Vienna Philharmonic

No other orchestra is as closely connected to the history and tradition of European classical music as the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Over the past 180 years, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra has experienced and changed the history of music around the world. To this day, a large number of outstanding soloists and conductors with the imprint of the "Vienna Sound" continue to emerge, making this orchestra stand out.

Since its founding in 1842 by Otto Nicolai, then conductor of the Vienna Court Opera, and musicians of the Opera Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra has been favored by outstanding composers, conductors and audiences around the world. The secret lies not only in the careful preservation of the pure musical style and the careful and rigorous inheritance from generation to generation, but also in the democratic mechanism pursued by the orchestra, which gives the decision-making power of art and management to the musicians. The wonderful relationship between the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra is also one of the secrets of the orchestra's unique sound. The Vienna Philharmonic's system stipulates that only members of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra have the opportunity to become members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Another unique feature of this democratic mechanism is that the orchestra can independently organize concerts, select repertoires, or hire conductors and soloists. To this day, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is still one of the few world-class orchestras without a permanent conductor, which allows the orchestra to establish extensive artistic exchanges with the most outstanding conductors of each generation. The elite conductors of all generations have left behind a vast number of precious records, classic images and excellent reputations with the orchestra.

The orchestra began touring in the early 20th century and has since toured all continents. In recent years, it has regularly visited Germany, Japan, the United States and China.

The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra holds about 40 concerts in Vienna every year. Among them, the New Year's Concert and the Schönbrunn Palace Summer Night Concert are broadcast live around the world and have become the focus of attention and heated discussion among music lovers around the world. The orchestra has been stationed at the Salzburg Music Festival every year since 1922, and it also performs more than 50 concerts during its international tour every year. All these activities have enhanced the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra's reputation as one of the world's top orchestras.

Andris Nelsons

Andris Nelsons is the Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. He is the director of two of the top orchestras in Europe and America and leads the alliance between the two orchestras, making him one of the most famous and popular conductors on the international stage among Grammy Award winners.

Nelsons’ appointment to the Boston Symphony Orchestra began in the 2014/15 season, and to the Gewandhaus Orchestra in February 2018. In the fall of 2019, Nelsons, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Gewandhaus Orchestra completed three joint performances. This groundbreaking alliance has led to further joint commissions, musician exchanges, and educational collaborations. In 2025, the Boston Symphony Orchestra will also participate in the Leipzig Shostakovich Festival with the Gewandhaus Orchestra, marking another milestone in the cooperation. As part of the festival, Nelsons will also conduct the newly formed Festival Orchestra, which is composed of young musicians from the Leipzig Mendelssohn Academy and the Tanglewood Music Center.

Nelsons and the Gewandhaus Orchestra will begin their 2024/25 season with a European tour, including a return to the Lucerne Festival and an opening concert at the Gewandhaus. Nelsons will conduct contemporary works by Thomas Adès, the Gewandhaus’ resident composer, as well as new works by Carlos Simon, the new resident composer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s new season marks Nelsons’ 10th anniversary as the orchestra’s music director and will include performances of the complete Beethoven symphonies, a Carnegie Hall residency in New York, and a European tour. Nelsons will also embark on a four-week Asian tour of China, Japan, and South Korea with the Vienna Philharmonic, and return to the Berlin Philharmonic in December to conduct Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8.

As an exclusive recording artist for Deutsche Grammophon, Nelsons has been instrumental in many landmark projects with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. His recordings of the complete Shostakovich symphonies and Lady Macbeth with the Boston Symphony Orchestra won four Grammy Awards, including Best Orchestral Performance and Best Classical Recording Project. In addition, he recently completed a critically acclaimed complete cycle of Bruckner symphonies with the Gewandhaus Orchestra to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the composer's birth. His recording of the complete Beethoven symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic was released in 2019. As part of the collaboration between the Boston and Gewandhaus orchestras, musicians from both orchestras have also recorded and performed major orchestral works by Richard Strauss, which will be released in 2022.

Nelsons was born in Riga in 1978 into a musical family. While studying conducting, he began his career as a trumpeter in the Latvian National Opera Orchestra. From 2008 to 2015, he served as Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; from 2006 to 2009, he served as Chief Conductor of the Northwestern German Philharmonic Orchestra; from 2003 to 2007, he served as Music Director of the Latvian National Opera.

Yefim Bronfman

Grammy Award winner Yefim Bronfman is internationally recognized as one of the most acclaimed and admired pianists today, and is one of the artists who is sought after by major music festivals, symphony orchestras, conductors and solo performances all year round. His superb technique, power and extraordinary lyrical talent have always been recognized by the media and audiences.

In the 2023/24 season, Bronfman embarks on a European tour, following performances at summer festivals in Verbier, Israel, Aspen, Grand Teton and Sun Valley. He participates in concerts celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Munich Opera and Orchestra in Lucerne, Bucharest, London, Paris, Linz, Vienna and Munich. He also visits Japan and South Korea with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, followed by a tour in the United States with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, National Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Francisco Symphony and Minnesota Orchestra. He also performs in Spain and Carnegie Hall with the Munich Philharmonic, and on a European tour with the Budapest Festival Orchestra. His winter/spring recital tour began in Ljubljana and traveled to Milan, Berlin, Cleveland, Chicago, Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, La Jolla, and finally concluded at Carnegie Hall in May.

Bronfman has collaborated with distinguished conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Gustavo Dudamel, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Sir Simon Rattle, and has also explored chamber music with Pinchas Zukerman, Martha Argerich, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Emanuel Pahud.

Yefim Bronfman was born in Tashkent, Soviet Union. He immigrated to Israel with his family at the age of 15, and later studied with Ali Vardi, the dean of the Rubin School of Music at Tel Aviv University and a pianist. In the United States, he studied at the Juilliard School, the Marlboro School of Music, and the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Rudolf Filkushny, Leon Fleisher, and Rudolf Serkin. He has won the prestigious Avery Fisher Award (one of the highest honors for American instrumentalists), the Jean Kimbell Lane Piano Performance Award from Northwestern University in 2010, and an honorary doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music in 2015.