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Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan has forged a unique career at the very highest level. Her captivating, pre-eminent performances of twentieth and twenty-first century repertoire - she has given over 75 world premieres - have won new audiences for contemporary music.

Widely acclaimed for her interpretations of Ligeti, recent highlights have included performances of his Le Grand Macabre, Mysteries of the Macabre and Requiem with the New York Philharmonic (Alan Gilbert), Berliner Philharmoniker (Sir Simon Rattle) and Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks (Esa-Pekka Salonen) respectively.

In May 2011 Barbara created the title role in the premiere production of Hosokawa's opera Matsukaze (directed by Sasha Waltz) at Theatre de la Monnaie. Future engagements include opera productions at the Royal Opera House and Gran Teatre de Liceu; a European tour of Boulez's Pli selon pli with Ensemble intercontemporain conducted by the composer; and further concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker (with whom she is a frequent guest artist).

Increasingly performing as a soprano-conductor, Barbara has sung/directed Mozart and Ligeti with the Britten Sinfonia and the Avanti Ensemble. Future engagements as a soprano-conductor include performances of Ligeti with Budapest's UMZE Ensemble and works by Ligeti, Rossini, Mozart and Stravinsky with the Gulbenkian Orchestra.

Barbara Hannigan has also sung with The Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre National de France, and appeared at the Salzburg and Aix-en-Provence festivals and at the BBC Proms.

Photos by: Elmer de Haas

www.barbarahannigan.com

Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen is one of the most reputable and versatile musicians on today's classical music scene. Exceedingly active both as a soloist and chamber musician, his repertoire covers all of the standard works for cello, as well as myriad forgotten masterpieces and his own arrangements. He plays on modern, classical, and baroque cellos, as well as the violoncello piccolo.

Anssi Karttunen is a passionate advocate for contemporary music. He has performed over 125 world premieres, collaborating with such composers as Magnus Lindeberg, Kaija Saariaho, Rolf Wallin, Luca Francesconi, and Tan Dun. An astounding 24 concertos have been written for him. He premiered Magnus Lindberg's cello concerto with the Orchestre de Paris, Esa-Pekka Salonen's Mania with Avanti!, Martin Matalon's cello concerto with the Orchestre National de France, and Luca Francesconi's Rest with the RAI Torino. Kaija Saariaho wrote the concerto Notes on Light for Karttunen, which he premiered with the Boston Symphoyn Orchestra, who commissioned the work, in February 2007. Performances of Notes on Light with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio, North German Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, and the New World Symphony followed. In May 2010, Saariaho was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award.

In autumn 2011, he will perform Notes on Light at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden to Wayne McGregor's critically acclaimed choreography. Further highlights in the 2011/2012 season include concerts with the Orchestre National de France and the Concertgebouw Orkest, a performance at the opening concert of the Musiikkitalo Helsinki, and a master class at Carnegie Hall in collaboration with Kaija Saariaho. In Buenos Aires, he will provide the soundtrack to choreography by Diana Theocharidis. His Zebra Trio, with violinist Ernst Kovacic and violist Steven Dann he will perform a number of concerts on both sides of the Atlantic.

Anssi Karttunen has worked with world-renowned orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony, NHK Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Ensemble Modern, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Residentie Orchestra, Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona, Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, RAI Torino, Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Avanti!, and many more. He also performs regularly as soloist and chamber musician at Europe's most important music festivals, including Edinburgh, Salzburg, Lockenhaus, Spoleto, Berlin, Venice, Montpellier, Straßburg, and Helsinki.

His recordings traverse a broad spectrum of musical taste, from Beethoven's complete works for cello and piano on period instruments, to 20th century solo pieces, to concertos performed with the London Sinfonietta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. He has released recordings of concertos by Lindberg, Saariaho, and Salonen with Sony Classical. With Deutsche Grammophon, he released a DVD of Tan Dun's The Map for cello, video, and orchestra. He also appeared on the first ever contemporary music CD-ROM, Prisma, featuring the music of Kaija Saariaho. Karttunen is a founding member of www.petals.org, a non-profit organization for the production and sale of CDs and scores over the internet.

Born in 1960, Anssi Karttunen studied with Erkki Rautio, William Pleeth, Jacqueline du Pré, and Tibor de Machula, among others. Between 1994 and 1998 he was the artistic director of the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra. He directed the Helsinki Biennale in 1995 and the Suvisoitto Festival in Porvoo, Finland from 1994 until 1997. From 1999 until 2005 he was principal cellist with the London Sinfonietta. He has also appeared as a conductor with various ensembles. In February 2000, he stepped in last minute to conduct Lindberg's Kraft in Antwerp, and in January 2003, he conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic Cello Ensemble. Anssi Karttunen plays on a Francesco Ruggeri cello.

www.karttunen.org

Two-time Grammy nominated violinist Jesse Mills enjoys performing music of many genres, from classical to contemporary, as well as composed and improvised music of his own invention.

http://www.jesse-mills.com/

Photo by David Penner

Violinist Anna Elashvili, hailed as "riveting" by the New York Times, has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in major halls around the world. She has collaborated with renowned artists such as Lynn Harrell, Dawn Upshaw, and Peter Serkin and performed solo with Maxim Vengerov.

In 2006 Ms. Elashvili was nominated to be a fellow at The Academy, A Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School and the Weill Music Institute, a program for which she is now a fellowship mentor and an active alumna. As a part of the Academy family, she performed at Carnegie Hall regularly and brought classical music to New York City’s public schools. As an alumna, she has traveled to Mexico, Germany, Canada and around the United States teaching, mentoring (based on The Academy's methods) and performing. She will also be going to Iceland and Japan later this year.

Ms. Elashvili is the first violinist of the Bryant Park Quartet, currently in residence at Stony Brook University’s Community Music Program and performs in the Brooklyn Philharmonic and Carnegie's Zankel Band. She has appeared as concertmaster with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Phoenix Symphony, the Verbier Festival Orchestra, String Orchestra of New York City (SONYC), and the Colorado Music Festival Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Elashvili is on faculty at the Third Street Music School Settlement in Manhattan and taught at the Kinhaven Music School in Vermont this past summer.

As the former member of the Fountain Ensemble and current violinist of the Bryant Park Quartet, she is a prizewinner of several international competitions. She received her Bachelors and Masters Degree by 2001 from The Juilliard School as a student of Masao Kawasaki and Joel Smirnoff. In her hometown of Baltimore, she graduated from the Baltimore School for the Arts and Peabody Preparatory's Arts for Talented Youth program where she studied violin and chamber music with Violaine Melançon, Klara Berkovich and the Peabody Trio, as well as, composition and dance.

http://www.annaelashvili.com

Steven Dann’s career has covered a wealth of violistic possibilities. As principal viola of some of the world’s leading orchestras, as a veteran of the string quartet and chamber music world, as soloist and recitalist and as a dedicated teacher, Mr. Dann has left all the doors open.

http://www.stevendann.org

Pianist Pedja Muzijevic has performed with the Atlanta Symphony, the Residentie Orkest in The Hague, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, Shinsei Nihon Orchestra in Tokyo, Orquesta Sinfonica in Montevideo, Zagreb Philharmonic, among others. He has played solo recitals at Alice Tully Hall in New York, Casals Hall and Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, Teatro Municipal in Santiago de Chile, Da Camera of Houston, The Frick Collection in New York, National Gallery in Washington, DC, Lincoln Center’s What Makes It Great Series in New York, and many others. His Carnegie Hall concerto debut playing Mozart Concerto K. 503 with Oberlin Symphony and Robert Spano was recorded live and has been released on the Oberlin Music label. Mr. Muzijevic’s 2011/12 season includes a solo recital at the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in Kalamazoo, MI, return to Zagreb Radio Symphony Orchestra with conductor Thomas Sanderling in Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto no. 2, two weeks of performances of Bach’s Branderburg Concertos on harpsichord with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, a Schubert program on a copy of 1820’s fortepiano for Da Camera of Houston, return to Stanford Lively Arts with the St. Lawrence String Quartet, as well as concerts at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica, CA. He made his Atlanta Symphony debut in the summer of 2009, playing Mozart Piano Concerto K. 466 with Grant Llewellyn and was immediately re-engaged for his subscription debut in 2010, playing Mozart Piano Concerto K. 453 with Gilbert Varga. He made his St. Paul Chamber Orchestra debut in 2009 playing Berg Chamber Concerto with violinist Steven Copes and conductor Douglas Boyd.

His many festival engagements encompass, among others, performances at Tanglewood, Spoleto USA, Mostly Mozart, Newport, Bridgehampton, Aldeburgh, Lucerne, Holland, Melbourne, Aix-en-Provence, Dubrovnik, Merano and Bratislava Festivals.

http://www.pedjamuzijevic.com/