Jonathon Heyward is forging a career as one of the most exciting conductors on the international scene. Currently in his second year as a Chief Conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, in summer 2021 Heyward took part in an intense, two-week residency with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain which led to a highly acclaimed BBC Proms debut. According to the Guardian, Heyward was “not too exhausted, though, to lead—from memory—a fast and fearless performance of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, in which loud chords exploded, repeating like fireworks in the hall’s dome, and the quietest passages barely registered. It was exuberant, exhilarating stuff.” In Colin’s Column Ateş Orga noted: “This Prom was about Jonathon Heyward, NYOGB and Beethoven...Heyward’s a man of twenty-nine coolly heading for the stratosphere.” 

Heyward’s recent and forthcoming symphonic guest conducting highlights in the United Kingdom include debuts and re-invitations with the London Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. In continental Europe, amongst Heyward’s recent and future debuts are collaborations with the Castilla y León in Spain; Basel Symphony, Musikkolegium Winterthur, and Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne in Switzerland; Brussels Philharmonic, SymfonieOrkest Vlaanderen and Antwerp Symphony in Belgium; Philharmonie Zuidnederland in the Netherlands; Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine in France; Lahti Symphony in Finland; Kristiansand Symphony in Norway, and St. Petersburg Symphony in Russia. In his native United States in the current and upcoming concert seasons, Heyward looks forward to making debuts with the Baltimore, Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, San Diego, St. Louis, and Oregon Symphony Orchestras, and with the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. Following successful collaborations of past seasons, in 2022 Heyward returns to Seattle Symphony and Grant Park Music Festival. In summer 2021, Heyward made his Wolf Trap debut conducting the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC. 

Equally at home on the opera stage, Heyward recently made his Royal Opera House debut with Hannah Kendall’s Knife of Dawn, having also conducted a Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra as well as the world premiere of Giorgio Battistelli’s new opera Wake in a production by Graham Vick for the Birmingham Opera Company. 

Originally trained as a cellist and chamber musician, Heyward went on to take up the position of Assistant Conductor for both their opera department and the Boston Opera Collaborative, where he worked on such productions as La Bohème, Die Zauberflöte, and The Rape of Lucretia. In 2013, Heyward became the youngest ever semi-finalist at the Blue Danube International Opera Conducting Competition at the age of 21, and soon after was appointed Associate Director of the Hampstead Garden Opera Company in London. Winner of the 2015 Besançon International Conducting Competition, in 2016, he completed his postgraduate studies in conducting with Sian Edwards at the Royal Academy of Music. In the 2017-2018 season Heyward was selected as a Los Angeles Philharmonic Dudamel Conducting Fellow, later stepping in to make his subscription debut with Hilary Hahn as part of the orchestra’s Bernstein @ 100 Celebration at Walt Disney Concert Hall. 

Heyward recently completed three years as Assistant Conductor of the Hallé Orchestra under the mentorship of Sir Mark Elder. Amongst highlights in Manchester, Heyward counts his first subscription concert with Benjamin Grosvenor in 2018 and a 200th birthday concert for the orchestra’s founder Sir Charles Hallé. In recognition of his extensive community outreach work and commitment to music education as Music Director of the Hallé Youth Orchestra, Heyward received a finalist nomination for Young Creative of the Year at the Manchester Culture Awards 2018. The culmination of Heyward’s tenure in Manchester was marked with the debut at the Manchester International Festival conducting a “roaringly bold account” (Bachtrack) of Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony.

Yeol Eum Son’s graceful and timeless interpretations, crystalline touch and versatile, thrilling performances have caught the attention of audiences worldwide. She is highly regarded as a brilliant virtuoso whose playing has a rare balance between enormous kinetic energy and substantial gravity. Yeol Eum performs all over the world as a recitalist and soloist with orchestras. An avid chamber musician, in 2018 Yeol Eum was appointed Artistic Director of Music in PyeongChang Festival, being responsible for programming both summer and winter editions at the Olympic site in PyeongChang. 

Praised for her widely eclectic and rich concerti repertoire, ranging from Bach, all-Mozart, early German and Russian Romantic to Gershwin, Szymanowski, Ligeti and Salonen, as a soloist Yeol Eum has collaborated with major ensembles worldwide such as New York Philharmonic, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Dresdner Philharmoniker, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, Tonkunstler Orchestra at the Grafenegg Festival, Bergen Philharmonic, CBSO, Aurora Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, KBS Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi, St. Petersburg, Belgrade, Zagreb, Sofia Philharmonic and RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra among many others.

Yeol Eum performs with conductors such as Dmitri Kitayenko, Valery Gergiev, Vasily Petrenko, Vladimir Spivakov, Andrew Manze, Susanna Mälkki, Krzysztof Urbański, Omer Meir Wellber, Pietari Inkinen, Jonathan Nott, Mikko Franck, Nicholas Collon, Jaime Martin, Roberto González-Monjas, Joana Carneiro, Pablo González, Jun Märkl, Case Scaglione, Gergely Madaras, Ryan Bancroft, Anja Bihlmaier and Rune Bergmann.

Earlier in the year, Yeol Eum made concerti debut at the Salle Philharmonique de Liège with Liège Philharmonic; Philharmonie de Paris debut with Orchestre National d’Île-de-France and a debut with Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra at Madrid’s Teatro Monumental. Across the 21/22 season, Yeol Eum looks forward to making debut with the Budapest Festival Orchestra at Palace of Arts in Budapest; Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Eindhoven’s Muziekgebouw Frits Philips debut with Philharmonie Zuid Nederland; Finnish debut with Helsinki Philharmonic at the Helsinki Music Centre; Singapore debut at the Victoria Concert Hall with Singapore Symphony; debuts with Basel, Norrköping and Castilla y León Symphony Orchestras, Szczecin Philharmonic and Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn among others. In the 21/22 season, Yeol Eum also returns to Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken for multiple performances under the baton of their Chief, Pietari Inkinen.

Distinguished highlights of the recent concert seasons in the United Kingdom include Yeol Eum’s Royal Albert Hall and BBC Proms debut with the BBC Philharmonic in summer 2019 (Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 15); CBSO debut in Birmingham (Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 21) Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken for multiple performances under the baton of their Chief, Pietari Inkinen.