Thomas Adès was born in London in 1971. He studied the piano with Paul Berkowitz at the Guildhall School, winning the Lutine Prize for piano, before continuing his studies at King’s and St John’s Colleges, Cambridge.
His early compositions include Living Toys (London Sinfonietta), Arcadiana (the Endellion Quartet) and his first opera Powder Her Face (1995), which has been performed many times around the world. Orchestral commissions include Asyla and America: A Prophecy, the tone poem Tevot and concertos for violin and piano. His Opera The Tempest received its premiere at the Royal Opera House in 2004 and in 2016 The Exterminating Angel premiered at the Salzburg Festival followed by performances at the Royal Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, all under the baton of the composer. In 1999 Adès started a 10-year relationship with Aldeburgh Festival as artistic director. In 2016 he became the Artistic Partner of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and has conducted the orchestra in Boston, at Carnegie Hall in New York and at Tanglewood. He coaches piano and chamber music annually at the International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove.
As a conductor, Thomas appears regularly with the Los Angeles, San Francisco and London Philharmonic orchestras, the Boston, London and City of Birmingham Symphony orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw, Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In opera, in addition to The Exterminating Angel, he has conducted The Rake’s Progress at the Royal Opera House and the Zürich Opera, and The Tempest at the Metropolitan Opera and Vienna State Opera.
Adès has given solo piano recitals at Carnegie Hall, New York and the Wigmore Hall and the Barbican in London, and appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic. He has performed Schubert’s Winterreise extensively throughout Europe with Ian Bostridge and in 2018 recorded it at the Wigmore Hall. In 2018, following a recital of Janácek's music at the Reduta Theatre in Brno, Janácek’s home town, he was awarded the Leoš Janácek prize. His many awards including the Grawemeyer Award for Asyla (1999); Royal Philharmonic Society large-scale composition awards for Asyla, The Tempest and Tevot. His CD recording of The Tempest (EMI) won the Contemporary category of the 2010 Gramophone Awards; his DVD of the production from the Metropolitan Opera was awarded the Diapason d’Or de l’année (2013), Best Opera recording (2014 Grammy Awards) and Music DVD Recording of the Year (2014 ECHO Klassik Awards); and The Exterminating Angel won the World Premiere of the Year at the International Opera Awards (2017). In 2015 he was awarded the prestigious Léonie Sonning Music Prize in Copenhagen and in January 2021 will judge the Toru Takemitsu composition award at Tokyo Opera City.

Kirill Gerstein’s curiosity and versatility has led to an intense engagement with a wide range of repertoire and styles. From Bach to to Adès, his playing is distinguished by its clarity of expression, discerning intelligence and virtuosity. Gerstein’s energetic and imaginative musical personality has taken him rapidly to the top of his profession.
2016 saw Gerstein release Liszt’s "Transcendental Études" for myrios classics which was picked by The New Yorker as one of 2016’s notable recordings. His 2015 release of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto in the composer’s own final version from 1879 won an ECHO Klassik award.
Based in Berlin, Kirill Gerstein appears world-wide in performances ranging from concerts with the Chicago and Boston Orchestras, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Royal Concertgebouw, Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, London Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre de Paris, to recitals in London, Paris and New York. He is the sixth recipient of the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award which allowed him to commission new works from Timothy Andres, Chick Corea, Alexander Goehr, Oliver Knussen and Brad Mehldau. Previous accolades include First Prize at the 10th Arthur Rubinstein Competition and an Avery Fisher Career Grant.
Earlier recordings for myrios classics include "Imaginary Pictures", Mussorgsky’s "Pictures at an Exhibition" coupled with Schumann’s "Carnaval", named by The New York Times as one of the best recordings of 2014; two discs with Tabea Zimmerman of sonatas for viola and piano by Brahms, Schubert, Franck, Clarke and Vieuxtemps, of which the Second Volume received the “Diapason d’Or de l’année 2013”; and a recital disc of works by Schumann, Liszt and Knussen.

“... with an exceptionally refined sense of musical discourse, Skanavi brings a purposeful concentration to every note she plays. The intensity of her interpretations is utterly compelling.” The Australian

Pianist Katia Skanavi’s combination of Greek-Russian cultural roots and Central European musical traditions results in music-making with a unique blend of spontaneity, intuition and erudition.

A Greek citizen born in the former Soviet Union, Skanavi is based in Moscow and Berlin. Equally active as a soloist and chamber music partner, she has appeared worldwide with conductors such as James Conlon, Kurt Masur, Sir Yehudi Menuhin and Jaap van Zweden. Skanavi collaborated with the major orchestras in Russia, and internationally with the DSO Berlin, Salzburg Camerata, Kremerata Baltica, Orchestre National de France, as well as with the symphony orchestras of Cincinnati, Dallas, Indianapolis, San Francisco and Tokyo. She has presented recital programs in Amsterdam, London, Madrid, Vienna and New York. Gidon Kremer has partnered with Katia Skanavi in concert duo performances and on recording and she has played sonatas with Leonidas Kavakos and Yuri Bashmet.

Katia Skanavi’s broad repertoire ranges from the Baroque era and across the Romantic age to collaborations with living composers. She has worked with Arvo Pärt, Alfred Schnittke, Jörg Widmann, Carl Vine and John Corigliano receiving advice from the composers.

Katia Skanavi’s discography includes an all-Chopin recital on the Pro Piano label, selected by Gramophone magazine as their record of the month. Her most recent concerto recording with Brussels Philharmonic is Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini and the first piano concerto. Preferring a concert atmosphere to the studio, many of Skanavi’s live recitals have been released on the Lyrinx label garnering critical praise.

Interested in cross-genre collaborations, Katia Skanavi has been involved in creating theater works combining poetry, music, video projections and dance. Her most recent production with actress Chulpan Khamatova and dancer Vladimir Varnava is part of the season repertoire at the legendary “Sovremennik’ drama theatre in Moscow.

Katia Skanavi began her musical studies in Moscow at the Gnessin School for Gifted Children with Tatiana Zelikman, and at the age of 12 made her debut in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, performing Kabalevskyʼs third piano concerto under the composerʼs direction. On her 18th birthday she became a multiple prize-winner in the finals of the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition in Paris. Early on her concert career was supported by further prizes at the Van Cliburn competition in Fort Worth and the Grand Prix Maria Callas in Athens. Continuing her studies at the Conservatoire National in Paris with Bruno Rigutto, Cleveland Institute of Music with Sergey Babayan, Katia Skanavi holds a Doctorate Degree from Tchaikovsky Conservatory where she studied with Vladimir Krainev and Vera Gornostaeva. Skanavi’s chosen PhD topic was the «Influence of Alfred Cortot on French piano tradition». She believes in the importance of pedagogy in a life of a concert musician and teaches piano and chamber music at international masterclasses and at the Moscow Conservatory.

With her highly acclaimed vocal prowess, musicality and stagecraft, young singer Ruzan Mantashyan is one of the most promising artists of her generation.

Armenian-born Ruzan Mantashyan studied piano from the age of seven at the Komitas Conservatoire in Yerevan. A few years later, she began voice lessons at the same institution with Valey Harutyunov. She honed her skills at Mirella Freni’s Accademia di Belcanto in Modena, then under Hedwig Fassbender at the Frankfurt Conservatoire, graduating with a Master’s Degree in 2014. She then joined the Atelier lyrique at the Opéra national de Paris, where she remained until 2016. She was a Finalist in the Francisco Vinas International Singing Contest in Barcelona, and won the competition’s Special Prize. She won the Toti dal Monte competition as Musetta (La Bohème) and performed this role in Treviso, Bolzano, Fermo and Ferrara.

At the age of seventeen, she was invited to perform in concerts with the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra. She performed in tribute concerts to Luciano Pavarotti in Modena. Her engagements have included roles such as Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) in Modena, Servilia (La clemenza di Tito) in Reggio Emilia, Echo (Ariadne auf Naxos) at the Konzerthaus Berlin (cond. Ivan Fischer), at the Opéra de Paris Bastille and at the Glyndebourne Festival, Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) in Paris-Creteil, Lille, at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Seoul and Zurich, Micaëla (Carmen) in Montpellier and Hamburg, Xenia (Boris Godunov) at the Opéra de Paris. She attracted particular attention as Mimi (La Bohème) and Marguerite (Faust) in Geneva.

During the last seasons she performed Tatyana (Eugene Onegin) at the Staatsoper Hamburg, Cleofide (Handel’s Poro, Re delle Indie) at the Komische Oper in Berlin, Mimi at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Fiordiligi and Mimi in Zurich. She also sang at the Peralada Festival with Juan Diego Florez, Fiordiligi in Hamburg, La Contessa (Le nozze di Figaro) in Amsterdam, Rusalka in Limoges.​

Productions cancelled during the Covid crisis : Mimi at the Wiener Staatsoper, Mimi in Nice and Komische Oper, Marguerite (Faust) at the Royal Opera House, Xenia (Boris Godounov) at the Opéra de Paris.

Recently, Ruzan has sung: Natacha Rostova (War and Peace) in Geneva, Tatyana (Eugene Onegin) in Liège, Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) in Zurich, Tatyana and Alice Ford (Falstaff) at the Komische Oper Berlin and Rachel (La Juive) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. Her projects for the 2022/23 season and the following ones: Tatyana in Hamburg, Donna Elvira in Glyndebourne, Donna Elvira in Zürich, Tatyana at the Komische Oper Berlin, Mimì at the Royal Opera House- London, and Tatyana at the Wiener Staatsoper…

Ruzan Mantashyan speaks Armenian, Russian, English, French, Italian and German.