For more than three decades, French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie has performed around the world, earning a reputation as one of the world’s most versatile artists. He extends his interpretive voice across a wide repertoire, and his performances, as well as his award-winning recordings, are testament to his remarkable musical range.

Louis Lortie has enjoyed long-standing collaborations with orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France and Dresden Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, St Louis Symphony and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Regular conductors include Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Edward Gardner, Sir Andrew Davis, Jaap van Zweden, Simone Young, Antoni Wit and Thierry Fischer.

In recital and chamber music, Louis Lortie appears at all the most prestigious concert halls and festivals, including London’s Wigmore Hall, the Philharmonie de Paris, Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Hall, the Beethovenfest in Bonn and the Liszt Festival in Raiding.

A prolific recording artist, his 30-year association with Chandos Records has resulted in a catalogue of over 45 recordings, spanning a wide repertoire from Mozart to Stravinsky. During his formative years he studied with Yvonne Hubert, a pupil of the legendary Alfred Cortot, with Dieter Weber and Leon Fleisher, a disciple of Schnabel. In 1984 he won first prize at the Busoni Competition and, in the same year, distinguished himself at the Leeds Competition.

Highly regarded as a conductor, guest concertmaster, soloist and chamber musician, Markus Däunert studied with Walter Carl Zeller, Jost Witter and Norbert Brainin. From 1997 to 2005 he was co-director of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with which he also performed as a soloist, under the baton of Abbado, Harding, Fischer, Masur, Pinnock and Philippe Herreweghe.

As guest concertmaster he has performed with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus and the BBC Philharmonic, among others. The Berlin violinist also frequently collaborates with the Berliner Philharmoniker. During his intense artistic career he has helped to found numerous orchestras and chamber ensembles (Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Archi De Sono, Aldeburgh Strings and Mahler Soloists).

Worthy of note are his commitment to the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and the teaching model “El Sistema” created by José Antonio Abreu. In the chamber music field, in addition to his commitments with the Mahler Soloists and the Messiaen Ensemble, Däunert has collaborated with many protagonists of the international concert scene, participating in the most important Festivals. He plays a violin made by the German luthier Christoph Götting of Wiesbaden.

Knut Weber, winner of numerous competitions, was a scholarship holder and principal cellist of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and later a founding member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra before joining the Berlin Philharmonic at the age of 23.

In addition to his orchestral work, the cellist also performs as a soloist, with orchestras such as the Kammerorchester Wien-Berlin, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra. Chamber music is also a focal point of his musical activity.

He has collaborated with Nelson Freire, Mitsuko Uchida and many of his orchestra's soloists such as Daishin Kashimoto, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Emmanuel Pahud and Andreas Ottensammer. As a member of the 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Stradivari Solists and the Philharmonic Piano Quartet Berlin, Knut Weber performs regularly in Europe, Asia and the United States. He also enjoys collaborating with youth orchestras as a teacher and soloist.

From 2015 to 2022 Knut Weber was also active as an orchestra and member of the board of trustees of the Berlin Philharmonic. He is a co-founder of the “Bronislaw Huberman Forum” and a member of the artistic advisory board of the Istanbul Music Festival. Knut Weber plays on a David Tecchler cello from 1730.