Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Praised for his scintillating, authentic and inclusive approach to conducting, and driven entirely by the music, Petr Popelka has been appointed as the new Chief Conductor of Wiener Symphoniker from the 2024/2025 season. He is also Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and former Chief Conductor of Norwegian Radio Orchestra in Oslo.

Beginning already from 2023/2024 season, Popelka will lead Wiener Symphoniker as its Chief Conductor Designate on a new production of Weinberger's Schwanda the Bagpiper at the Theater an der Wien followed by concerts in Vienna and two tours in Europe throughout the season. He also makes several debuts this season including the Zurich Opera House conducting Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Gewandhausorchester, Munich Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre national de France as well as Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. In addition, Popelka returns to the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.

Previous debuts have taken him to the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, SWR Symphony Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Frankfurt Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra to name a few. He also led the annual ORF TV concert “Spring in Vienna” and the ZDF Advent concert in Dresden. His new productions of Shostakovich's opera The Nose at the Semperoper and Strauss's Elektra at the Oslo Opera were acclaimed by press and audience alike.

In the 2019/2020 season, Petr Popelka became NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra’s very first Conductor Fellow. He received his music education both in his hometown of Prague as well as in Freiburg. Between 2010 and 2019, he was deputy principal double bass of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden. Aside from conducting, composition plays an important role within his artistic range.

Yulianna Avdeeva is the First-Prize winner of the 2010 International Chopin Piano Competition, which launched her to international fame for “consistently [leading] the field over a gruellingly intense three-week period, in terms of sheer passion and musicianship, not to mention technical security,” and for her “spontaneous and volatile” performances, “full of depth and colour” (The Telegraph).

A pianist of fiery temperament and virtuosity, Avdeeva plays with power, conviction, and sensibility, having won over audiences all over the world. “Her pacing is born of intelligent feeling and clarity of thought, and her ability to finesse Chopin’s inner voices puts many to shame” (The Guardian).

In the fall of 2023 Avdeeva launched a new project titled #YuliannasMusicalDialogues — an engaging online initiative that provides an open space for her followers and all aficionados of the art of the piano to share their passion for music. Through regular informal social media posts, Avdeeva invites followers to choose the composer of the month, opening up an online conversation about the selected composer’s life and work.

 

Avdeeva’s recordings of the Chopin concertos with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and Frans Brüggen (2013), her three solo albums featuring works by Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, and Prokofiev (2014, 2016, 2017), and her collaboration with Gidon Kremer in Weinberg’s chamber music (2017 and 2019) comprise a formidable record of her art, topped off by a Deutsche Grammophon (2019) solo recording as part of a milestone collection dedicated to Chopin Competition Gold Medalists.