthaus) and at festivals such as Salzburg, Luzern, Rheingau, Schleswig-Holstein, Avignon, Tanglewood, London Proms, Milano Musica, Festival d'Automne a Paris, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Wien Modern,  Octobre en Normandie, Darmstadt International Summer Course, Festival Extasis (Geneva), Musica Viva (Munich), Musik Aktive (Dortmund), Orleans International Music Week, Pacific Music Festival Sapporo, Takefu International Music Festial and Akiyoshidai International Contemporary Music Festival.

Although the SHO has its origins in Gagaku, and it is this music with which it is traditionally associated, Mayumi Miyata is highly acclaimed for her performances of compositions by many of the world's leading contemporary composers.  She has worked particularly closely with John Cage, having performed the world premiere of all of Cage's Two3 for SHO and Conch in Italy in 1992, and is also associated with composers such as Toru Takemitsu, Toshio Hosokawa, Helmut Lachenmann, Paul M?fano, Klaus Huber, Pierre-Yves Artaud, Zsigmond Szathm?ry, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Maki Ishii, and Joji Yuasa, having been invited to premiere many of their works. Such highlights include major works such as Takemitsu's evocative "Ceremonial -An Autumn Ode-" with Seiji Ozawa and the Saito Kinen Orchestra and Hosokawa's "Utsurohi Nagi" performed with the WDR Symphony Orchestra, Cologne in 1996 and Hosokawa's "Could and Light" with Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbr?cken Kaiserslautern in 2008. In 1997 Ms. Miyata participated in the tremendously successful world premiere in Hamburg of Lachenmann's major operatic work "The Little Match Girl", which was followed by performances at the Staatstheater Stuttgart and the Opera national de Paris.  In 2007 Ms. Miyata has premiered Gerhard Stabler's new work for SHO and Orchestra in Duisburg.

Furthermore her recent orchestra engagements include BBC Symphony Orchestra with Kazushi Ono, Orchestre Symphonique de la Monnaie with Kazushi Ono, NHK Symphony Orchestra with Charles Dutoit for their European tour in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vienna, Munich and Berlin, New York Philharmonic with Andr? Previn, PMF International Orchestra with PMF International Orchestra, Tanglewood Festival Orchestra with Seiji Ozawa, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra with Vladimir Ashkenazy, Bamberger Symphoniker with Jonathan Nott, Orchestre National de Lyon with Jun Maerkl, Munich Chamber Orchestra with Alexander Liebreich. 

Highlights of Ms. Miyata's career include such diverse engagements as her performance of the Japanese National Anthem at the Opening Ceremony of the Nagano Winter Olympic Games and her work with Bj?rk on the soundtrack to Matthew Barney's film Drawing restraint 9, in which she appears playing her instrument.

In 2005 she was nominated as cultural ambassador by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs and as such toured Europe giving concerts, workshops and collaborating with local artists and composers, promoting knowledge of the SHO overseas.