Alice Sara Ott
One of classical music’s most creative minds, Alice Sara Ott begins the 2021-22 season with the album release and an international tour of Echoes Of Life. Ott’s latest project marks her tenth album on Deutsche Grammophon, for whom she is an exclusive recording artist.

Echoes Of Life is Alice Sara Ott’s personal musical reflection on life, built around Chopin’s Preludes op.28 and interspersed with seven works by the likes of György Ligeti, Nino Rota, Chilly Gonzales, Tōru Takemitsu, Arvo Pärt, Francesco Tristano and Ott herself. Her collaboration with architect Hakan Demirel results in an album-length digital video installation accompanying the recital, taking the audience on their own virtual journey and creating a wholly original concert experience.

The project has its world premiere in London’s Southbank in November 2021, followed by dates at Paris' La Seine Musicale, Munich Prinzregententheater, Lucerne KKL, Budapest MUPA, Antwerp de Singel, Klavierfest Ruhr, Lille Piano Festival, plus a major tour in Japan in spring 2022. Echoes Of Life follows on from seminal albums such as Nightfall, Wonderland and The Chopin Project, taking her total number of album streams to over 150 million.

In 2021/22 season Alice Sara Ott performs with Borusan Philharmonic with Patrick Hahn, KBS Symphony in Seoul with Christoph Eschenbach, with Camerata Salzburg and Francois Leleux. She performs Ravel’s Left Hand Concerto on tour with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Mikko Franck.

Alice Sara Ott has worked with conductors at the highest-level including Gustavo Dudamel, Pablo Heras-Casado, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Edward Gardner, Paavo Järvi, Sir Antonio Pappano, Gianandrea Noseda, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Yuri Temirkanov, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sakari Oramo, Osmo Vänskä, Myung-Whun Chung and Robin Ticciati. She continues to perform with ensembles such as Berliner Philharmoniker, Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, Münchner Philharmoniker, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra, and Wiener Symphoniker.

Also a talented illustrator and designer, Alice Sara Ott created a signature line of bags for JOST, one of Germany’s premium fashion brands. She has also been global brand ambassador for Technics and collaborated with French luxury jewellery house, Chaumet, part of the LVMH group.

Karina Canellakis
Internationally acclaimed for her emotionally charged performances, technical command and interpretive depth, Karina Canellakis has become one of the most in-demand conductors of her generation. She is the Chief Conductor of Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as the Principal Guest Conductor of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB).

As Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, she recently led an extensive tour of Germany’s most prestigious concert halls with the orchestra and soloist Daniil Trifonov. Karina continues to present exciting modern pieces as well as well-known masterpieces at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, where she holds the title of Chief Conductor.

In the 23-24 season, Vienna’s Musikverein will feature her as an Artist-in-Residence, appearing several times across the season with four different orchestras.

Since winning the Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award in 2016 Karina has become a guest conductor with leading orchestras around the world, including the Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, London Symphony Orchestra, LA Phil, San Francisco Symphony, Vienna Symphony and Munich Philharmonic. She was the first woman to conduct the First Night of the BBC Proms in London in 2019, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. She was also the first woman to ever conduct the Nobel Prize Concert with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic in 2018.

Already known to many in the classical music world for her virtuoso violin playing, Karina was initially encouraged to pursue conducting by Sir Simon Rattle while she was playing regularly in the Berlin Philharmonic for two years as a member of their Orchester-Akademie. She performed for many years as a soloist, guest leader, and chamber musician, spending her summers at the Marlboro Music Festival, until conducting eventually became her focus. Karina was born and raised in New York City.

After the great success of “Kat’a Kabánova” in the previous season, she brings another Janáček opera, “The Cunning Little Vixen“, to the stage of the Concertgebouw in April 2023. Her concert performances of acts of Wagner’s “Die Walküre”, “Tristan und Isolde”, and “Siegfried” have been met with tremendous critical praise, and she has conducted critically acclaimed productions of Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin”, Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”, “Die Zauberflöte”, “Le nozze di Figaro”, David Lang’s “the loser” and Peter Maxwell Davies’ “The Hogboon”.