Kevin John Edusei is one of the outstanding conductors of his generation. Again and again he is praised for the musical tension and drama he gives to his conducting, which is characterized by a clear feeling for architecture and attention to detail. Edusei is consistently committed to a multifaceted and diverse repertoire from baroque to modern.

In the 2022-2023 season, he will make his debuts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony, the Symphony Orchestras of Cincinnati and Utah, and the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington DC). He returns to the podium of the London Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In Europe, Edusei has made guest appearances with numerous renowned orchestras in recent years and went with the Chineke! Orchestra when they embarked on a European tour through Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie, the Helsinki Music Festival, and the Lucerne Festival, culminating in a television broadcast of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall.

The 2021-2022 season marked Edusei's eighth and last as chief conductor of the Munich Symphony Orchestra. At the beginning of the 2022-2023 season, he will assume the position of Principal Guest Conductor with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.

In fall 2022, Edusei made his debut at the Royal Opera House with La bohème, to which he will return in 2023-2024. He has also conducted at the English National Opera, the Semperoper Dresden, the Staatsoper Hamburg, the Komische Oper Berlin, and the Volksoper Wien. 

As chief conductor at the Bern Opera House until 2019, he conducted a Mozart Da Ponte cycle described by the press as "stirring, luminous and historically informed" as well as new productions by Peter Grimes, Salome, Ariadne auf Naxos, Duke Bluebeard's Castle, Kát'a Kábanová, Tannhäuser, and Tristan und Isolde.

Violinist Clara-Jumi Kang is an artist of supreme musicality, impeccable refinement and poise as borne out by the many awards and accolades she has received since she first burst on the scene as winner of the Indianapolis International Violin Competition in 2010, hot on the heels of her successes at the Seoul Violin Competition (2009) and the Sendai Violin Competition (2010). Her cycle of Beethoven Violin Sonatas with pianist Sunwook Kim which was released on Accentus last season has received outstanding reviews and nominations.

Recent and current highlights include her debut at the Proms with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Ryan Bancroft performing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, performances with the Gurzenich Orchester/Roth, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen/P Järvi, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic/Denève, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Schwarz, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra/Chung and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra/Mena and she will tour Australasia for performances with the Melbourne Symphony, Auckland Philharmonia, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, and KBS Symphony Orchestra.

She made her concerto debut with Hamburg Symphony at the age of five and has since performed with orchestras including the Warsaw Philharmonic, Cologne Chamber Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Mariinsky Orchestra, Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra with conductors such as Boreyko, Fedoseyev, Gergiev, Kremer, Mena, Poppen, François Xavier Roth, Varga, Lü Jia, Chung, Holliger, Märkl, and Yamada.

Further afield, her performances have taken her to the US with the Atlanta, New Jersey, Indianapolis, and Santa Fe Symphony Orchestras, as well as Asia with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, NCPA Beijing Orchestra, Macao Philharmonic, Taipei Symphony, and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestras. She was selected as one of the top 100 “Most promising and influential people of Korea” in 2012 by major Korean newspaper Dong-A Times and was awarded the Daewon Music Award (2012) for her outstanding international achievements as well as Kumho Musician of the Year (2015). Kang has made two recordings for Decca: “Modern Solo” featuring works including Schubert’s “Erlkönig” and Ysaÿe Sonatas, and a Brahms/Schumann album with Yeol-Eum Son. A dedicated chamber musician, she is a member of the Spectrum Concerts series at the Berlin Philharmonie and a regular visitor to festivals across Asia and Europe.

Born in Germany to a musical family, Kang took up the violin at the age of three and a year later enrolled as the youngest ever student at the Mannheim Musikhochschule. She went on to study with Zakhar Bron at the Lübeck Musikhochschule and at the age of seven was awarded a full scholarship to the Julliard School to study with Dorothy Delay. She took her Bachelor and Masters degrees at the Korean National University of Arts under Nam-Yun Kim before completing her studies at the Munich Musikhochschule with Christoph Poppen.

Arlene Sierra is a London-based American composer whose music is lauded for its “highly flexible and distinctive style” (The Guardian), ranging from “exquisiteness and restrained power” to “combative and utterly compelling” (Gramophone). Notable premieres include Nature Symphony “memorable for its creation of wonderful sounds from a large orchestra” (Bachtrack.com) commissioned by BBC Radio Three and the BBC Philharmonic, Butterflies Remember a Mountain for the Benedetti-ElschenbroichGrynyuk Trio, described as “precisely and joyously imagined” (The Times) and performed in venues including the Concertgebouw and the BBC Proms, a New York Philharmonic commission for chamber orchestra Game of Attrition, described by Time Out as “at turns spry, savage, sly and seductive… so enrapturing.” Sierra’s highly individual works have been nominated and awarded on several occasions, including the Takemitsu Composition Prize, a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, PRS Composers Fund and Women Make Music awards, and a Leverhulme Research Fellowship. Her orchestral showpiece Moler was nominated for a Latin GRAMMY for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.

Arlene Sierra has composed works for the Albany, Seattle, and Utah Symphonies, the Tanglewood, Cheltenham, and Huddersfield Music Festivals, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Bremen Philharmonic Society, and ensembles including Lontano, Psappha, International Contemporary Ensemble, and the Carducci Quartet. She has worked with conductors including Thierry Fischer, Andris Nelsons, Susanna Mälkki, Oliver Knussen, Jac Van Steen, Shiyeon Sung, Odaline de la Martinez, Jayce Ogren, Grant Llewellyn, Stefan Asbury, and Ludovic Morlot, and ensembles including the Tokyo Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta, Boston Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Österreichisches Ensemble für neue Musik, Chroma, New Juilliard Ensemble, the Fidelio, Peabody, and Horszowski Trios, and New York City Opera VOX.

Her music is the subject of a series of portrait recordings by the esteemed Bridge Records label. Arlene Sierra, Vol. 1, recorded by the International Contemporary Ensemble, received rave reviews internationally and was featured by NPR Classical, which described its “remarkable brilliance of colour, rhythmic dexterity and playfulness.” The orchestral disc Game of Attrition: Arlene Sierra, Vol. 2 has been praised for “vividly scored, colorful works” by The New York Times and described by The Guardian as “remarkably sure-footed… quirky and individual” and “startlingly fresh and assured.” Gramophone Magazine has described Sierra’s latest release Butterflies Remember a Mountain - Arlene Sierra, Vol. 3 as “a wonderful chamber music issue that enthrals from first bar to last.” Other labels representing Sierra’s work include NMC, New Focus Recordings, and Coviello Classics.

Born in Miami to a family of New Yorkers, she holds degrees from Oberlin College-Conservatory, Yale School of Music, and the University of Michigan. Arlene Sierra currently serves as Professor of Music Composition at Cardiff University School of Music.