Lydia Connolly ◊

Board Director with international arts management company HarrisonParrott for over thirty years, Lydia was worldwide general manager for a prestigious roster of instrumentalists, conductors and composers. She was Head of Inclusion and Access at HP and continues as a Trustee of the HarrisonParrott Foundation. Lydia is now working as an independent consultant focused on mentoring both musicians and music industry professionals. Lydia was the first woman to read Music as an undergraduate at New College, Oxford — during which time she also qualified as a Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music (violin). She is an alumna of the Strategic Leadership Programme at Saïd Business School Oxford and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Lydia has been a Board Member of the International Artist Managers’ Association as well as a long-standing member of the IAMA Broadcasting and Media Committee. She is regularly invited to speak at industry conferences and has experience as an international competition juror as well as leading seminars and workshops.

Akiko Ebi *◊

Akiko Ebi attended Tokyo University of the Arts and graduated from the Paris Conservatoire. She won the 2nd Grand Prix in the Marguerite Long, 5th prize
in the Chopin Competition. She has performed in 38 countries with ensembles including the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, NHK & all the leading Japanese orchestras, and in Russia, Poland, Slovakia, Argentina and Chile, working with conductors such as Brüggen, Skrowaczewski, Janowski, Guschlbauer, Foster and Sado. In addition to two piano recitals with Martha Argerich, she has collaborated with artists Gitlis, Dumay, Pasquier, Hewitt, the Morauges Quintet, Quartets as Parisii, Manfred and Via Nova. Ebi appears annually at many prestigious festivals
in Europe, Japan and the US. She has recorded CDs of Chopin’s complete etudes, preludes, nocturnes, impromptus, E minor Concerto, as well as works by Grieg, Franck, Ravel, Fauré, Webern and Lekeu. She was made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France, received the Gloria Artis medal in Poland, and Exxon-Mobile Music Prize & Cultural Affairs Comissioner’s Award in Japan. Ebi is juror of many competitions including the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition and the Chopin Competition. She is the president of the Japan Chopin Society.

Andrey Gugnin *

Moscow-born concert pianist Andrey Gugnin is rapidly gaining international acclaim as a passionately virtuosic performer, who possesses an
‘extraordinarily versatile and agile technique, which serves an often inspired musical imagination’ (Gramophone). In 2020, the BBC Music Magazine Awards named Andrey the winner of the Instrumental category for his recording of Shostakovich preludes and piano sonatas on Hyperion Records. Since winning the prestigious Sydney International Piano Competition in 2016, Andrey has gone from strength to strength in concerts and recordings which exhibit his impassioned interpretations. In demand as a concert soloist, Andrey has been invited to perform as a guest artist with notable orchestras across the globe, such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Sydney Symphony Orchestra. As a recording artist, Andrey has published a broad scope of repertoire, ranging from works for solo piano to concertos. His release of Liszt’s Transcendental Studies (Piano Classics, 2018) was Editor’s Choice in Gramophone. His recording of Shostakovich concertos (Delos International, 2007) was featured in the soundtrack of Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning film Bridge of Spies. His most recent disc, Holberg Suite – Ballade & Lyric Pieces, was released in May 2024 with Hyperion.

Rustem Hayroudinoff ◊

Described by Classic FM Magazine as a ‘sensationally gifted’ musician of ‘stunning artistry’, and by Gramophone as “a player in the great Russian virtuoso tradition”, Rustem Hayroudinoff has performed to critical acclaim in Japan, the USA, Latin America, Canada, Russia and Europe. He has appeared with such orchestras as BBC Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, NHK Symphony and Czech Philharmonic, and has collaborated with conductors Vladimir Ashkenazy, Marin Alsop and Gianandrea Noseda amongst others. Hayroudinoff has recorded for Chandos, EMI and Onyx Classics. His CD of the complete Rachmaninoff Preludes was selected by Classic FM Magazine as part of its ‘Essential Rachmaninoff Collection’ together with the recordings of Arthur Rubinstein and André Previn. Rustem Hayroudinoff is based in the UK, where he has appeared at major concert halls including the Barbican, Cadogan Hall, Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, St John’s Smith Square and abroad at such venues as Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Rudolfinum in Prague, and the NHK Hall in Tokyo. A charismatic communicator, he enjoys engaging his audience in a light, yet informative rhetoric about the works he performs. This direct approach and informal style is also ideal for attracting younger audiences. Hayroudinoff is proud to be the Goodwill Ambassador for Rainbows4children, an independent foundation that provides education for disadvantaged children in Ethiopia.

Sir Stephen Hough ◊

Named by The Economist as one of Twenty Living Polymaths, Sir Stephen Hough combines a distinguished career of a concert pianist with those of a composer and writer. In recognition of his contribution to cultural life, he became the first classical performer to be given a MacArthur Fellowship, and was awarded a Knighthood for Services to Music in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2022. He begins his 2024/25 concert season with his 30th appearance at the BBC Proms, performing at Last Night of the Proms to a live audience of 6,000 and a televised audience of 3.5 million. Over the course of the following 12 months, Hough performs over 80 concerts on four continents, opening Philharmonia Orchestra’s season at the Royal Festival Hall, performances with the Cleveland Orchestra, performing a solo recital at Barbican Centre and giving the world premiere of
his Willa Cather-inspired Piano Quintet at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall. Following the 2024 world premiere of his own Piano Concerto (The World
of Yesterday), named after Stefan Zweig’s memoir, Hough brings the work to Adelaide, Bournemouth, Oregon, Singapore and Vermont Symphony Orchestras.

Stanislav Ioudenitch ◊

Born in Uzbekistan, Stanislav Ioudenitch rose to international prominence in 2001 when he won the gold medal at the XI Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. This victory launched an illustrious career with performances in premier venues worldwide. He has collaborated with renowned orchestras, including the Munich Philharmonic, the Mariinsky Orchestra, and the National Symphony in Washington, D.C.; esteemed string quartets such as the Takács, Prazák, and Borromeo; and distinguished conductors like James Conlon, Valery Gergiev, and Mikhail Pletnev.  In addition to his performing career, Ioudenitch is a dedicated educator. He is the founder, Artistic Director, and professor of piano at the International Center for Music at Park University in Kansas City. He also teaches at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and was recently appointed to The Fundación Banco Santander Piano Chair at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid, Spain. His students have won top prizes at prestigious international competitions, including the Van Cliburn, Tchaikovsky, Géza Anda, and Queen Elisabeth competitions.  

Isata Kanneh-Mason *

Pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason offers eclectic and interesting recital programmes with repertoire spanning Haydn to Gershwin and beyond. In concerto, she is equally at home in Felix Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann as in Prokofiev and Dohnányi. Isata is in high demand from concert halls and orchestras worldwide. Following her phenomenally successful concerto debut at the BBC Proms in 2023, she was invited to open the festival in July 2024 with the BBC Symphony and conductor Elim Chan, a performance which resulted in stellar reviews in the mainstream press. Isata appeared as concerto soloist with the European Union Youth Orchestra and Iván Fischer in summer 2024 performing at Carnegie Hall, New York, the Grafenegg Festival, and Bolzano Festival Bozen. Highlights of
the 2024/25 season include Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto at the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie’s FREISPIEL festival and at the Ulster Orchestra’s season opening concert; and Prokofiev’s Third Concerto with the Chineke! Orchestra on tour at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, the Berliner Philharmonie, Brussels’s BOZAR and London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. Solo recital appearances include the Lucerne Festival, Piano aux Jacobins Toulouse, the Schumann-Haus Düsseldorf, PHIL Haarlem, and on tour across the USA. Isata records exclusively for Decca Classics.

Stephen Kovacevich ◊

With an international career spanning over six decades, Stephen Kovacevich has long been recognised as one of the most searching interpreters. Born in Los Angeles, Kovacevich made his European debut at Wigmore Hall in 1961. He has appeared with many of the world’s finest orchestras and conductors, including Hans Graf, Bernard Haitink, Kurt Masur, Sir Simon Rattle, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and the late Sir Georg Solti. Kovacevich is a frequent guest at prestigious festivals including Lugano, Verbier, and the Mariinsky International Piano Festival. He has forged long-standing artistic partnerships, including numerous recordings with Sir Colin Davis and frequent duo appearances alongside Martha Argerich. As a committed chamber musician, Kovacevich enjoys regular artistic collaborations with Nicola Benedetti, Renaud Capuçon, Gautier Capuçon, Emmanuel Pahud and Alina Ibragimova. To celebrate his 75^th birthday, Decca released a limited edition 25-CD box set of his entire recorded legacy for Philips. In 2008, he re-recorded Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, which won him the Gramophone Editor’s Choice Award (2009) and the Gramophone Magazine Top Choice Award (2015).

Nikolai Lugansky *

Pianist Nikolai Lugansky is renowned for his interpretations of Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Chopin and Debussy. He has received numerous awards for recordings and artistic merit. He collaborates regularly with conductors of
the calibre of Kent Nagano, Yuri Temirkanov, Manfred Honeck, Gianandrea Noseda, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Vasily Petrenko, Lahav Shani and he is invited by leading international orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orquestra Nacional de España. Described by Gramophone as ‘the most trailblazing and meteoric performer of all’, in 2023, Nikolai Lugansky celebrated the 150th anniversary of Rachmaninov’s birth by performing cycles of monographic programs at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris and the Wigmore Hall in London, along with other performances throughout Europe. Lugansky is Harmonia Mundi’s exclusive artist. His latest recording ‘Richard Wagner: Famous Opera Scenes’ was released in March 2024 (included in The Best Classical Albums of the Year by Gramophone) and won the Premio Abbiati del Disco 2024 for solo repertoire.

Víkingur Ólafsson *

Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has captured public and critical imagination to become one of the most sought-after artists of today. His recordings have led to over one billion streams and he has won numerous awards, including BBC Music Magazine Album of the Year, Opus Klassik Solo Recording of the Year (twice) and a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. In a landmark move, Ólafsson devoted his entire 2023/24 season to a world tour of a single work:
J.S.Bach’s Goldberg Variations, performing it 88 times to great critical acclaim. The 2024/25 season will see Ólafsson as Artist-in-Residence with Tonhalle Zürich and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, as well as Artist-in-Focus at Vienna Musikverein. He joins forces with Yuja Wang for a highly anticipated two piano recital tour across Europe and North America and, in January 2025, will give the world premiere of John Adams’ After the Fall with San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, a piano concerto written especially for him. In spring 2025, Ólafsson will perform his new piano recital, the last three sonatas of Beethoven on multiple dates across the US and Europe.

Sophie Pacini *

Sophie Pacini is celebrated for her emotional depth, described by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung as ‘never an end in itself: everything remains play, art, and reflection—surprising and illuminating at every moment.’ Praised by MDR Kultur as ‘the ideal interpreter for 19th century piano music,’ she has captivated audiences since her concert debut at age eight. After graduating with honors from the Mozarteum Salzburg’s institute for highly gifted students, Sophie
has performed in some of the world’s most renowned venues, including the Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Paris’s La Seine Musicale, and Munich’s Herkulessaal. She has collaborated with leading orchestras such as the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, Dresden Philharmonic, and Tokyo Philharmonic. Her accolades include the ECHO Klassik (2015), International Classical Music Award (2017), and the Prix Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad. Deeply passionate about outreach, Sophie engages younger generations through innovative formats on German radio Deutschlandfunk and SWR. She shares a close artistic friendship with Martha Argerich and, since 2023, Sophie is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Marios Papadopoulos ◊

Marios Papadopoulos is the Founder of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and the Oxford Piano Festival. He has appeared in many of the world’s most prestigious venues and worked with a host of eminent musicians including Evgeny Kissin, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Maxim Vengerov, Martha Argerich and Lang Lang. His many recordings feature works by Beethoven, Mozart, Mussorgsky, César Franck, Stravinsky and the 24 Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich. He conducts the Oxford Philharmonic in new recordings of the Brahms and Sibelius violin concertos with Maxim Vengerov with whom he has also recorded the complete Brahms Violin Sonatas. In recent years, Maestro Papadopoulos has concentrated his work mainly in Oxford with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra. Rare guest appearances have included a UK tour with the LPO and a Mozart Piano Concerto cycle directed from the keyboard with the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra. In 2019, he conducted  a new production of The Marriage of Figaro for the Greek National Opera at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens. Marios holds a doctorate in music from City University, is a Fellow by Special Election of Keble College, Oxford and has been awarded an MBE for services to music in Oxford.

Kathryn Stott ◊

At the age of five, I made friends with the upright piano in our living room. That was the beginning of my musical journey, one which continues as you read this. Studies at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal College of Music led me abruptly into the life of a professional musician via the Leeds International Piano Competition and onto a steep learning curve. After a rollercoaster three years, I realised that I needed to re-connect with chamber music in a bid to feel more connected to other musicians and when, quite by chance, I met Yo-Yo Ma in 1978, it turned out to be one of the most fortuitous moments of my life and led to a long-standing collaboration. There are too many highlights in my career to mention. Yes, it was a thrill to perform at the Last Night of the Proms, but equally a massive thrill to have lit up twenty small faces in an inner city school while they jumped up and down to energetic piano music! Working with young musicians is something I feel passionate about and I’ve also had some truly exciting music written for me by composers. What an unbelievable privilege it is to be immersed in a language which has no boundaries and has allowed me to share musical stories on a global scale; that little upright piano set me on quite a path!

Arie Vardi ◊

Beginning his artistic career at the age of fifteen, Israeli born Arie Vardi went
on to receive acclaim as one of the country’s foremost pianists. After winning
the Chopin Competition in Israel, he appeared with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra with Zubin Mehta; and upon winning the George Enescu International Competition in Bucharest, he played numerous concerts throughout Europe. Alongside his study of music at the Rubin Academy he succeeded in achieving
a degree in law at Tel Aviv University. Vardi has performed widely as soloist with major orchestras under the baton of Semion Bychkov, Sergio Commissiona, Gustavo Dudamel, Lukas Foss, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Paul Paray, Paul Sacher, David Zinman and David Robertson, among others. Concert tours have taken him to Australia, Europe, the Far East, Latin America and the United States. He played together with Yo-Yo Ma, Radu Lupu, Joseph Silverstein, Yefim Bronfman, Pnina Salzman, Murray Perahia and András Schiff. In addition
to his concert career, Vardi is a professor of piano at the Hochschule für Musik
in Hannover and at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv, where he served as Director and Chair of the piano faculty. Over 60 of his students have won first prizes at international competitions. 

Ashley Wass ◊

Described as an ‘endlessly fascinating artist’, Ashley Wass’s musical career is one of unusual creativity and variety. Alongside his work as soloist and chamber musician, he is co-founder of Mash Productions, was Artistic Director of the Lincolnshire International Chamber Music Festival for eleven years, has devoted over 15 years to music education, and is currently the Director of Music at the Yehudi Menuhin School. The diverse list of people and organisations with whom he has collaborated include film festivals, art galleries and animators, children’s television presenters and stars of the stage and screen, illustrators, literary festivals and renowned authors, and mime artists and comedians. His watershed moment came in 1997 when he won the London International Piano Competition (the only British winner this far), a success that led to a recording contract with Naxos, making him the first solo artist to obtain an exclusive deal with the label. His debut recording was a highly praised CD of César Franck piano music, released in 1999. He was also a prizewinner at the Leeds Piano Competition, and is a former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist.