Renowned for her exceptional combination of precision and artistic temperament, Oksana Lyniv is a prominent figure on the international stage, ranking among the leading conductors of her generation. She has been the Music Director of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna since 2022, making her the first female chief conductor of an Italian opera house.

Her notable achievements include performances at the Bavarian State Opera, the State Opera Berlin, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opéra National de Paris, Oper Frankfurt, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Theater an der Wien, and the Stuttgart State Opera.

Oksana Lyniv is also deeply committed to nurturing young musical talent and is the founder and chief conductor of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine (YsOU).

Martyn Brabbins was recently appointed Chief Conductor of the Malmo Symphony and of the Symphony Orchestra of India, both starting in the 2025/26 season.

He guests with top international orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw, San Francisco Symphony, DSO Berlin and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, as well as the Philharmonia, BBC Symphony and most of the other leading UK orchestras. He is a popular figure at the BBC Proms, which in 2019 commissioned 14 living composers to write a birthday tribute to him, released in 2024 on the BIS label. Known for his advocacy of British composers, he has conducted hundreds of world premieres across the globe. He has recorded nearly 150 CDs to date, including prize-winning discs of operas by Korngold, Birtwistle and Harvey. In 2023 he received the RPS Conductor Award for his "colossal" contribution to UK musical life.

MARGARET BROUWER is celebrated as a leading figure in contemporary American composition, praised for her richly lyrical and emotionally resonant music.

Brouwer's dedication to musical innovation has garnered her numerous awards and accolades, including the Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Meet The Composer Commissioning/USA award, Guggenheim Fellowship, Ohio Council for the Arts Individual Fellowship, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Ford Foundation and John S. Knight Foundation. The Music Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center established a Margaret Brouwer Collection, which houses invaluable resources for scholars and performers. Throughout her career, she has held esteemed positions, including Head of the Composition Department at the Cleveland Institute of Music and residencies at the MacDowell Colony where she has been a Norton Stevens Fellow and at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center.

Simon Rössler has been Managing Director of the Karajan-Akademie – The Berliner Philharmoniker scholarship program – since 2023.

He applied for a scholarship to the Berliner Philharmoniker Orchestra Academy in 2008, but his percussion playing was so impressive that the orchestra immediately engaged him. Although this is his first permanent position, the musician already has had several years of orchestral experience – as a member of Munich’s Junge Philharmonie, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, Stuttgart Bruckner Symphony Orchestra and European Union Youth Orchestra and in the Philharmonic Orchestra of Lübeck.

Rössler, who’s been playing percussion since he was six, studied from 2000-05 at the Stuttgart Musikhochschule with Klaus Treßelt. In 2005, he became a pupil of Rainer Seegers and Franz Schindlbeck at Berlin’s Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik. In 2004, Rössler, who has also performed in jazz and pop groups, gave his first major solo concert with the Brandenburg State Orchestra in Frankfurt an der Oder.

Julia Neher is a German viola player, and a founding member of the Trio Brax (viola, saxophone and piano), who released their internationally acclaimed debut album in 2023, commissioning several new pieces for this unusual instrumentation.

Julia plays with renowned orchestras such as Mahler Chamber Orchestra and is a member of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. She has been principal violist of the Chamber Orchestra of Stuttgart, the Arctic Philharmonic Tromsø, and since 2022 she is currently the viola section leader of the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra.

Håvard Gimse is regarded as an inspiring and distinctive musician, known for his unpredictable sense of playfulness. His strong commitment to Norwegian and Scandinavian repertoire has made him one of the region’s most influential musicians.

He is a highly sought-after soloist and chamber musician, and many leading classical performers prefer him as an accompanist in their solo concerts. Gimse has toured extensively throughout Scandinavia and performed with major orchestras across the Nordic countries, as well as with symphony orchestras in cities such as London, Berlin, Tokyo, Prague, Frankfurt, Birmingham, Liverpool, and Baltimore.

Gimse has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Diapason d’Or, Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice, the Lindeman Prize, the Grieg Prize, and the Sibelius Prize. He has recorded more than 30 albums, is a professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music, and regularly gives masterclasses internationally.

Bold, passionate and innovative, Mei-Ann Chen is renowned as one of the most versatile and dynamic conductors on the podium today, praised for the energy and enthusiasm with which she infuses orchestras and performances.

Music Director of the MacArthur Award-winning Chicago Sinfonietta since 2011, her contract has been unanimously extended through the end of the 2028-2029 season. Named Artistic Advisor of Springfield Symphony Orchestra (MA) in March 2024, Chen has been Chief Conductor of Austria’s Recreation - Grosses Orchester Graz at Styriarte since fall 2021, following two seasons as the orchestra’s first-ever Principal Guest Conductor, making her the first female Asian conductor to hold this position with an Austrian orchestra. She has served as the first-ever Artistic Partner of Houston’s ROCO since 2019, and since 2022, as an Artistic Partner with Northwest Sinfonietta (WA).

A passionate advocate for music education, Ms. Chen dedicates significant time in mentoring young conductors through various programs, including the Chicago Sinfonietta Freeman Conducting Fellowship program and the Taki Alsop Fellowship, and conducts ensembles at important educational institutions, both nationally and abroad. Highly regarded as a compelling communicator and a creative leader both on and off the podium, and a sought-after guest conductor, she has appeared with distinguished orchestras throughout the Americas, Europe, Taiwan, The United Kingdom, and Scandinavia, and continues to expand her relationships with orchestras worldwide (over 150 orchestras to date).