Spiral of Life

Vladimir Jurowski has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the RundfunkSinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) since 2017. In 2023/2024, his concerts, tours and recordings were the highlights of the ‘RSB100’ anniversary season. His current contract in Berlin runs until 2027,
while he has also been General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich since 2021.

Vladimir Jurowski, one of the most sought-after conductors of our time, who is celebrated worldwide for his innovative musical interpretations and equally for his courageous artistic commitment, was born in Moscow in 1972 and completed the first part of his music studies at the Music College of the Moscow Conservatory. He moved to Germany with his family in 1990 and continued his studies at the music academies in Dresden and Berlin. In 1995, he made his debut at the Wexford Festival in Ireland with Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Mainacht’ and in 1996 at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden with ‘Nabucco’. He was then First Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper Berlin (1997-2001).

Vladimir Jurowski worked as Chief Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) for fifteen years until 2021 and has since been appointed Conductor Emeritus. In the UK, he was Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera from 2001 to 2013, leading a wide range of highly acclaimed productions. His close connection to British musical life was recognised by King Charles III in spring 2024 when he appointed Vladimir Jurowski an Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE). In April 2024, Vladimir Jurowski returned to London as a guest conductor to complete the concert performance cycle of Wagner’s ‘Ring’ with ‘Götterdämmerung’ with the LPO at the Royal Festival Hall.

He was Artistic Director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra ‘Yevgeny Svetlanov’ of the Russian Federation until 2021 and Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Great Britain, as well as Artistic Director of the International George Enescu Festival in Bucharest. He has also worked with the unitedberlin ensemble for many years. Vladimir Jurowski has suspended performances in Russia since February 2022. Ukrainian works are and will remain part of his repertoire, as will works by Russian composers.

Vladimir Jurowski has conducted concerts by the most important orchestras in Europe and North America, including the Berlin, Vienna and New York Philharmonics, 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 Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig. He is a regular guest at the music festivals in London, Berlin, Dresden, Lucerne, SchleswigHolstein and Grafenegg. Although Vladimir Jurowski is invited as a guest conductor by top orchestras from all over the world, he now concentrates his activities on those geographical areas that he can easily reach with reasonable effort from an ecological point of view.

The joint CD recordings by Vladimir Jurowski and the RSB began in 2015 with Alfred Schnittke’s Symphony No. 3, followed by works by Britten, Hindemith, Strauss, Mahler and again Schnittke. Vladimir Jurowski has been honoured many times for his achievements, including numerous international record awards. In 2016, he received an honorary doctorate from the Royal Philharmonic Society from the hands of the current King Charles III. In 2020, Vladimir Jurowski’s work as Artistic Director of the George Enescu Festival was honoured by the Romanian President with the Order of Cultural Merit.

Violinist Daniel Hope has enjoyed a thriving international solo career for more than 30 years. Celebrated for his musical versatility and dedication to humanitarian causes, he has been recognized with a string of honors including the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and the 2015 European Culture Prize for Music. Hope is Music Director of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and Music Director of San Francisco’s New Century Chamber Orchestra.

In 2019 he completed his 16th and final season as Associate Artistic Director of Georgia’s Savannah Music Festival and became Artistic Director of Dresden’s Frauenkirche Cathedral. In 2020 Hope  was elected as President of the Beethovenhaus Bonn.

Hope first drew notice as member of the Beaux Arts Trio. Today he is a familiar face at the most prestigious international venues and festivals. He works with conductors including Valery Gergiev, Kurt Masur, Simon Rattle, and Christian Thielemann, and with the world’s foremost ensembles. A passionate advocate of contemporary music, Hope has commissioned more than 30 new works, collaborating closely with prominent composers.

Hope has been recognized with awards including the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, the Diapason d’Or of the Year, the Edison Classical Award and the Prix Caecilia. His recording of Max Richter’s “Vivaldi Recomposed” topped the charts in 22 countries and remains one of the bestselling classical releases of recent times. In 2017, a documentary titled “Daniel Hope – The Sound of Life” was screened in movie theaters.

Hope has written scripts for collaborative performances with the actors Klaus Maria Brandauer and Mia Farrow. In Germany he presents a weekly radio show for the WDR3 Channel and curates and hosts “Hope@9pm”, a salon-style music and talk at the Berlin Konzerthaus.

During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, he created and hosted “Hope@Home”, a livestreamed TV series featuring music and talk with guest artists ranging from Barrie Kosky over RSB chief conductor Vladimir Jurowski to Robert Wilson. Professionally produced from Hope’s Berlin living room for the ARTE TV network, the daily series was streamed almost five million times. “Hope@Home” was developed into “Hope@Home on Tour” and “Hope@Home – Next Generation” in the course of the year, then being developed into “Europe@Home”, in which young artists represent the music of the 27 member states of the European Union.

Hope was also guest of the RSB in a livestreamed radio concert under the baton of Jurowski in the spring of 2020.

He has been working closely with his mentor Yehudi Menuhin, with whom he gave numerous concerts.