The Flower of Immortality

French-born conductor Sylvain Cambreling is a musician with big ideas.  A thought-provoking, colourful and dramatic artist, he has a flair for grabbing the attention of audiences, yet his originality is rooted in thorough knowledge of musicology.  As the Chief Conductor of the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, and Principal Guest Conductor of Klangforum Wien, he has offered ample proof of his gifts for imaginative programme-planning and persuasive championship of contemporary music.

At the start of the 2018/2019 season he became the new Chief Conductor of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra. He is Principal Conductor of the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, a position he has held since 2010.

Sylvain Cambreling held the position of General Music Director of the Staatsoper Stuttgart from 2012 – 2018. He was Music Director at La Monnaie for ten years before becoming Music Director at Frankfurt Opera in 1993.  Productions notable for the introduction of new and often revolutionary ideas include Pelléas et Mélisande and Les Troyens for the Salzburg Festival; Wozzeck, Fidelio and a Ring cycle in Frankfurt. He has conducted extensively at Opéra National de Paris where his work has included Saint François d’Assise, Pelléas et Mélisande, Katya Kabanova, La Clemenza di Tito, The Love for Three Oranges, Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, Simon Boccanegra, Les Troyens, Louise, La Traviata, Ariane et Barbe-Bleue and Wozzeck.

He balances his opera engagements with his positions at the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Klangforum Wien and guest appearances in concert with the world’s leading ensembles.  He has performed with orchestras including the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, the Tonhalle Orchestra, the radio orchestras of Frankfurt, Hamburg, Berln, Hannover, Köln, Copenhagen, Stockholm and London, as well as the Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Münchner Philharmoniker, Vienna Symphony, Orchestre de Paris and Oslo Philharmonic orchestras.  In North America he has conducted the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and Orchestre symphonique de Montréal.

A great believer in imaginative programming Cambreling is famed for the originality of his concert-planning.  A speciality is the juxtaposition of contrasting but related works or composers, for example Haydn and Messiaen, or Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust with Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust.  Among the boldest of his projects was the performance on consecutive evenings of Messiaen’s three largest works – Turangalîla, Éclairs sur l’au-delà and La transfiguration de notre seigneur Jésus–Christ.

In 2009 Sylvain Cambreling received the Echo Klassik “Conductor of the Year Award” and the Deutsche Schallplatten Jahrespreise 2009 for best orchestral CD, and in 2010 the MIDEM Contemporary Music Award for his recording of Messiaen with the SWR Freiburg and Baden-Baden Symphony Orchestra. In 2012 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The 1st prize at the Concours Reine Elisabeth in Brussels in 2007 marked Anna Vinnitskaya’s international breakthrough. Her performances with top orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Boston Symphony Orchestra have been met with great enthusiasm worldwide. The breathtaking technical precision and tonal nuances of her piano playing allow her maximum creative power in her interpretations. Anna Vinnitskaya’s piano playing is characterised by unconditionality, energy and poetic depth.

Anna Vinnitskaya will perform Rachmaninov’s piano concertos in the 2025/2026 season with the Orchestre de Paris under Klaus Mäkelä, the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Vladimir Jurowski and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under Eva Ollikainen, among others. With the Bern Symphony Orchestra and chief conductor Krzysztof Urbański, she will even perform all of Rachmaninov’s piano concertos on two consecutive evenings. Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand is on the programme for the celebratory concert at the Vienna Musikverein to mark the 125th anniversary of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, which Anna Vinnitskaya will perform together with chief conductor Petr Popelka, followed by a tour to the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Müpa Budapest, the Essen Philharmonie and the Konzerthaus Freiburg. Anna Vinnitskaya will perform recitals this season in Bordeaux, Tokyo, Paris, Luxembourg, Madrid and Hamburg, among others. Together with Evgeni Koroliov and Ljupka Hadzi- Georgieva, she will perform Bach’s works for one to three pianos and orchestra with the Menuhin Academy Soloists in Vienna and Basel and with the Cologne Chamber Orchestra at the Cologne Philharmonie. Last season, Anna Vinnitskaya was the portrait artist of the Philharmonie Essen. In addition to a series of chamber concerts and recitals, she performed there with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich under the direction of Paavo Järvi, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under Elim Chan, as well as with Herbert Grönemeyer and the Bochum Symphony Orchestra.

Anna Vinnitskaya’s CD recordings for Alpha/Outhere have been honoured with numerous awards such as the Diapason d’Or and the Gramophone Editor’s Choice, including a celebrated Chopin album, a Rachmaninov album with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and Krzysztof Urbański and the album ‘Piano Dances’ released in 2024. She combines her own version of Ravel’s highly virtuosic piece ‘La Valse’ and his ‘Valses nobles et sentimentales’ with the ‘Puppet Dances’ by Shostakovich and the ‘Circus Dances’ by Jörg Widmann. Her recording of Bach’s piano concertos together with Evgeni Koroliov, Ljupka Hadzi Georgieva and the Kammerakademie Potsdam is particularly close to her heart.

Anna Vinnitskaya was born in Novorossiysk, Russia. She studied with Sergei Ossipienko in Rostov and then with Evgeni Koroliov at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg, where she has been a professor since 2009. Anna Vinnitskaya is increasingly a juror at renowned piano competitions, such as the Concours Reine Elisabeth in May 2025 and the ARD International Music Competition in September 2025.

Kora Pavelić wurde in Kroatien geboren und studierte an der Stuttgarter Musikhochschule Gesang bei Dunja Vejzović und Frédérique Friess. Sie belegte Meisterkurse bei bei Tiziana Šojat, Michael Gees, Laurence Cummings, Catherine Denley und Shirley Close. Kora Pavelic ist Stipendiatin des Richard-Wagner-Verbands Zagreb und der Johann Paul Stiftung der Schweiz. 2010 debütierte sie am Kroatischen Nationaltheater Varaždin, 2011 an der Stuttgarter Oper. In Stuttgart sang sie als Mitglied des Opernstudios Tisbe in „La Crenetola“, die Zweite Dame in „Die Zauberflöte“, 1. Beamtin in der Uraufführung wunderzaichen sowie Annina in „La traviata“. Seit der Spielzeit 2014/15 ist sie Ensemblemitglied des Landestheaters Coburg. 2015/16 gastierte Kora Pavelić zuletzt an der Oper Stuttgart als Page in „Salome“ und als Das süße Mädel in „Reigen“. 2017/18 kehrt sie als Hänsel in der Neuinszenierung von „Hänsel und Gretel“ und erneut als 1. Beamtin in „wunderzaichen“ nach Stuttgart zurück.

David Fischer is a permanent member of the Bonn Opera solo ensemble since the 2017/18 season and also regularly performs at the Leipzig Opera.

Right in his first season on the Bonn Opera stage he was able to embody the leading role
of John Whitcroft at the world premiere of the opera „Geisterritter“ by James Reynolds, which will also guide him to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in 2019.

Moreover, David Fischer was seen in Bonn as Rev. Horace Adams in Britten’s „Peter Grimes“, in which José Cura did staging, set and the leading role, Remendado in Bizet’s „Carmen“, Pang in Puccini’s „Turandot“ and some others.

His concert activity leads him through Europe, this year, for example, he sang Bach’s St. Johan Passion with the NDR choir and Radiophilharmonie in the large concert studio of the NDR Hannover under Chief Conductor Andrew Manze and gave a Lied recital with Paulina Tukiainen at the Swiss Festival classique des Haudères. Further Lied recitals with her repeatedly lead him to Geneva and to the Schumannfest Bonn.

The year of 2016 David Fischer could complete by winning the great internaional music
competition Concours de Genève. Within the 48th Easter Festival of the Berlin Philharmonics, David Fischer made is début in 2015 at the Baden-Baden Theater as Trémolini in Offenbach’s Opéra-bouffe „La Princesse de Trézibone“. The next year he travelled to Daegu (Korea) with the ensemble of the Bonn Opera as Jaquino in Beethoven’s „Fidelio“.

David Fischer completed his singing studies in Freiburg with Reginaldo Pinheiro and took
master classes with Brigitte Fassbaender. The early musical education began at the age of three with the first violin lessons – 12 years old he won the German federal competition „Jugend musiziert“ in the solo violin category.

Michael Nagl, Ausbildung am Mozart Knabenchor seiner Heimatstadt Wien. Seit 2013 Gesangsstudium an der Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien bei Karlheinz Hanser. Erste Opernerfahrungen an der Internationalen Sommerakademie der Universität Wien, im Schlosstheater Wien und am Stadttheater Baden in Rollen wie Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), Masetto (Don Giovanni), Simone (Gianni Schicci), Gefängnisdirektor Frank (Die Fledermaus) und Leporello (Don Giovanni). Preisträger als bester Nachwuchssänger beim Internationalen Otto Edelmann Wettbewerb 2014, Auszeichnung mit der Gottlob-Frick-Medaille. Zwei Spielzeiten war Michael Nagl Mitglied des Opernstudios in Stuttgart und u.a. als Wagner (Faust), Masetto (Don Giovanni), Erster Soldat (Salome), Graf von Ceprano (Rigoletto), Narumov (Pique Dame) und Zweiter Gralsritter (Parsifal) zu erleben. 2018/19 singt Michael Nagl als Ensemblemitglied Kuno (Der Freischütz), Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Surin (Pique Dame), Buff (Schauspieldirektor), Zweiter Soldat (Salome) sowie Dritter Offizier in der Neuinszenierung von Der Prinz von Homburg und Vierter Edler in der Neuinszenierung von Lohengrin.