Jonathan Nott & Nicola Benedetti

Jonathan Nott will become the new Music Director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Spain starting in the 2026/2027 season.

Jonathan Nott was a solo singer as a boy treble (Louis Frémaux and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra), sang as a tenor at Cambridge University and studied opera singing at the Royal Northern College of Music. As Repetiteur at the London Opera Studio, he studied conducting with the English opera conductor David Parry, played the organ in Tosca, conducted the off-stage choir in Parsifal at Covent Garden (Bernard Haitink) and conducted the off-stage orchestra in Opera Rara’s recording of Donizetti L’Assedio di Calais. As a tenor, he sang with St Paul’s and Westminster Cathedral choirs.

His first appointment was as Repetiteur at the Frankfurt Opera under Garry Bertini, who also gave him his first conducting opportunity: La Finta Giardiniera and Heinz Holliger’s Beckett Trilogy, the success of which led to performances of The Nose and Mahagonny.

As First Kapellmeister of the Wiesbaden Opera, he conducted all genres from Cimarosa, through Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Gounod, Puccini, Shostakovich, Kurt Weill, Maxwell Davis, Henze, a new ballet production of Prokofiev Romeo & Juliet, to Sondheim and The Little Shop of Horrors, and he conducted Wagner’s Ring (Siegfried Jerusalem) and Elektra (Eva Marton) at the Maifestspiele.

Whilst in Frankfurt he developed an interest in conducting contemporary music: Ligeti (first Hungarian production of Le Grand Macabre, Budapest Opera), Boulez (Ballet Béjart), Stockhausen, Lachenmann, Hosokawa, Eötvös, Gubaidulina, as well as many composers of the younger generation.

Jonathan Nott has held positions as Musical Director of the Lucerne Opera, Chief Conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and Musical Director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain. He debuted with the SWR at the Baden Baden Festival with Elektra (Ruth Berghaus, Hildegard Behrens), and as Musical Director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande initiated new productions of Rossini Barbieri, Debussy Pelléas, Parsifal, and Rosenkavalier at the Grand Theatre de Genève. He gave concert performances of Tristan at the Edinburgh Festival and Falstaff and the Ring at the Lucerne Festival with the Bamberg Symphony (Chief Conductor from 2000-2016) and has just completed a new production of the Ring at the Theater Basel.

During his 12 years as Musical Director of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, he and Sir Thomas Allen directed a series of opera concert performances: the Mozart da Ponte trilogy, Salome (Asmik Grigorian), Elektra (Christine Goerke); “Best Concert in Japan 2023-24“ by “Ongaku no Tomo” magazine), Rosenkavalier and Schönberg’s Gurrelieder.

His recent projects include the Adel Abdessemed production of Messiaen Saint-François d’Assise in Geneva, Mahler 7 with the New Japan Philharmonic, two concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra performing works by Mazzoli, Eötvös and Ives and a tour of Germany with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie (Principal Conductor from 2014-2024).

After the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande New Year Opera Gala (Juliana Grigoryan), he started 2025 conducting the SWR (Zemlinsky) followed by the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln (Boulez), Dresdner Philharmonie (Pelléas and Le Sacre du Printemps), a complete “Die Fledermaus” at the Tokyo Spring Festival, the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich (Messiaen and Mahler) and led the OSR on a tour of Asia in July.

Jonathan Nott is a Reiki-master: “I’ve come to realise over the years that truly great conducting is simply the formation and re-formation of inexorable human energy constantly in flow created by the players/singers and transmitted to and reflected by the listener using that most fundamental and wondrous form of non-verbal communication we call “music”. Music heals, that is its and our one-and-only purpose.”

Jonathan Nott has an extensive catalogue of recordings, including the complete orchestral works of Ligeti with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Jonas Kaufmann. His recordings with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra include works by Janacek, Bruckner, Wagner (Klaus Florian Vogt), as well as the complete symphonic works by Schubert and Mahler, the latter of which received the Internationaler Schallplattenpreis Toblacher Komponierhäuschen 2009 (Mahler 9), MIDEM best classical recording 2010 (Mahler 9), Classica France Feb 2022 blind listening best Mahler 5 on record.

His first recording with the OSR featured works by Richard Strauss, Debussy and Ligeti (2018 Pentatone), followed by a recording on the theme of Pelléas et Mélisande with works by Debussy and Schönberg which received a “Choc” from Classica and the “Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik” (the German Record Critics Prize). A third CD (2022) featured pianist Francesco Piemontesi with works by Ravel, Schönberg and Messiaen.

The Covid years gave rise to innovation with the OSR: a streamed broadcast of Beethoven 9 “in-the-round”, a series of live, daily, on-line rehearsals: how conducting “works”, followed by an introduction to Mahler 9 alongside a performance of the full symphony, produced by Actua films, all from the Victoria Hall, Geneva. In 2025 the first studio recording of all four orchestral works by Dieter Ammann (Schweizer Fonogramm), as well as a live performance of the Eroica symphony and William Tell overture will appear on the OSR’s “Virtual Hall” platform.

His discography of recordings with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, which include Mahler, Bruckner (1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9), and Tchaikovsky (3 and 4) will be augmented by the recent release of both Beethoven (3 and 8) and Brahms (3) (EXTON/OCTAVIA).

Nicola Benedetti is one of the most sought-after violinists of her generation. Her ability to captivate audiences with her innate musicianship and spirited presence, coupled with her wide appeal as a high-profile advocate for classical music, has made her one of the most influential classical artists of today.

Born in the Scottish town of Irvine, of Italian heritage, Nicola began violin lessons at the age of four with Brenda Smith. In 1997, she entered the Yehudi Menuhin School where she studied with Natasha Boyarskaya. Upon leaving, she continued her studies with Maciej Rakowski and then Pavel Vernikov. In 2004, she won “BBC Young Musician,” launching her career as an international concert violinist.

With concerto performances at the heart of her career, Nicola is in much demand with major orchestras across the globe. Conductors with whom Nicola has worked include Marin Alsop, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Jiří Bělohlávek, Karina Canellakis, Christoph Eschenbach, Iván Fischer, James Gaffigan, Jakub Hrůša, Kirill Karabits, Kristjan Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski, Cristian Măcelaru, Zubin Mehta, Andrea Marcon, Gianandrea Noseda, Michael Tilson Thomas, Robin Ticciati, Vasily Petrenko, Donald Runnicles, Thomas Søndergård, Pinchas Zukerman and Jaap van Zweden.

Nicola enjoys working with the highest level of orchestras including collaborations with the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra of Washington DC.

A devoted chamber musician, Nicola collaborates with cellist Leonard Elschenbroich and pianist Alexei Grynyuk, who have been performing as a trio since 2008. Past performances include Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw, Edinburgh International Festival, Alte Oper, Frankfurt, the Ravinia Festival, 92nd Street Y, New York and City Hall, Hong Kong. In June 2021, the trio embarked on a UK tour giving seven performances across the country, and in spring 2022 performed a thirteen-date European tour with works by Schumann, Rihm and Brahms. In 2023, the trio will return to North America, visiting 8 cities across both East and West coasts.

Nicola has continued her role as a dedicated, passionate ambassador and leader in music education. Her commitment to supporting the UK’s music practitioners was underlined in July 2018, when Nicola took over as President of the European String Teachers’ Association. Nicola continues to hold key positions in a number of the country’s most established and high-quality youth music organisations including the National Children’s Orchestras (Vice President), Sistema Scotland (Big Sister), National Youth Orchestras of Scotland’s Junior Orchestra (Patron), Music in Secondary Schools’ Trust (Patron), Junior Conservatoire at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (Patron) and many more. In 2019, Nicola formalised her commitment to music in education when she established The Benedetti Foundation. Since its launch, the Foundation has worked with over 29,000 participants, age 2-92, from 103 countries through its transformative in-person workshops and online sessions for young people, students, teachers and adults. The Foundation unites those who believe that music is integral to a great education and demonstrates ground-breaking teaching by producing and delivering innovative and creative musical experiences accessible to all.

Nicola was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours list, awarded the Queen’s Medal for Music in 2017, the youngest ever recipient, and was appointed as a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2013 in recognition of her international music career and work with musical charities throughout the United Kingdom. In addition, Nicola has received nine honorary degrees to date.