Isabelle Faust
captivates her audience with her compelling interpretations. She dives deep into every piece considering the musical historical context, historically appropriate instruments and the greatest possible authenticity according to a contemporary state of knowledge. Thus, she manages to constantly illuminate and passionately perform the repertoire of a wide variety of composers.

After winning the renowned Leopold Mozart Competition and the Paganini Competition at a very young age, she soon gave regular performances with the world’s major orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Baroque Orchestra Freiburg.

"To fully appreciate such exquisite softness, such clarity wedded to such fragility, one needs to hear Faust live. Trust a listener who’s heard countless performances: this was Beethoven’s Violin Concerto as Cleveland rarely gets to hear it." (Zachary Lewis, cleveland.com, Februar 2020)

This led to close and sustained cooperation with conductors like Claudio Abbado, Giovanni Antonini, Frans Brüggen, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Harding, Philippe Herreweghe, Andris Nelsons and Robin Ticciati. Isabelle Faust’s vast artistic curosity includes all eras and forms of instrumental cooperation. Thus she never considers music as an end in itself but rather advances the piece’s essence in a devoted, subtle and conscientious way. In addition to big symphonic violin concertos this includes for instance Schubert’s octet with historical instruments as well as György Kurtág’s "Kafka Fragments" with Anna Prohaska or Igor Stravinsky’s "L’Histoire du Soldat" with Dominique Horwitz. With great commitment she renders an outstanding service to the performance of contemporary music, recent world premieres include works by Péter Eötvös, Brett Dean and Ondřej Adámek.

Numerous recordings have been unanimously praised by critics and awarded the Diapason d’or, the Grammophone Award, the Choc de l’année and other prizes. The most recent recordings include Arnold Schönberg’s violin concerto with Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio symphony Orchestra, published in 2020, followed in 2021 by Ludwig van Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with Alexander Melnikov, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Pablo Heras-Casado and the Freiburger Barockorchester. Isabelle Faust presented further popular recordings among others of the Sonatas and Partitas for violin solo by Johann Sebastian Bach as well as violin concertos by Ludwig van Beethoven and Alban Berg under the direction of Claudio Abbado. She shares a long- standing chamber music partnership with the pianist Alexander Melnikov. Among others, joint recordings with sonatas for piano and violin by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms have been released.

Jakub Hrůša
In September 2016, Jakub Hrůša assumed musical direction of the Bamberg Symphony. »I am very happy that in Jakub Hrůša we have been able to secure a musical director for the Bavarian State Philharmonic in Bamberg who is young and also enjoys a high profile«, says Bavaria's Minister for the Arts, Dr. Ludwig Spaenle. »The position of Chief Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony is extremely demanding; more than any other musician, he is responsible for the artistic standards of this exceptional orchestra. In view of the Bamberg Symphony’s history, which saw its members move from Prague to Bamberg after the war, the new Chief Conductor bridges once more, 70 years after the foundation of the Orchestra, its past and its present.«

»I am truly delighted to be Chief Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony«, says Jakub Hrůša. »Even before I had a chance to conduct this jewel among European orchestras, I had been a huge admirer. They are an embodiment of orchestral culture, with everything imagined by this term. And with the Orchestra having its origins in Prague, we breathe the same musical air, sharing our cultural backgrounds, being artistically and historically very close. With the Bamberg Symphony, every phrase can turn to be a little miracle, and every concert is a transfiguration.«

Jakub Hrůša is the fifth Chief Conductor in the history of the Bamberg Symphony. Born in Brno in 1981, he studied conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Principal Guest Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra, Permanent Guest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, Principal Guest Conductor of Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and served as Music Director and Chief Conductor of PKF-Prague Philharmonia from 2009-2015.

He is a regular guest with many of the world's greatest orchestras. Recent highlights have included débuts with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Filarmonica della Scala, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony and Chicago Symphony; Bohemian Legends and The Mighty Five – two major series specially devised for the Philharmonia Orchestra; and returns to the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, DSO Berlin and Los Angeles Philharmonic. The 17/18 season will see his débuts with the San Francisco Symphony and Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.

As a conductor of opera, he has been a regular guest with Glyndebourne Festival and has served as Music Director of Glyndebourne On Tour for three years. Elsewhere he has led productions for Vienna State Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Frankfurt Opera, Finnish National Opera, Royal Danish Opera and Prague National Theatre. The 17/18 season will see his return to the Opera National de Paris and his début at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden.

Jakub Hrůša is currently President of the International Martinů Circle. In 2015 he was the inaugural recipient of the Sir Charles Mackerras Prize. He lives with his wife and his two children in Prague.