Vladimir Jurowski & Kirill Gerstein

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 2029,
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.

Fascination for musical discovery combined with boundless curiosity, imagination, and virtuosity have established Kirill Gerstein as one of today’s most prolific and compelling performers.

Gerstein is a searching artist. As a pianist, curator, educator, musical leader, and artistic collaborator, his exploration of resonant themes across a vast spectrum of repertoire – from Baroque suites and Classical concerti to contemporary creations, jazz, and cabaret – has nourished relationships with many of the world’s leading orchestras, conductors, instrumentalists, singers, composers, festivals, recording labels, and media platforms.

Highlights of the past season include Gerstein’s Carnegie Hall/Stern Auditorium solo recital debut, marking Ferruccio Busoni’s centenary with performances of his Piano Concerto with the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Orchestre National de France, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon; Gershwin with the Staatskapelle Dresden on ZDF German national television’s traditional New Year’s eve gala broadcast; the closing concert of the Musikfest Berlin performing Messiaen’s From the Canyons to the Stars with Sir Simon Rattle; the Berg Kammerkonzert with Ilya Gringolts, Heinz Holliger and Chamber Orchestra of Europe; Rachmaninov’s 3rd Piano Concerto with Santtu-Matias Rouvali and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; returns to Japan and Korea performing Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto; engagements with the orchestras of St. Louis, San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Atlanta; a release on the ECM label of Chick Corea’s The Visitors with legendary vibraphonist, Gary Burton; a poignantly timely program with the Wiener Symphoniker pairing Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon with Beethoven’s Emperor concerto followed by a satirical encore by Hanns Eisler; and an interdisciplinary project with the Ruhr Piano Festival uniting school children, renowned choreographers, scholars and world music authorities around the music of Armenian priest, musicologist, and composer, Vardapet Komitas.

Gerstein was Artist-in-Residence with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2023-24, Spotlight Artist with the London Symphony Orchestra, Resident Artist at the Festival Aix-en-Provence, and curated a three-part “Busoni and his World” concert series at London’s Wigmore Hall. In 2023, he released an acclaimed album with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko celebrating Rachmaninov’s 150th anniversary and performed Berlin cabaret songs of the 1920s with iconic performance artist and composer, HK Gruber. Gerstein also regularly play-conducts programs, most recently the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (Beethoven 4), the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris (a program of Mozart, Salieri and Beethoven Piano Concerti), the Budapest Festival Orchestra (Rhapsody in Blue) and the Czech Philharmonic (Beethoven 1).

Media projects, broadcasts, and digital innovation represent an integral part of Gerstein’s creativity. He has recorded for Platoon/Apple Music, myrios, Deutsche Grammophon, DECCA, Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings, with performances filmed by Unitel, Accentus Music, and EuroArts, broadcast on ORF, BBC, ARTE, and Marquee TV, and streamed on medici.tv and STAGE+. Gerstein’s “Music in Time of War”, pairing late piano works by Claude Debussy with pieces by Vardapet Komitas earned him a 2025 special Opus Klassik Award for exceptional curation. Expanding the traditional album concept, the recording is integrated into a hardcover book containing a wealth of documentary images and original scholarship.

Gerstein’s world première recording of Thomas Adès’ Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with the Boston Symphony conducted by the composer was nominated for three Grammys and received the 2020 Gramophone Award. His recording of Adès’ The Tempest Suite, with violinist Christian Tetzlaff, was released on the Platoon label in 2025. Other noteworthy Gerstein albums include Strauss’s Enoch Arden with the great Swiss actor, Bruno Ganz (Wings of Desire, The Downfall); Tchaikovsky’s complete Piano Concertos (including the 1st Concerto in the composer’s original urtext version) with Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic; The Gershwin Moment with the St. Louis Symphony and David Robertson, including special appearances from American singer-songwriter Storm Large and Gary Burton; and Mozart Four-Hand Piano Sonatas with Ferenc Rados.

A true champion of music of our time, Gerstein has commissioned and premièred new works by Timo Andres, Chick Corea, Alexander Goehr, Oliver Knussen and Brad Mehldau, among others. Since giving the world première of Thomas Adès’ Concerto Piano and Orchestra in 2019, Gerstein has performed the work over 60 times, with 20 different orchestras on three continents. Gerstein also recently recorded Thomas Larcher’s Piano Concerto with the Bergen Philharmonic and Ed Gardner for ECM.

His premiere performances of Francisco Coll’s Two Waltzes Toward Civilization at Carnegie Hall will be followed by the creation of Coll’s new Piano Concerto with Sir Simon Rattle and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2026.

Gerstein is dedicated to learning. He is currently Professor of Piano at Berlin’s Hanns Eisler Hochschule and on the faculty of Kronberg Academy. At Kronberg Academy, his series of free online seminars featuring conversations with the 21st Century’s leading artistic minds has to date reached an audience of over 150,000 viewers. His guests have included Ai Weiwei, Brad Melhdau, Thomas Adès, Iván Fischer, Alex Ross, Matthew Aucoin, Kirill Serebrennikov, Elizabeth Wilson, Simon & Gerard McBurney, Robert Levin, Reinhard Goebel, Simon Callow, Emma Smith, Deborah Borda, Sir Antonio Pappano, and the late Kaija Saariaho. Gerstein also coaches at the Verbier Festival Academy and at IMS Prussia Cove.

Born in 1979 in Voronezh, Russia, Gerstein attended one of the country’s special music schools for gifted children and taught himself to play jazz at home by listening to his parents’ record collection. Following a chance encounter with Gary Burton in St. Petersburg when he was 14, he was invited as the youngest student to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. At the age of 16, Gerstein completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees at New York’s Manhattan School of Music, followed by further studies with Dmitri Bashkirov in Madrid and Ferenc Rados in Budapest. First Prize winner at the 10th Arthur Rubinstein Competition, in 2010, Gerstein received the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award, as well as an Avery Fisher Career Grant. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Musical Arts from the Manhattan School of Music in 2021.

With around 60 concerts annually, CD recordings, and international performances, the Rundfunkchor Berlin is one of the world’s leading choirs. Three Grammy Awards alone stand as a testament to the quality of its recordings. Its wide-ranging repertoire, flexible, richly nuanced sound, flawless precision, and compelling presence make the professional choir a partner of choice for prominent orchestras and conductors, including Kirill Petrenko, Daniel Barenboim, Simon Rattle, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. In Berlin, the choir has an intense collaboration with the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, as well as with their chief conductors.

The Rundfunkchor Berlin also attracts international attention with its interdisciplinary projects, which break the traditional concert format and offer new ways of experiencing choral music. A milestone was the staged interpretation of Brahms’ Requiem as a “human requiem” by Jochen Sandig and a team from Sasha Waltz & Guests. After performances in New York, Hong Kong, Paris, and Adelaide, the production traveled to Istanbul for the first time in the summer of 2019. For the project LUTHER dancing with the gods, the choir reflected on Luther’s impact on the arts and within the arts in a genre-defying concert performance with Robert Wilson and music by Bach, Nystedt, and Reich. For TIME TRAVELLERS, the choir will transform the Berliner Radialsystem into a walkable time tunnel in the 2019/2020 season. Based on Jonathan Dove’s composition The Passing of the Year, the project will create an interactive choral experience with films, images, performance, and music.

Through its community projects targeting diverse audiences – such as the large sing-along concert at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Festival of Choral Cultures for choirs from around the world, and the Song Market for Berlin students – the Rundfunkchor Berlin aims to inspire as many people as possible to sing. Its comprehensive educational program SING! focuses on the sustainable networking of various partners to promote singing as a natural part of Berlin’s elementary school curriculum. With the Academy and Schola, as well as the International Master Class Berlin, the ensemble is committed to nurturing the next generation of professional singers and conductors.

Founded in 1925, the Rundfunkchor Berlin celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2015. The choir has been shaped by conductors such as Helmut Koch, Dietrich Knothe (1982–93), Robin Gritton (1994–2001), and Simon Halsey (2001–2015). Since the 2015/16 season, Dutch conductor Gijs Leenaars has been the chief conductor and artistic director of the ensemble. Simon Halsey remains connected to the choir as an honorary conductor and guest conductor. The Rundfunkchor Berlin is an ensemble of the Rundfunk Orchester und Chöre GmbH Berlin, under the sponsorship of Deutschlandradio, the Federal Republic of Germany, the State of Berlin, and Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg.