Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

At only 29, Lorenzo Viotti has just recently been appointed principal conductor of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and the Dutch National Opera (DNO) in Amsterdam, starting in the 2021/22 season.

Viotti made his debut with Dutch National Opera earlier than planned, replacing Sir Mark Elder in the verismo double bill Pagliacci / Cavalleria rusticana in September 2019.

The young French-Swiss conductor, currently Music Director of the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon since the beginning of the 2018/19 season, came to international attention as winner of the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Awards 2015 at the age of 25 years and of the Cadaqués International Conducting Competition and the MDR Conducting Competition in 2013.

In 2017 he received the International Opera Newcomer Award.

Lorenzo Viotti has already conducted numerous major international orchestras including the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the  BBC Philharmonic in Manchester, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France Paris, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Tonkünstler Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Göteborgs Symfoniker, the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra,  Wiener Symphoniker, Staatskapelle Dresden, Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London, Filarmonica della Scala Orchestra, Staatskapelle  Berlin, Netherlands Philharmonic, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala and others.

The young conductor’s recent debuts in the USA with the Cleveland Orchestra and in Canada with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal have been highly acclaimed by audiences and critics alike.

In January 2020 he stepped in for Emmanuel Krivine to lead the Orchestre national de France on concerts in Vienna and Bratislava. At the end of February 2020 Lorenzo Viotti also conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for the first time with concerts taking place in Berlin and Baden-Baden. The debut with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra planned for May this year had to be postponed due to the COVIC19 epidemic.

Besides numerous concerts ranging from classical to contemporary repertoire, Viotti has most recently conducted Gounod‘s Romeo and Juliet (La Scala, Milan), Manon Lescaut (Oper Frankfurt), Rigoletto (Staatsoper Stuttgart and Semperoper Dresden), Werther (Oper Frankfurt and Opernhaus Zürich), Tosca (Oper Frankfurt and New National Theatre Tokyo), Carmen (Staatsoper Hamburg and Opéra national de Paris), Die Csárdásfürstin at Opernhaus Zürich and  Faust (Opéra national de Paris, recording and TV broadcast).

A series of recent and future projects had to be cancelled due to the COVID1-9 pandemic: Madama Butterfly (Semperoper Dresden), La Bohème (Opéra  national de Paris), Carmen (Metropolitan Opera) 

In addition to his worldwide concert engagements his future projects include Alexander von Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg and Joseph Haydn’s Missa in tempore belli (De Nationale Opera Amsterdam, opening production of the new season and Lorenzo Viotti’s first as chief conductor) and Thaïs (Teatro alla Scala).

Lorenzo Viotti was born in Lausanne into a Franco-Italian family of musicians. He studied piano, singing and percussion in Lyon and attended orchestral conducting courses with Professor Georg Mark in Vienna, where he simultaneously performed as a percussionist in various major orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic. He continued his conductor’s training with Nicolás Pasquet at the Franz Liszt Conservatory in Weimar.

British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor is internationally recognized for his sonorous lyricism and understated brilliance at the keyboard. His virtuosic interpretations are underpinned by a unique balance of technical mastery and intense musicality. Grosvenor is regarded as one of the most important pianists to emerge in several decades, with Gramophone recently acknowledging him as one of the top 50 pianists ever on record.

Concerto highlights in the 23/24 season include his much-anticipated debuts with DSO Berlin and Iceland Symphony Orchestra featuring Busoni’s Piano Concerto in the composer’s anniversary year. He also performs Gurzenich Orchestra and Elim Chan (Prokofiev 3), Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Maxim Emelyanychev (Mendelssohn 1) in their 50th anniversary season, CBSO, Hallé Orchestra, Washington National, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras. Summer Festivals in 2023 include touring with the EUYO conducted by Manfred Honeck (Prokofiev 3) including Benjamin’s debut at the Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg.

A celebrated recitalist, this season Grosvenor makes his debut in the Luzerns KlavierFestival ‘Le Piano Symphonique’, where his Liszt-inspired program features a world premiere by Brett Dean, which later receives US and UK premieres at Chicago Symphony Master series and Wigmore Hall respectively. He also gives recitals at Konan Kumin Cultural Center Yokohama, Cologne Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Klavier Festival Ruhr, Hong Kong City Hall, Darmstadt, Bridgewater Hall and Sala Verdi, Milan. A keen chamber musician, he tours Japan with violinist Sayaka Shoji and Modigliani Quartet in a program featuring Chausson’s Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet – including his debut at Suntory Hall, Tokyo. He also tours with his Piano Quartet including regular collaborators Hyeyoon Park, Timothy Ridout, Kian Soltani – with whom he appears with at numerous venues including Royal Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and Laeiszhalle, Hamburg.

Highlights of recent seasons include successful debuts with Chicago Symphony conducted by Paavo Järvi (Chopin 2), Cleveland Orchestra with Elim Chan (Liszt 1), RSO Wien at BBC Proms with Marin Alsop (Prokofiev 3), Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev (Beethoven 3 and 4) at Festival Radio France, varied projects as Artist in Residence at Sage Gateshead in 22/23 season, Wigmore Hall in the 21/22 and at Radio France in 20/21. A renowned interpreter of Chopin, in 22/23 season he performed both concerti with Philharmonia Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall. In recital he has performed at Konzerthaus Berlin, Luxembourg Philharmonie, Frankfurter Hof Mainz as part of the SWR2 International Piano Series, ‘Chopin and his Europe’ Festival in Warsaw, Le Roque, Barbican Centre, Southbank Centre, Spivey Hall, Washington’s Kennedy Center, New York’s Carnegie Hall and 92nd Street Y. In July 2023 Grosvenor gave a solo recital at BBC Proms in Royal Albert Hall featuring Debussy, Liszt and Ravel, upon which The Spectator commented: “a genius who has reached the height of his artistic powers and intends to stay there.”

Süddeutsche Zeitung has praised his “astounding technical gifts, the freshness of his imagination, intense concentration, the absence of any kind of show, and the unmistakable sense of poetic immersion directed solely at the realisation of music.” As well as those already mentioned, Benjamin regularly works with such esteemed conductors as Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Sir Mark Elder, Kent Nagano, Alan Gilbert, Nathalie Stutzmann, Manfred Honeck, Vladimir Jurowski, François-Xavier Roth and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

In 2011 Benjamin signed to Decca Classics, becoming the youngest British musician ever, and the first British pianist in almost 60 years, to sign to the label. His most recent release in March 2023 of ‘Schumann

and Brahms’ featuring Kreisleriana was praised as a “masterpiece” (Le Devoir), selected as Gramophone Editor’s Choice and Diapason d’or. Released in 2020, his second concerto album featuring Chopin’s piano concerti, recorded with Royal Scottish National Orchestra under the baton of Elim Chan received both the Gramophone Concerto Award and a Diapason d'Or de L’Année, with Diapason's critic declaring that the recording is “a version to rank among the best, and confirmation of an extraordinary artist.” The renewal of his partnership with Decca in 2021 coincided with the release of Benjamin’s album Liszt, which was awarded ‘Chocs de l’année’ and Prix de Caecilia.

He was invited to perform at First Night of the 2011 BBC Proms with BBC Symphony Orchestra and has since become a regular there. Over the last decade Benjamin has performed at the Last Night of the Proms with Marin Alsop and BBC Symphony in 2015 and most recently with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 and Hallé Orchestra. He performed Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Paavo Järvi in 2020 during the summer of lockdown and was invited to play both a solo recital and a concerto in the 2023 Festival.

Grosvenor has received Gramophone’s ‘Young Artist of the Year’, a Classical Brit Critics’ Award, UK Critics’ Circle Award for Exceptional Young Talent and a Diapason d’Or Jeune Talent Award. He has been featured in two BBC television documentaries, ‘BBC Breakfast’ and ‘Front Row’, as well as in CNN’s ‘Human to Hero’ series. In 2016, he became the inaugural recipient of The Ronnie and Lawrence Ackman Classical Piano Prize at the New York Philharmonic.

Following studies at the Royal Academy of Music, he graduated in 2012 with the ‘Queen’s Commendation for Excellence’ and in 2016 was awarded a RAM Fellowship. Benjamin is an Ambassador of Music Masters, a charity dedicated to making music education accessible to all children regardless of their background, championing diversity and inclusion.