Special Concert International Shostakovich Festival Gohrisch

Marie Jacquot has played her way into the forefront of exciting young conductors through numerous outstanding debuts with top-class orchestras, her consistent musical work and her interest in exploring a wide-ranging repertoire. From the 2023/24 season, Marie Jacquot is Principal Guest Conductor of the Wiener Symphoniker, with whom she has already appeared at the Bregenz Festival, the Vienna Konzerthaus and the Vienna Musikverein. In summer 2024, she will additionally take over the position as Principal Conductor of the Royal Danish Theatre Copenhagen. Already in 2023/24, Marie Jacquot is guest conductor at the Copenhagen Opera for a new production of "Eugene Onegin". Debuts this season will take her to Oper Frankfurt (Die Zauberflöte) and to a world premiere by Marc-André Dalbavie at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, among others, as well as in concerts to Munich Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra and Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Successful debuts and re-invitations of the past seasons include a.o. Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Symphony Orchestras of Bavarian Radio Munich, WDR Cologne, HR Frankfurt and mdr Leipzig, as well as DSO Berlin, the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic, Malmö Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. She has also conducted premieres and performances in a wide repertoire at prominent

opera houses, including Semperoper Dresden (Eötvös' "The Golden Dragon", "Carmen"), Staatsoper Stuttgart ("Medée", "Don Giovanni"), Deutsche Oper Berlin ("La traviata"), Komische Oper Berlin (Thomas' "Hamlet"), Opéra National du Rhin Strasbourg (world premiere by Thierry Pécou), Flemish Opera Antwerp/Gent ("Le nozze di Figaro") and Opéra National de Lorraine in Nancy ("L'amour des trois oranges"). Between 2016 and 2019, Marie Jacquot was First Kapellmeister and Deputy General Music Director in Würzburg. From 2019, she was First Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf / Duisburg for three years, where she conducted the new productions of "La Clemenza di Tito", "Roméo et Juliette" and "The Nutcracker", as well as concerts of Düsseldorfer Symphoniker and Duisburger Philharmoniker. After studying trombone in Paris, Marie Jacquot studied conducting in Vienna and Weimar, attended various master classes and held a scholarship of the Conductors' Forum of the German Music Council. In 2016, she was assistant to Kirill Petrenko at the Bavarian State Opera for the world premiere of Miroslav Srnka's "South Pole" and subsequently conducted two productions of her own at the Munich Opera Festival. Her awards include the "Ernst Schuch Prize" in 2019, as well as a nomination for "Newcomer of the year" at the International Opera Awards.

The multifaceted pianist Kirill Gerstein has rapidly ascended into classical music’s highest ranks.  With a masterful technique, discerning intelligence, and a musical curiosity that has led him to explore repertoire spanning centuries and styles, he has proven to be one of today’s most intriguing and versatile musicians. His early training and experience in jazz has contributed an important element to his interpretive style, inspiring an energetic and expressive musical personality that distinguishes his playing.

Mr. Gerstein is the sixth recipient of the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award, presented every four years to an exceptional pianist who, regardless of age or nationality, possesses broad and profound musicianship and charisma and who desires and can sustain a career as a major international concert artist. Since receiving the award in 2010, Mr. Gerstein has shared his prize through the commissioning of boundary-crossing works by Timo Andres, Chick Corea, Alexander Goehr, Oliver Knussen, and Brad Mehldau, with additional commissions scheduled for future seasons. Mr. Gerstein was awarded First Prize at the 2001 Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition in Tel Aviv, received a 2002 Gilmore Young Artist Award, and a 2010 Avery Fisher Grant.

Additionally this season, Mr. Gerstein performs Busoni’s epic Piano Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra led by Sakari Oramo (and returns in the 2018-19 season to play the world premiere of a BSO-commissioned piano concerto by the orchestra’s first-ever artistic partner, Thomas Adès), Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in the original jazz band version and Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra led by James Gaffigan, and both Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F and Rhapsody in Blue with the St. Louis Symphony conducted by David Robertson to be recorded for future release. He also returns to the New Jersey, San Diego, and Vancouver Symphonies, performs recitals in Washington DC at the Kennedy Center, Chicago presented by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Seattle, and joins the Hagen Quartet for chamber music concerts at Zankel Hall in New York and at Duke University. In Europe, Mr. Gerstein performs Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 as part of Semyon Bychkov’s Tchaikovsky festival with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and plays with the Brno Philharmonic, Deutches-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Göttinger Symphonie Orchester, Hamburger Symphoniker, Helsinki Philharmonic, and

Luzerner Sinfonieorchester.

Recent engagements have included performances with the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics, the Philadelphia and Minnesota Orchestras, and the Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Houston Indianapolis, Montreal, St. Louis, San Francisco and Toronto symphonies, among others. He has appeared at Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony, and at the Aspen Music Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chicago’s Grant Park, Blossom with the Cleveland Orchestra, and with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Bravo! Vail Valley Festival, Mann Music Center and Saratoga. Internationally, he has played with such prominent European orchestras as the Berlin, Czech, Munich, Rotterdam and London Philharmonics, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Staatskappelle, Finnish Radio Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw, Tonkünstler Orchestra Vienna, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne and the Zurich Tonhalle, as well as with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. He has performed recitals in Paris, Prague, Hamburg, London’s Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall, and at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. He made his Salzburg Festival debut playing solo and two piano works with Andras Schiff and has also appeared at the Lucerne and Jerusalem Chamber Music Festivals as well as at the Proms in London.

Born in 1979 in Voronezh, in southwestern Russia, Mr. Gerstein studied piano at a special music school for gifted children and while studying classical music, taught himself to play jazz by listening to his parents’ extensive record collection. After coming to the attention of vibraphonist Gary Burton, who was performing at a music festival in the Soviet Union, Mr. Gerstein came to the United States at 14 to study jazz piano as the youngest student ever to attend Boston’s Berklee College of Music. After completing his studies in three years and following his second summer at the Boston University program at Tanglewood, Mr. Gerstein turned his focus back to classical music and moved to New York City to attend the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Solomon Mikowsky and earned both Bachelors and Masters of Music degrees by the age of 20. He continued his studies in Madrid with Dmitri Bashkirov and in Budapest with Ferenc Rados. An American citizen since 2003, Mr. Gerstein now divides his time between the United States and Germany.

Helmut Fuchs, born in1984 in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, started his education at the age of six with trumpet lessons at the Musikschulwerk Salzburg with Martin Mühlfellner. In 2001 he switched to Igor Oder with whom he was also studying during his time at the Militärmusik Salzburg (20013-2004). In 2004 he started his trumpet studies at the Mozarteum University Salzburg with Gottfried Menth. In 2005 he carried on at the University of Music and the performing Arts Vienna and studied with Josef Pomberger. In addition to his education as a concert instrumentalist he also studied instrumental education. He finished both studies in 2009/2012 with honours.

Already during his studies up until now he is substituting in some of the most prestigious orchestras of Austria (like the Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera, the Vienna Philharmonics, the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich, the Vienna Symphonics, the Bruckner Orchester Linz as well as the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg).

In 2014 he joined the Opera de Nice as trumpeter and since 2016 he is Solo trumpeter at the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden.