Grigori Sokolov
Mastery of the piano
The mystery of Grigori Sokolov (Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg, Russia, 74 years old) is in your hands. He doesn’t speak, we hardly know anything about him. He only wants to reveal himself through the music he has given us, for decades, as what he is: for many, the greatest living pianist. Therefore, every time he appears on any stage—he often does so in Spain, where he has become a nationalist—it is a waste not to go and hear him. At least this way, those who enjoy it will be able to tell their grandchildren about it. Sokolov’s mastery comes from hard work: at least six hours a day sitting at the piano. When there is a concert, they can be extended to eight or nine. He prepares his repertoires months in advance, when he performs one before the public, at the same time he rehearses the next. His interpretations of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Schubert and Mozart are already legendary. His career exploded internationally when the wall fell and he began touring around the world. Previously, he barely left the Soviet Union, but with the country’s first opening, before it closed in on itself again, it turned to impose itself on the elite as one of the greats. He has been at the top for more than 30 years without abandoning his fully monastic and ascetic attitude towards his instrument. Nothing distracts him from his destiny. And his destiny is the piano.


Pablo Sainz Villegas
The best guitar in the world
This 47-year-old from Logroño is the king of classical guitar in the world. His art has captivated composers such as John Williams, who has prepared special arrangements of his works to adapt them to the strings of his instrument. His career had tough beginnings, he studied in Berlin and New York, but he established himself among the elite with a mix of determination and exquisite sensitivity. He considers it a duty to make room for the prestige of the guitar among the great symphonic repertoire, but he is also up to date and has become an inspiration for many contemporary composers for their creations. He is determined to turn the guitar into a UNESCO universal heritage and directs and promotes in his land, La Rioja, a festival that combines music, heritage, the Camino de Santiago and wine culture in settings such as monasteries, churches, auditoriums or wineries where he programs all kinds of concerts with international figures. He has made his debut and is a regular in big orchestra programs. His interpretation in the pandemic Aranjuez concert with the Berlin Philharmonic catapulted him among the greats in the history of his instrument.


Hilary Hahn
From baroque to music with AI
The American violinist is a true reference of her generation. From tradition and with an exhaustive mastery of the repertoire since the baroque, Hilary Hahn (Lexington, USA, 45 years old) has known how to transfer the validity of classical music to the 21st century with curiosity in various fields since she debuted at the age of 12 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He has already won three Grammy Awards. His interest in new searches and his commitment to contemporary creation have led him to premiere new works, promote chamber music, as well as adapt the strings of his violin to other areas such as cinema, therapeutic experimentation or the challenges of technology. . In these areas he has stood out as a performer of globally successful soundtracks, such as the one composed by James Newton Howard for the forest, from director M. Night Shyamalan, or the Barber Concert that sounds in The Deep Blue Sea, by Terence Davis. In addition, he has created the company Deepmusic.ai, whose purpose is to investigate the possibilities of artificial intelligence (AI) in creation and the arts.


Sarah Willis
The great trumpet player of her generation
The multifaceted talents of Sarah Willis (Bethesda, USA, 56 years old) have made her one of the great horn players of her generation and also one of the leaders of musical dissemination as a communicator. The performer of American origin who is also a British national has been part of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra since 2001, where she joined during the Simon Rattle era after having played years before at the State Opera of the German city alongside Daniel Barenboim. In her role as a popularizer, Willis succeeds as host of the program Sarah’s Music on the German channel Deutsche Welle, but she is a regular on the platform that the Berlin orchestra has as an interviewer of soloists and conductors, in addition to hosting concerts for families. On the channel of his website he also directs the space Horn Hangouts, dedicated to wind instruments.


Tsotne Zedginidze
A 15-year-old global prodigy
This 15-year-old Georgia-born prodigy plays the piano and composes. He comes from a family of musicians and is a descendant of Niko Sulkhanishvili, one of the most important composers and teachers in his country. He has captivated his compatriot, the violinist Lisa Batiashvili, or geniuses like Sokolov. His talent was forged by showing an interest in opera or ballet music since he was a child. At the age of two he was already able to name and distinguish various musical instruments in an orchestral formation. At the age of five he began receiving piano lessons from his grandmother, the teacher Nino Mamradze, and at six he was already beginning to study works from the repertoire of composers such as Clementi, Scarlatti, Mozart and Beethoven. At that same age he began to compose and, at the age of 10, he gave his first recital in Tbilisi, the capital of his country. A year later, in 2020, he began to present his works in public, such as The Bells, composed in the covid pandemic and dedicated to his mother, Irene Sulkhanishvili, who died. His career is already international and he has debuted in several countries. However, he continued his studies and amazed great teachers such as Daniel Barenboim, who taught him and said about him: “Mozart has returned to Germany from Georgia.”


Leonidas Kavakos
The brightest ‘stradivarius’
The Greek Leónidas Kavakos (Athens, 57 years old) is one of the most brilliant violinists of today. Next to his stradivarius, He has conquered audiences around the world with forceful performances, with an energetic character, overwhelming technique and sophisticated sound. He began his studies at the age of five, won an Onassis scholarship to study in the United States with Josef Gingold at the University of Indiana and made his debut in his city in 1984. At the age of 18 he won the Jean Sibelius competition in Helsinki and from there, and After winning others such as the Naumburg in New York and the Paganini in Genoa, his career took off all over the world. He is a resident performer of the Berlin Philharmonic and has also stood out as conductor at the New York Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony, the Milanese Philharmonic della Scala and the Boston Symphony, among others.


Lisa Batiashvili
Violinist and patron
The German artist born in Tbilisi (Georgia) 45 years ago is one of the fundamental violinists in the current classical music scene. His father, also a violinist, was his first teacher, but he basically trained at the Hamburg Conservatory with Mark Lubotski, a student of David Oistrach, and later in Munich, with Ana Chumachenko. Between 1999 and 2001 he was part of the program New Generation of Artist from the BBC and shortly after debuted at the London Proms. He currently uses a Guarneri del Gesu that dates back to 1739 for his appearances. He has promoted a foundation in his country of origin with his name to support young talents, such as Tsotne Zedginidze and others. He recorded his works on Deutsche Grammophone and stands out in the repertoire with works by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Bach, Dvorák…, apart from having been a resident of large orchestras throughout his career, such as the Berlin Philharmonic or the Concertgebouw , from Amsterdam, and having debuted with the best in the world.


Marin Alsop
A pioneer with the baton
Marin Alsop (New York, USA, 68 years old) has spent her life breaking new ground. This outstanding student of Leonard Bernstein will be the first American woman to debut at the Berlin Philharmonic in February 2025, but throughout her career she has often been the first woman to… For example, to conduct the Baltimore Symphony as principal conductor in your country or that of Vienna Radio. She was not very well received in the American orchestra, but she left her position after 14 seasons and some musicians delighted with her leadership. She has also been the principal of the São Paulo State Symphony in Brazil and in Europe she continued to break records for her genre by becoming the first maestro to conduct the last night of the London Proms. He regularly records with the Naxos label and maintains continuous collaborations with ensembles such as the London Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the London Age of Enlightenment, the Budapest Festival and the Paris Orchestra, the La Scala Orchestra, the Concertgebouw or the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2024 he also made his debut at the Metropolitan in New York with the operaThe child, by John Adams.