© Marco Borggreve

Lucas and Arthur Jussen are among the most sought-after piano duos of our time. Given their illustrious international careers, it is fair to say the Jussen brothers (born 1993 and 1996) are the Netherland’s pre-eminent ambassadors for classical music. With their energetic, almost symbiotic playing, their great refinement of sound, and gripping interpretations, they are praised vigorously by press and audiences alike. “It is like driving a pair of BMWs”, exclaimed conductor Michael Schønwandt about the two pianists after directing them in concert.

The Jussen brothers have performed with orchestras internationally, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Concertgebouworkest, Budapest Festival Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. They collaborate with the renowned conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Iván Fischer, Sir Neville Marriner, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nezét-Séguin, Jukka-Pekka Saraste und Jaap van Zweden.

In the 2024/25 season, the Jussen brothers will be Artists in Residence at the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, performing multiple programmes there. Other highlights of the season include concerts in Leipzig and then a European tour with the Gewandhausorchester. In addition to their debuts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Israel Philharmonic, reinvitations will take the Jussens back to perform with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Bamberger Symphoniker, Dresdner Philharmonie, Bergen Philharmonic, Antwerp Symphony, and Warsaw Philharmonic. They will also be performing with the Wiener Kammerorchester at the Konzerthaus Wien. Together with the Brasilian youth Orchestra of Neojibá, they perform the captivating work ‘Nazareno’ by Argentinian Osvaldo Golijov in tour concerts in Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands and in June 2025, they return to Asia for multiple concerts with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. In recital, they can be heard in Paris, Amsterdam, the Hague, London, Rome, Naples, Zürich, Mannheim, Stuttgart, and Potsdam, among others.

Recording exclusively with Deutsche Grammophon since 2010, their debut recording of works by Beethoven received platinum status and was awarded the Edison Klassiek audience award. Following a Schubert album and ‘Jeux’, a recording of French piano music, in 2015 their recording of Mozart’s piano concertos KV 365 and KV 242 together with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Sir Neville Marriner was released and the album reached gold status. The Jussen brothers also recorded Poulenc’s double piano concerto and Saint-Saëns’ ‘The Carnival of the Animals’ with the Concertgebouworkest and Stéphane Denève, and in 2019 they released a recording of concertos and chorales by Bach with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta. On ‘The Russian Album’ (2021) they interpret works for two pianos by Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, and Arensky. The latest addition to their discography is ‘Dutch Masters’ (April 2022) which is devoted to works by Dutch composers, in collaboration with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. The recording was awarded an Edison Klassiek, as well as the audience award.

Lucas and Arthur received their first piano lessons in their native town of Hilversum. As children, they were invited to perform for the Dutch Queen Beatrix; and distinctions and awards in competitions followed. In 2005, the brothers met the Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires. During the following years they took lessons from both Pires and renowned Dutch teachers. Lucas completed his studies with Menahem Pressler in the US and with Dmitri Bashkirov in Madrid. Arthur graduated from the Amsterdam Conservatory, where he studied with Jan Wijn.

SEASON 2024/2025

Khatia Buniatishvili © Gavin Evans

Born in Georgia, Khatia Buniatishvili discovered the piano at the very early age of three. She gave her first performance with the Tbilisi Chamber Orchestra when she was six years old and was performing internationally by the age of ten. Khatia studied in Tbilisi with Tengiz Amiredibi and in Vienna with Oleg Maisenberg.

In 2008, Khatia made her U.S. debut at Carnegie Hall and has since appeared at the Hollywood Bowl, Apple Music Festival, BBC Proms, Salzburger Festspiele, Verbier Festival, Menuhin Festival Gstaad, La Roque-d'Anthéron Festival, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, and The Progetto Martha Argerich. She has performed in eminent concert halls across the world, including Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Musikverein Wien, Wiener Konzerthaus, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Berliner Philharmonie, Philharmonie de Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Teatro alla Scala, Teatro La Fenice, Palau de la Música Catalana, Geneva’s Victoria Hall, Tonhalle Zürich, the Rudolfinum, Shanghai Grand Theatre, Beijing’s NCPA, NCPA Mumbai, Suntory Hall, and Singapore’s Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay.

Khatia enjoys musical partnerships with some of the world’s leading conductors, having performed under the batons of Zubin Mehta, Plácido Domingo, Kent Nagano, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jaap van Zweden, Mikhail Pletnev, Marin Alsop, Klaus Mäkelä, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Semyon Bychkov, , Gianandrea Noseda, Gustavo Dudamel, Myung-Whun Chung, and Philippe Jordan. She has collaborated with such orchestras as Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, China Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Filarmonica della Scala, Wiener Symphoniker, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Münchner Philharmoniker, and Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.

Khatia has participated in numerous charity events, including the United Nation’s 70th Anniversary charity concert in aid of Syrian refugees; Global Citizen Festival Hamburg 2017; Kiev’s Charity Concert for wounded persons in the Anti-Terrorist Operation Zone; ‘To Russia with Love’ concert against violation of human rights in Russia; United Nations Climate Change Conference - Marrakech Climate Show; and the DLDWomen conference.

Her extensive discography with SONY Classical includes the albums ‘Franz Liszt’ (2011), ‘Chopin’ (2012), ‘Motherland’ (2014), ‘Kaleidoscope’ (2016), ‘Rachmaninoff’ (2017), ‘Schubert’ (2019), and ‘Labyrinth’ (2020). Khatia is a two-time ECHO KLASSIK Award winner (in 2012 for ‘Franz Liszt’ and 2016 for ‘Kaleidoscope’) and collaborated with the rock group Coldplay for their album ‘A Head Full of Dreams’ (2015).

SEASON 2024/2025

Tomo Keller © Thomas Carlgren

Tomo Keller was born in Stuttgart to German-Japanese musicians and started playing the violin at the age of six. At ten years old he gave his first performances with orchestra, going on to study at Vienna’s University for Music and Performing Arts and New York’s Juilliard School of Music. Numerous top prizes and awards followed: the Fritz Kreisler Competition, the Johannes Brahms Competition and the German Music Competition Berlin where he was awarded the Grand Prize. He has since performed at major concert halls all around the world and has been invited to music festivals including the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele, Edinburgh Festival and Bravo! Vail Colorado. He has also been a frequent guest on radio and television broadcasts on ARD, BBC, NHK and ORF.

Tomo is a much sought-after orchestral leader and director, having led the London Symphony Orchestra and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and has also appeared with more than 20 orchestras as guest leader across Europe, the USA and Asia. Tomo was appointed Director and Leader of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in 2016 and appears with them worldwide as leader, director, chamber musician and soloist.

As a soloist, Tomo has also performed with the Beethovenhalle Orchestra Bonn, St Petersburg Camerata, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Concert tours have led him all across Europe, as well as Russia, Asia, America and the Middle East.

2021/22, Tomo was artist-in-residence at the Loh-Orchestra Sondershausen in Germany, featuring as soloist, director and conductor, and premiered a new piece written for him by Christoph Ehrenfellner. ‘Wiener G'schichten’ also received its UK premiere in London with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in 2022.

Tomo’s recordings include solo works by Bach, Bartók and Ysaÿe, orchestral recordings including Stravinsky’s ‘Apollon musagète’ with Sir John Eliot Gardiner/LSO and Grammy Award winning ‘Avant Gershwin’ with Patti Austin and the WDR Big Band. In 2020 a DVD/CD box set with all Beethoven piano concertos was released by Deutsche Grammophon to great critical acclaim, featuring pianist Jan Lisiecki with Tomo directing the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. A CD with works by Kurt Atterberg will be released on Ondine in 2024, featuring the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Tomo as soloist and director in Atterberg’s Suite for violin and viola.

He has given violin, chamber music and orchestral master classes at all major London Music Colleges as well as at Yale university and numerous other schools in the USA and the Far East. In 2022 he was appointed Professor of violin at the HEMU Sion in Switzerland.

Tomo plays a fine violin by Antonio Stradivari known as the ‘ex-Braga/bell’, kindly loaned to him through the Beare’s International Violin Society.

tomokeller.com

SEASON 2024/2025 - THIS BIOGRAPHY IS AVAILABLE BY COURTESY OF THE ACADEMY OF ST MARTIN IN THE FIELDS