Thomas Mank

Jan Willem de Vriend is Principal Conductor of the Wiener KammerOrchester, Principal Guest Conductor of the City of Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, and artistic partner of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. He makes regular guest appearances with such ensembles as the Belgian National Orchestra, HR-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Melbourne Symphony, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony.
In the 2025/26 season Jan Willem de Vriend returns to the Musikkollegium Winterthur, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Stavanger Symphony, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Trondheim Symphony and Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich. He will also appear in a semi-staged opera productionof Lo Speziale (Director: Eva Buchmann) at the Ludwigsburger Schloßfestspiele.

Furthermore three new recordings were recently released: Mozart Piano Concertos Nos 20 & 12 (Dejan Lazić/ Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra – Challenge Records), Schumann Symphonies Nos 3 & 4 (Stavanger Symphony Orchestra – Challenge Records) and Emilie Mayer Symphonies Nos 4 & 6 (NDR Radiophilharmonie – CPO).

Jan Willem de Vriend was Principal Conductor of the Residentie Orkest Den Haag and Chief Conductor of Phion, Orkest van Gelderland & Overijssel. He was also Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestre National de Lille, Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, South Netherlands Philharmonic and the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra.

De Vriend and the Netherland Symphony Orchestra went on to record a substantial Beethoven catalogue for Challenge Classics, embracing the complete symphonies and concertos (with Hannes Minnaar and Liza Ferschtman among the soloists). Classic FM praised the interpretation of Symphony No 7 for “a bounding flair that does real justice to the composer’s capacity for joy”. Further landmarks in the Challenge Classics catalogue are the complete Mendelssohn
symphonies, again with the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, and the complete symphonies of Schubert, recorded with the Residentie Orkest, also de Vriend’s orchestra for a Decca recording of Mendelssohn’s complete works for piano and orchestra.

De Vriend first established an international reputation as Artistic Director of the Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, which he established in 1982 and led from the violin until 2015. Specialising in music of the 17th and 18th century, and applying historically informed practice on modern instruments, the consort gave new life to many rarely heard works and Gramophone magazine praised its players as “with technical finesse and a lively feeling for characterisation”. Its collaborative spirit lives on in de Vriend’s approach as he explores and energises the symphonic repertoire, in particular the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms and Johann Strauss.

In the field of opera, in both Europe and the USA, de Vriend and Combattimento Consort Amsterdam gave performances of works by Monteverdi, Haydn, Handel, Telemann, and J.S. Bach (the Hunting and Coffee cantatas at the Leipzig Bach Festival), all in stagings by the director Eva Buchmann. Operas by such composers as Mozart, Verdi and Cherubini featured in his seasons with the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, which included a visit to Switzerland with productions of Don Giovanni and Rossini’s La Gazzetta, again directed by Eva Buchmann. De Vriend has also conducted operas in Amsterdam (Nederlandse Reisopera), Barcelona, Strasbourg, Luzern, Schwetzingen and Bergen.

In the Netherlands he has presented several television series and is well known for his appearances on a variety of other programmes about music. In 2012 he received a prize from the national station NPO Radio 4 for his creative contribution to classical music.

2025/2026
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Gérard Korsten is Conductor Laureate of the Symphonieorchester Vorarlberg, as a guest
conductor he appears with orchestra such as Adelaide Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony,
Budapest Festival Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Gävle
Symphony, Helsingborg Symphony, Hessische Staatsorchester Wiesbaden, Hong Kong
Philharmonic, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Latvian National Symphony, London Mozart Players,
Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre national Auvergne-
Rhone-Alpes, Pannon Philharmonic Orchestra, Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Slovak
Philharmonic and the SWR Sinfonieorchester. Gérard Korsten has conducted over 100
orchestras in 24 countries.

Gérard Korsten’s recent operatic appearances have included: Teatro alla Scala, Milan (Le nozze
di Figaro); Opéra National de Lyon (Ariadne auf Naxos, Idomeneo, La traviata, Siegfried, La
Veuve joyeuse and Henze’s L’Upupa); Bregenz Festival (Simon Laks’ L’Hirondelle inattendue,
Die Zauberflöte, Le Rossignol, Der Schauspieldirektor); Deutsche Oper Berlin (La traviata);
English National Opera (Aida); Glyndebourne Festival (Così fan tutte, Albert Herring); Maggio
Musicale Fiorentino (Così fan tutte); Netherlands Opera (Così fan tutte); New National Theatre,
Tokyo (Tosca); Royal Opera Stockholm (Don Giovanni) and Hungarian State Opera (Don
Pasquale). Further ahead he will conduct a Don Giovanni production at the Cape Town Opera.

After 13 years as Principal Conductor of Austria’s Symphonieorchester Vorarlberg Bregenz,
Gérard Korsten was awarded Conductor Laureate in summer 2018. Previously he has served as
Principal Conductor of the London Mozart Players, the South African State Theatre in Pretoria
and the Uppsala Chamber Orchestra in Sweden. From 1999 to 2005 he was Music Director of
the Orchestra del Teatro Lirico di Cagliari in Sardinia. At the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, he not
only conducted the Italian premieres of Richard Strauss’ Die ägyptische Helena, Weber’s
Euryanthe, Delius’ A Village Romeo and Juliet and Schubert’s Alfonso und Estrella, but also
repertoire classics such as Aida, Carmen, Die Fledermaus, Die Zauberflöte, Don Pasquale, Il
barbiere di Siviglia, La Traviata, Lucia di Lammermoor, Tosca, Un ballo in maschera and more
recently Don Giovanni. After 13 years as Principal Conductor of Austria’s Symphonieorchester
Vorarlberg Bregenz, Gérard Korsten was awarded Conductor Laureate in summer 2018.

Gérald Korsten’s Arthaus DVD of Le nozze di Figaro, recorded at La Scala with a cast led by
Diana Damrau and Ildebrando d’Arcangelo, was awarded a Diapason D’Or in France and
designated Critic’s Choice by US magazine Opera News. His other recordings include
Tchaikovsky’s Serenade and Souvenir de Florence with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe
(Deutsche Grammophon), orchestral works by Crusell, Lindblad and Eggert (Naxos), La Veuve
joyeuse (DVD, Erato) and a number of live recordings with the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari: Die
ägyptische Helena, Euryanthe and Lucia di Lammermoor on CD (Dynamic) and, on DVD,
Alfonso und Estrella (Dynamic) and Don Pasquale (Arthaus).

Born in Pretoria, Gérard Korsten began his career as an orchestral violinist. After studies with
Ivan Galamian at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia he went to Salzburg, where he trained
with Sándor Végh, becoming concertmaster and then Assistant Music Director of Camerata
Salzburg, of which Végh was Principal Conductor. In 1987 Korsten joined the Chamber
Orchestra of Europe as it’s concertmaster; over his nine years with the ensemble he built close
working relationships with such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and
Heinz Holliger.

Gérard Korsten has two daughters and lives in both Zurich and Arezzo (Tuscany) with his wife, Italian soprano Eva Mei.

2025/2026
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The Iranian conductor Hossein Pishkar appears with the Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, Danish Royal Opera Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Noord Nederlands Orkest, Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini, Orchestra Regionale della Toscana, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Staatsorchester Stuttgart and the WDR-Sinfonieorchester.

Notable debuts in the past have included Bizet’s Carmen (stage direction: Barrie Kosky), Shostakovich’s The Nose (stage direction: Àlex Ollé), Verdi’s Aida and Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito at the Royal Danish Opera, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (stage direction: Barrie Kosky) at the Staatsoper Stuttgart and Verdi’s Rigoletto (stage direction: Cristina Mazzavillani Muti) at the Ravenna Festival.

In the 2025/26 season Hossein Pishkar will debut with the Haydn Philharmonic Orchestra in Bolzano, Janacek Philharmonic in Ostrava and the Orchestra of the Lithuanian Opera. He returns to the Belgrade Philharmonic, Orchestra Regionale della Toscana, Noord Nederlands Orkest, Qatar Philharmonic and the Pazaislis Music Festival Lithuania

As an assistant he worked with François-Xavier Roth in the production of Philippe Manoury’s Lab.Oratorium with the Gürzenich-Orchester and as second conductor he took over performances at the philharmonic halls in Cologne and Paris, as well as at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Hossein Pishkar was an assistant of Sylvain Cambreling at the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie for Berg’s Lulu Suite and Rebecca Saunders’ violin concerto Still.

Hossein Pishkar won the prestigious German Conducting Award in 2017, an international competition for young conductors organised by the German Music Council in partnership with Cologne’s leading musical institutions. Additionally in 2017 the German Music Council presented him with the Ernst-von-Schuch Sponsorship Award from the Ernst-von-Schuch Family Foundation.

Hossein Pishkar has received further tuition in masterclasses with Riccardo Muti (Aida in Ravenna in the context of the Italian Opera Academy) and Sir Bernard Haitink (Lucerne Festival
Orchestra). He has participated in Germany’s prestigious Dirigentenforum programme, taking classes with John Carewe, Marko Letonja, Nicolás Pasquet, Mark Stringer and Johannes Schlaefli.

Before moving to Düsseldorf to study conducting with Rüdiger Bohn at the Robert Schumann Hochschule, Hossein Pishkar studied composition and piano in Teheran, where he was born. In Iran he has conducted the Teheran Youth Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Teheran Music School.

2025/2026

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“Daniel Raiskin is clearly a musician of sensibility, well versed in his craft; a further example perhaps
of one last great gift of the old Soviet Union, the rigour and distinction of its conducting schools”
(by David Gutman, Gramophone).

With his unmistakable artistic signature, Daniel Raiskin has become one of the most recognized conductors of his generation and had developed a broad repertoire beyond the mainstream in his strikingly conceived programmes. A son of a prominent musicologist, Daniel Raiskin grew up in St. Petersburg. He attended the celebrated conservatory in his native city and continued his studies in Amsterdam and Freiburg. First focusing on viola, he was inspired to take up the baton as a result of an encounter with the distinguished teacher Lev Savich. In addition, he also took classes with Maestri such as Mariss Jansons, Neeme Järvi, Milan Horvat, Woldemar Nelson und Jorma Panula.

Daniel Raiskin is the Designated Principal Conductor and Music Director of the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra in Ostrava, Principal Conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra in Bratislava, Music Director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra.

In the 2025/26 season tours will take him with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra to Spain and Japan and with the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra to the UK, Amsterdam and Salzburg. His regular guest appearances include the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony, Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra Taiwan, Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestre National de Lyon, Residentie Orkest, Sinfonia Varsovia, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony and Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. Raiskin was Chief Conductor of the Artur Rubinstein Philharmonic Orchestra in Lódz, Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie in Koblenz and the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra in Bratislava, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife.

His appearances in opera productions include Carmen, Shostakovich’s The Nose and Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Festival appearances include Music in the Mountains in Colorado in 2025 and performances with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra at the InClassica Dubai International Music Festival in 2021 and 2022. Furthermore, he conducted the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra on a tour in Japan and South Korea in 2023.

Daniel Raiskin is also relentlessly committed to sharing his knowledge and passion with young musicians around the world. He devotes his time regularly to working with youth orchestras in a.o. Canada, Estonia, Germany, Iceland, Netherlands and South Africa.

Among the major soloists with whom he has appeared are Emanuel Ax, Rudolf Buchbinder, Cameron Crozman, Xavier de Maistre, Renée Fleming, Nelson Freire, Martin Fröst, Alban Gerhardt, Vadim Gluzman, Natalia Gutman, Daniel Hope, Kari Kriikku, Simone Lamsma, Lang Lang, Dejan Lazić, Francois Leleux, Jan Lisiecki, Alexei Lubimov, Tatjana Masurenko, Albrecht Mayer, Daniel Müller-Schott, Olli Mustonen, Julian Rachlin, Benjamin Schmid, Julian Steckel, Anna Vinnitskaya, Lukáš Vondráček and Alexei Volodin.

His extensive discography includes recordings of Mahler Symphony No. 3 and Shostakovich Symphony No. 4 (AVI), both to great critical acclaim, a Louis Glass Symphony cycle and a concerto cycle with the entire concertos and rhapsodies by Aram Khachaturian (CPO), Lutosławski’s vocal-instrumental works (Dux) and a recording of Alexander Tansman’s Isaie le Prophète and Psaumes (World Premiere Recordings). His recording with cello concertos by Korngold, Bloch and Goldschmidt with Julian Steckel (AVI) label received an Echo Klassik Award in 2012.

2025/2026

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As a music director and guest conductor committed to collaboration, innovation and education,
Sarah Ioannides creates vibrant programming that inspires her audience. She was praised by the New York Times for her “undisputed strength and authority.” She is music director of Washington State’s Symphony Tacoma and resident conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America. While centred on the USA, her career as a conductor has taken her to six continents. Sarah Ioannides was the first woman to hold a full-time position as a conductor with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

Born in Australia of Cypriot and Scottish descent, Sarah Ioannides trained in the UK (Oxford University, Guildhall School) and USA (Juilliard School and Curtis Institute). Before assuming her role at Symphony Tacoma in 2014, she established a reputation as the dynamic music director of both the El Paso Symphony Orchestra in Texas and the Spartanburg Philharmonic in South Carolina.

Her extensive repertoire, which spans four centuries, has been enriched through her work with living composers, not least as the conductor of over 60 world, North American and European premieres. She has collaborated with such figures as Steve Reich, Aaron J Kernis, Zosha Di Castri, Patrice Rushen and in the earlier years of her career was mentored by Tan Dun, notably taking charge of the Australian and Greek premieres of his Water Passion after St. Matthew and acting as his assistant conductor with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra.  One of her earliest operatic projects was the European premiere of Stephen Paulus’s The Woodlanders.

In addition to her Symphony Tacoma season, her North American appearances include orchestras such as Buffalo Philharmonic, Calgary Philharmonic, the Florida Orchestra, Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Hawai’I Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Rochester Philharmonic, Sarasota Orchestra, Seattle Symphony and the Lake Chelan Bach Fest. The programming ranges wide – from Mozart to re-emerging composers like Louise Farrenc, Florence Price, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Joseph Boulogne, and contemporary works by Aaron J Kernis, Valerie Coleman, Bernard Roumain, Nick DiBerardino and Jesse Montgomery.

Beyond North America, Sarah Ioannides’ past and current engagements include the Bilbao Symphony, Brussels Philharmonic, Daejeon Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Konzerthaus-orchester Berlin, Malmö Symphony, Nordic Chamber Orchestra, Tonkünstler-Orchester, Orchestre National de Lyon, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Simón Bolívar Symphony.

Making creative use of technology to expand musical horizons, she has led numerous multimedia projects in both the concert hall and the digital environment. These include videos to illustrate Holst’s Planets, Steve Reich’s Desert Music and Milhaud’s Création du Monde and, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Symphony Tacoma’s Encore Series and the ‘digital collage’ Eternal Light: inspired by Mozart’s Requiem, it comprises clips of music, dance, poetry and visual art created by students in the Pacific Northwest.

One of Sarah Ioannides’ significant achievements in the field of education is Cascade Conducting & Composing; she is Founding Artistic Director of this annual Tacoma-based programme, established in 2017, which offers scholarships to diverse musicians from the US and the rest of the world. Furthermore she is the newly appointed Director of Orchestral Activities at Boston University beginning in August 2024. In 2025 she will conduct the Massachusetts All-State Festival Orchestra and in 2023 she was the Resident Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra – USA. Among the conservatory orchestras she conducts are those of Yale University, Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music and Bloomington’s Jacobs School of Music. A sought-after guest speaker, Sarah Ioannides sits on numerous advisory boards and has served as both panelist of the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) for the US Government and delegate at the World Culture Summit in Abu-Dhabi. In 2022 she spoke at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s Women in Classical Music Symposium and conference. In June 2023 she was a panelist at ‘Bridges to the Future’, and at the conference of the League of American Orchestras.

2025 / 2026

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