Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

German conductor Kevin John Edusei is sought-after the world over. He is praised repeatedly for the drama and tension in his music-making and the sense of architecture, warmth and stylistic insight that he brings to his performances. He is deeply committed to the creative elements of performance, cultivating audiences and conducting an eclectic range of repertoire.

In the 2025/26 season, Edusei will be Conductor-in-Residence with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, which will include three specially curated programmes at London's iconic Cadogan Hall. He continues to be in high demand in North America where he debuts with the Atlanta and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras and returns to the Kansas City, Colorado, Indianapolis and Seattle Symphony orchestras. Other engagements this season include returns to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra as well as his debut with the Prague Symphony Orchestra and Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León.

Highlights of Edusei’s guest conducting in recent years have included his critically acclaimed debut with the New York Philharmonic, concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic and with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Musikverein. In 2024 he conducted the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra in the Opus Klassik Awards ceremony and recently made his Asian debut with the Taiwan Philharmonic. 

In 2022, Edusei made his debut at the Royal Ballet and Opera conducting Puccini's La bohème, which was streamed across cinemas world-wide, and in 2023/24 he returned for a production of Madama Butterfly. Previously he has enjoyed great success with productions at the Semperoper Dresden, English National Opera, Hamburg State Opera, Volksoper Wien and Komische Oper Berlin. During his tenure at the Bern Opera House, he led highly acclaimed new productions including Peter Grimes, Salome, Bluebeard’s Castle, Kátya Kábanová, Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde and a cycle of the Mozart-Da-Ponte operas. 

Edusei studied orchestral conducting at the University of the Arts Berlin and the Royal Conservatory The Hague. In 2004 he was awarded a conducting fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival by David Zinman, in 2007 he was a prize-winner at the Lucerne Festival conducting competition under the artistic direction of Pierre Boulez and in 2008 he won the first prize of the Dimitri Mitropoulos Competition in Athens. Edusei is an alumnus of the Deutsche Bank Akademie Musiktheater heute and the Dirigentenforum of the German Music Council. He is the former Chief Conductor of the Munich Symphony Orchestra and the Bern Opera House. He resides with his family in Munich.

www.kevinjohnedusei.com

Twitter: @kevinjohnedusei

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James Ehnes has established himself as one of the most sought-after musicians on the international stage. Gifted with a rare combination of stunning virtuosity, serene lyricism and an unfaltering musicality, James is a favorite guest at the world’s most celebrated concert halls.

Recent orchestral highlights include the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, San Francisco Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra and Munich Philharmonic. Throughout the 2022-23 season, James continues as artist-in-residence with the National Arts Centre of Canada.

Alongside his concerto work, James maintains a busy recital schedule. He performs regularly at the Wigmore Hall (including the complete cycle of Beethoven Sonatas in 2019-20, and the complete violin/viola works of Brahms and Schumann in 2021-22), Carnegie Hall, Symphony Center Chicago, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Ravinia, Montreux, Verbier Festival, Dresden Music Festival and Festival de Pâques in Aix. A devoted chamber musician, he is the leader of the James Quartet and the artistic director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society.

James has an extensive discography and has won many awards for his recordings, including two Grammy Awards, a Gramophone Award and 11 Juno Awards. In 2021, James was announced as the recipient of the coveted Artist of the Year title in the 2021 Gramophone Awards, which celebrated his recent contributions to the recording industry, including the launch of a new online recital series entitled Recitals from Home, which was released in June 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent closure of concert halls. James recorded the six Bach sonatas and partitas and six sonatas of Ysaÿe from his home with state-of-the-art recording equipment and released six episodes over the period of two months. These recordings have been met with great critical acclaim by audiences worldwide, and James was described by Le Devoir as being “at the absolute forefront of the streaming evolution.”

James began violin studies at the age of 5, became a protégé of the noted Canadian violinist Francis Chaplin at age 9 and made his orchestra debut with L’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal at age 13. He continued his studies with Sally Thomas at the Meadowmount School of Music and The Juilliard School, winning the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music upon his graduation in 1997. He is a member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Manitoba, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and an honorary fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, where he is a visiting professor.