Maria Canyigueral has been described by La Vanguardia as 'a pianist of great personality'. One of the leading lights among the new generation of Spanish pianists, Maria Canyigueral has inspired collaborations with outstanding contemporary Spanish composers such as Antón García Abril, Benet Casablancas, Joan Magrané, Josep Maria Guix and others. Her partnership with Antón García Abril has been particularly successful, attracting high praise from critics and audiences both in Spain and the UK. Antón García Abril has written 'Reverberaciones' for Maria's 'Avant-guarding Mompou' project and 'Hoy es siempre todavía' for her Horn trio. Having spent her formative years between Spain and the UK, she has since attracted a devoted following of her worldwide concert itineraries. Having completed her undergraduate studies at the Conservatori del Liceu in Barcelona with Michel Wagemans, she later attained a Master of Arts in Performance from the Royal Academy of Music in London, studying with Sulamita Aronovsky. She has also received musical advice from Nino Kereselidze and André de Groote. Maria Canyigueral’s name soon became a fixture of the international piano circuit, embracing Spain, the UK, Japan (Tokyo, Nagoya), Belgium and other countries. Recent highlights include solo recitals at Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona and at Fundación Juan March in Madrid; a recital at the Wigmore hall with violinist Lana Trotovsek; a performance as part of the composition seminar by Benet Casablancas at the Royal Academy of Music, London; solo appearances at the Festival Portaferrada, Schubertíada Vilabertran and Festival de Música de Cervia - Ibercamera; recitals in Zulte, Belgium; and a performance at the Echoes Festival, St. James Piccadilly, London. In addition to her live performances, Maria has made an impact with her recordings of chamber music. She won the Gold Medal at the Global Music Awards in California for her album of works by C. Franck, Granados, Skerjanc and Finzi, recorded with violinist Lana Trotovsek (Hedone Records, 2016). A recording with flautist Boris Bizjak, of works by Martinu, Poulenc, Fauré and Böhm, was also released by Hedone Records in 2016. She is currently recording the complete set of Sonatas for violin and piano by Beethoven with violinist Lana Trotovsek. Maria has lately been working with internationally known composers on her own project ‘Avant-Guarding Mompou’. This was premiered at Conway Hall, London in June 2018 and featured contributions from Nicolas Bacri, Antón García Abril, Joseph Phibbs, Konstantia Gourzi, Jiri Gemrot, Josep Maria Guix, Joan Magrané, Victor Estapé and Moritz Eggert. The project was supported by Instituto Cervantes, Arts Council England, Institut Ramon Llull, Fundació Mompou and fashion label Lilly e Violetta. Released on Cd on the Audite label. Having now been a touring artist for many years, Maria Canyigueral has continuous plans for further international performances including solo recitals in Spain and England. A return appearance in Duo with Lana Trotovsek at Ljubljana Festival and Lozer Festival, featuring the complete set of sonatas by Beethoven. Recitals in Serbia and Scotland.

Jean-Baptiste Dupont enjoys as musician an international career. He performed more than 500 recitals in most of the European countries, in the USA and in Russia, in prestigious venues (Cathedrals from Paris, New York, Berlin, London, Cologne, Copenhagen, Mariinsky concert hall, Bolshoi Theatre, etc...). He has a broad repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to the present days, including many transcriptions. Jean-Baptiste Dupont has been hailed as one of the greatest young improvisers on the organ. He is a frequent guest performer at international festivals, radios, etc. As a specialist of improvisation, he’s regularly invited to give masterclasses and workshops on that field. He has been a jury member in competitions in France, USA and Germany. Born in 1979, Jean-Baptiste Dupont began his musical studies at the piano. He discovered the organ later, at the age of 12, and began organ studies at the Institute of Sacred Music of Toulouse. He graduated with distinction from the organ department at the Conservatoire in Toulouse. As one of the top alumni of the Conservatoire, he was awarded the Francis Vidal prize by the city of Toulouse in 2006 and subsequently continued his studies at the Centre d’Etudes Supérieures de Musique et Danse in Toulouse where he obtained performing and teaching diplomas. Jean-Baptiste Dupont’s organ, improvisation, harpsichord and piano teachers included Michel Bouvard, Louis Robilliard, Philippe Lefebvre, Jan Willem Jansen and Thérèse Dussaut. He was finalist and laureate in many organ competitions, both in interpretation and improvisation. He won the 1st prize (improvisation) in St-Albans international competition in July 2009 ; the 2nd prize, audience prize, Glinka and De Boni Arte foundations prizes in "Mikael Tariverdiev" competition in Kaliningrad, Russia, 2009 ; and the 3rd prize in “Xavier Darasse” international competition (Toulouse, France) in October 2008. Latest releases include Widor's Symphonie No. 8 for the label audite. His work on Max Reger’s complete organ works have been acclaimed by international press and gained an international recognition, and subsequently, Jean-Baptiste Dupont was invited in several symposium and international events about the composer. Jean-Baptiste Dupont was appointed organist at Bordeaux Cathedral after a competition which took place in April 2012. He was founder and artistic director of Cathedra (sacred music at Bordeaux Cathedral) from 2014 to 2019, and speaks up for the rebuilding of the cathedral organ.

Ann-Helena Schlüter is one of the most versatile artists of her generation and enjoys international renown as a concert pianist and organist, and also as a composer, poet and writer of books. Born into a family of pianists, the German-Swedish musician received her first lessons from her parents, Ann-Margret and Prof. Karl-Heinz Schlüter. She went on to study piano, organ, composition, musicology, music and instrumental education, which took her to Perth, Australia, as well as Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA. She completed her training as a concert pianist with Bernd Glemser and as a concert organist with Pieter van Dijk and Christoph Bossert. International masterclasses with, amongst others, Hakim, Latry, Roth, Jacobs, Perticaroli, Schmeding, Gulda, Weissenberg, Kämmerling, Gililov, Margulis, Badura-Skoda and Hewitt complemented her training. Ann-Helena Schlüter won prizes at the International Piano Competitions in Nuremberg, Munich, London and Ettlingen as well as at the Steinway Piano Competition in Hamburg and in Italy. Prior to that she won several first and special prizes as well as scholarships at the Jugend musiziert competition, and also at international literary competitions. She is a sought-after soloist worldwide on the piano and organ. In addition to numerous concert engagements in Germany and other European countries, she has appeared in Israel, Russia, Africa and Nepal, in the Philippines, Australia, the USA and Asia, performing alongside renowned orchestras such as the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, the Jena Philharmonie, the Nuremberg Staatsphilharmonie, the MasterWorks Festival Orchestra and various chamber orchestras at distinguished venues, including the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Stuttgart Liederhalle, Salzburg Mozarteum, Berlin Admiralspalast, Nuremberg Meistersingerhalle, Schloss Elmau and the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg. Numerous recordings for the Bavarian, North German and Saarland Radio with piano and organ document her work. Schlüter has received scholarships from the DAAD, Erasmus, the Gisela Bartels Foundation, the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, the Oscar and Vera Ritter Foundation, the Neumann Foundation Frankfurt, the Richard Wagner Foundation Bayreuth and the Salzburg Festival, among others. She has taught her own piano class at the Universität and Hochschule für Musik Würzburg, devoting herself intensively to nurturing young talent as well as teaching the music of Bach.

The 32-year-old conductor Dominik Beykirch has been shaping the artistic profile of the Deutsches Nationaltheater (DNT) and the Staatskapelle Weimar since the 2015/16 season. Initially engaged as Kapellmeister, he was appointed "Chief Conductor Music Theatre" in 2020. With the 2023/2024 season, he will continue his ongoing work as music director. Highlights of the 2023/2024 music theatre season at the DNT for Dominik Beykirch are the new productions of Richard Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer directed by Barbora Horáková and Giacomo Puccini's opera cycle Il Trittico (director: Dirk Schmeding). The programme also includes Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos in Martin G. Berger's award-winning production (FAUST Prize 2020) and Vincenzo Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi, a joint work with Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito from spring 2023. In the symphonic field, Dominik Beykirch will perform with pianist Frank Dupree, among others. The two artists share an intensive collaboration, particularly audible on the CD with Nikolai Kapustin's Fifth Piano Concerto (Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Capriccio), which was released in February 2023. For this award-winning recording (International Classical Music Award, Diapason d'Or), Dominik Beykirch was nominated as Conductor of the Year for the OPUS-Klassik. Further CD recordings with works by the Ukrainian composer are planned. Dominik Beykirch returns to the Dresden Philharmonic and the Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt, among others, as a guest conductor. In Dresden, he will conduct works by Richard Strauss, Korngold, and Rachmaninoff (soloist: Cameron Carpenter) in Potsdam and Frankfurt/Oder works by Haydn, Orff and Mendelssohn. With his opera conductorships at the DNT, Dominik Beykirch repeatedly sets internationally acclaimed standards. For instance, on his initiative, the opera Samson by the Swiss composer Joachim Raff was performed for the first time after 170 years in October 2022 (directed by Calixto Bieito), and the radio recording was broadcast in Austria and Switzerland, among other countries. In the 2019/2020 season, Dominik Beykirch celebrated great success with the opera Lanzelot by Paul Dessau, which was performed for the first time in 40 years. The journal "Opernwelt" awarded the production directed by Peter Konwitschny as "Rediscovery of the Year" and at the same time nominated Dominik Beykirch as "Conductor of the Year". The CD label Audite released the recording of the entire opera in January 2023. The recording, which received much attention from the press, was awarded the German Record Critics' Prize and the "CD of the Year" ("Opernwelt"), among others. His musical direction of new productions such as Aida (director: Andrea Moses) or L'italiana in Algeri (director: Tobias Kratzer), was also met with great response from audiences and the press. Dominik Beykirch has already worked with numerous renowned orchestras, such as the symphony orchestras of the HR, MDR, WDR and SWR (German broadcast services), the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Duisburg Philharmonic, the Jena Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Halle, the Bremen Philharmonic, the Nuremberg Symphony, the Philharmonie Zuidnederland (Netherlands), the Württemberg Philharmonic Reutlingen, the State Orchestra Rheinische Philharmonie, the Philharmonie Südwestfalen, the Hofer Symphony and the Folkwang Chamber Orchestra Essen. He has also been a guest conductor at the Leipzig Opera, the Kassel State Theatre and the Chemnitz Theatre and has conducted numerous performances at the Dresden State Operetta. He has also conducted important rehearsals for Markus Poschner, Andres Orozco-Estrada and Christoph Eschenbach, among others, and worked with soloists such as Jens Peter Maintz, Claudio Bohórquez, Nemanja Radulovic, Harriet Krijgh, Michael Barenboim and Jan Vogler. In 2020, the album Clarinet Concertos was released on the Berlin Classics label, on which clarinettist Sebastian Manz interprets the Clarinet Concerto by Danish composer Carl Nielsen, composed in 1928, together with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken under the direction of Dominik Beykirch. Dominik Beykirch also recorded Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf with the Dresden Philharmonic for Berlin Classics (narrator: Malte Arkona). His numerous awards include the second prize of 10,000 euros at the German Conducting Prize 2017, first prize at the 6th German University Competition for Orchestral Conducting, as well as sponsorship prizes from the publishing houses Bärenreiter and Breitkopf & Härtel and the Ernst von Schuch Prize. Dominik Beykirch was a scholarship holder in the Conductors' Forum of the German Music Council and was on the artist list "Maestros of Tomorrow" from 2016 to 2019. He is also an alumnus of the German National Academic Foundation and a consultant for choral symphonies at Werkgemeinschaft Musik e.V. In the 2013/14 season, he was Michael Sanderling's assistant at the Dresden Philharmonic. Dominik Beykirch completed his musical education at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in the conducting classes of Prof. Nicolás Pasquet, Prof. Gunter Kahlert and Martin Hoff in Weimar. At the same time, he received enriching artistic impulses from numerous master classes with Bernard Haitink, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Ton Koopman, among others. He now passes on his knowledge as a lecturer for the German Music Council (Conducting Forum) and as part of a teaching assignment at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Academy of Music and Theatre in Leipzig. Status: October 2023