Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Beatrice Rana

‘Internally, you have to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve. And then your hands are just an extension of what you have in your head,’ says the French-Canadian. Yannick Nézet-Séguin studied piano, conducting, composition and chamber music at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec and choral conducting at Westminster Choir College in Princeton. Since 2012, he has served the Philadelphia Orchestra as music and artistic director; his contract was recently extended until 2030. He is also Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal, with whom he signed a ‘lifetime’ contract in 2019. And, of course, Yannick Nézet-Séguin appears as a guest conductor with the most renowned orchestras worldwide. His recipe for success? ‘I would say Yannick's strength is his incredible musicality and his special way of dealing with the orchestra,” says opera singer Joyce DiDonato. “He has this irrepressible desire to get everyone to the point where they can fly. He brings a spark of magic to everything.’ 

After her acclaimed debut at Carnegie Hall in March 2019, the New York Times praised the ‘bel canto grace’ of her phrasing. And indeed, says the Italian pianist, her playing shows a lot of the ‘concept of bel canto’ because it is, she says, ‘part of my culture and my background’. Beatrice Rana, who was trained, among others, by Arie Vardi at the Hochschule für Musik in Hanover and by her mentor Benedetto Lupo at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, has won many international prizes, including at the Arturo Benedetti-Michelangeli and Van Cliburn competitions. In 2017, the pianist, who now performs in the major music centres and with all the leading orchestras, founded her own chamber music festival ‘Classiche Forme’ in her home town of Lecce. In 2020, Beatrice Rana became artistic director of the Orchestra Filarmonica di Benevento. In these concerts, Beatrice Rana makes her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker.