Speak of the devil…

Vladimir Jurowski has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since 2017. He has meanwhile extended his contract until 2027. In parallel, he has been General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich since 2021.

After receiving training at the Moscow Conservatory The conductor, pianist and musicologist Vladimir Jurowski emigrated to Germany in 1990. Here he continued his studies at the music conservatories in Dresden and Berlin.  In 1995 he made his international debut at the British Wexford Festival with Rimski-Korsakov’s Mainacht and in the same year at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden with Nabucco. Subsequently he was, among other things, First Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper Berlin (1997- 2001) and Music Director of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera (2001-2013). In 2003 Vladimir Jurowski was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and has been its Principal Conductor since 2007 until 2021. He was also Artistic Director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra Yevgeny Svetlanov of the Russian Federation until 2021, Artistic Director of the International George Enescu Festival in Bucharest and Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Great Britain. He works regularly with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the ensemble unitedberlin.

Vladimir Jurowski has conducted the major orchestras of Europe and North America, including the Berlin, Vienna and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

He is a recurring guest conductor in in London, Berlin, Dresden, Luzern, Schleswig-Holstein und Grafenegg as well as at the Rostopowitsch-Festival. Although Vladimir Jurowski is invited as a guest conductor by top orchestras from all over the world, in future he would like to concentrate his activities on that geographical area which is acceptable to him from an ecological point of view.

In 2022/2023 he performed with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin in concerts in various cities in Germany, Italy and Antwerp in the Netherlands. The joint CD recordings of Vladimir Jurowski and the RSB began in 2015 with Alfred Schnittke’s Symphony No. 3, followed by works by Britten, Hindemith, Strauss, Mahler and soon again Schnittke.

Vladimir Jurowski has been the recipient of numerous awards for his achievements, including various international record prizes. In 2016, he was bestowed an honorary doctorate from Prince Charles at the Royal College of Music in London. In 2018, the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards named him Conductor of the Year. In summer 2020, Jurowski was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit by the Romanian President in recognition of his work as Artistic Director of the George Enescu Festival.

Stuart Skelton is one of the finest heldentenors on the stage today, critically acclaimed for his outstanding musicianship, tonal beauty, and intensely dramatic portrayals.

During the 2020/21 season he sings “Tristan und Isolde” at the Festival d’Aix en Provence, “Jenůfa” at the Bayerische Staatsoper, and “Fidelio” with Opéra de Oviedo.  Concerts anticipated for the season include performances with the Cleveland Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestre de Lyon, Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris, and at the Verbier Festival.

Recent highlights include a Metropolitan Opera new production of “Tristan und Isolde” conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, a much-anticipated debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in “Die Walküre” under the baton of Sir Antonio Pappano, a debut at Teatro alla Scala in “Fidelio” conducted by Myung-Whun Chung, a debut with the Salzburg Easter Festival in “Die Walküre” conducted by Jaap van Zweden, and “Lohengrin” at the Opéra national de Paris led by Philippe Jordan. Associated with “Peter Grimes”, he has sung the title role at English National Opera, Opera Australia, Opera de Oviedo, Tokyo’s New National Theatre, and in concert with the London Philharmonic under Vladimir Jurowski, with David Robertson and the Sydney Symphony, with the San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas, and with Edward Gardner and the Bergen Philharmonic.

Stuart Skelton’s robust concert calendar has included performances with Sir Andrew Davis and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen and The MET Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks , Gianandrea Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra,  Sir Antonio Pappano and Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia,  Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra, and with Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

In November 2021 he makes his debut with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.

Highlights of an expansive discography include his first solo album “Shining Knight” in a program of Wagner, Griffes, and Barber accompanied by Asher Fisch and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Britten’s “Peter Grimes”, Schoenberg’s “Gurre-Lieder” and a Grammy Award-nominated Janáček “Glagolitic Mass” with Edward Gardner and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, a Grammy Award-winning recording of Elgar’s “The Dream of Gerontius” with Sir Andrew Davis and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde” with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony as well as with Sir Simon Rattle and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.