© Marco Borggreve

Lucas and Arthur Jussen are among the most sought-after piano duos of our time. In view of their illustrious international career, one could remark that the Jussen brothers (30 and 26) 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 eminent orchestras internationally, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra and The Philadelphia Orchestra, Concertgebouworkest, Budapest Festival Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, as well as the Montréal, Sydney, Singapore and Shanghai Symphony Orchestras. They collaborate with the likes of renowned conductors such as Andris Nelsons, Christoph Eschenbach, Iván Fischer, Sir Neville Marriner, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Jaap van Zweden.

In August 2023, Lucas and Arthur Jussen performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Kazuki Yamada at the Tanglewood Festival. This will be followed by festival appearances at the Rheingau Musik Festival, Gstaad and Amsterdam. With the Sinfonieorchester Basel they open the 2023/24 concert season in the city of Basel. Further highlights of the new season include debuts with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Wiener Symphoniker, Philharmonia Orchestra London and Taiwan Philharmonic. Other guest engagements take them back to the Münchner Philharmoniker, WDR Sinfonieorchester, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. They perform the concerto "Anka kuşu" (Phoenix), written for them by Fazıl Say, with the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and on tour with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta. Touring projects take them around Europe along with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. This season they are "Artists in Residence" with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi. In recital they can be heard in Hamburg, Berlin, Bratislava, Prague, Antwerp, Brussels, Chicago, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Recording exclusively with Deutsche Grammophon since 2010, their debut recording with works by Beethoven received platinum status and was awarded the Edison Klassiek audience award. A Schubert recording and Jeux, a recording dedicated to French piano music, were subsequently released. 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 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, as well as concertos and chorales by Bach with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta. On "The Russian Album" (March 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 and Karina Canellakis. The recording was awarded an Edison Klassiek in the category "Chamber Music", as well as the audience award in September 2022.

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. Then 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 2023/2024

Guido Sant'Anna © Cauê Diniz

Born in 2005 in São Paulo, Brazil, Guido Sant’Anna received international acclaim in 2022 when he became the first South American violinist to win the prestigious Fritz Kreisler International Competition in Vienna. This triumph was consolidated a few months later at the opening concert of the Rheingau Musik Festival 2023, where Sant’Anna made his major European debut alongside hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt and Alain Altinoglu, receiving high praise for his performance of Édouard Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole: "the young man has charisma, stage presence, and in his playing, an astonishing maturity and depth" (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung).

Sant’Anna has developed a close connection to the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra and its Music Director Thierry Fischer; subscription concerts, his debut recording project for the Naxos Records label and an upcoming tour in China comprise their activities together. In Germany, he returns to the Rheingau Musik Festival in 2024 to perform Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under Jérémie Rhorer and reunites with hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt at the Kronberg Academy Festival. Further orchestral debuts include the Danish Philharmonic Orchestra under Hans Graf, the Athens State Orchestra, the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and the New Mexico Philharmonic. In spring 2025 Guido makes his debut at the Elbphilharmonie as part of a European tour with the Neojibá Youth Orchestra, along with soloists Lucas and Arthur Jussen.

Equally active as a recitalist, Sant’Anna made his South Korean debut on a recital tour in September 2023, with appearances at the TongYeong Concert Hall and Seoul’s Mapo Art Center. Further afield, notable recital debuts include the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Alte Oper Frankfurt and Rising Stars München in Germany, La Jolla Music Society in the USA and Festival Lago Maggiore Musica in Italy.

In 2024 Sant’Anna was awarded the LOTTO-Förderpreis by the Rheingau Musik Festival and joined a prestigious list of recipients, including Sheku Kanneh-Mason, María Dueñas and Tarmo Peltokoski. In 2025 he becomes a fellow of the esteemed stARTacademy, supported by Bayer Kultur.

Guido is currently studying at the Kronberg Academy, Germany, under the tutelage of Mihaela Martin. He began his violin lessons at the age of five, giving his orchestral debut two years later. In 2018 he became the first Brazilian violinist to be invited to the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition in Geneva, winning both the Audience Prize and the Chamber Music Award. His numerous accomplishments have earned him a coveted place on Forbes Brazil’s “30 under 30” list.

Guido plays a violin made in 1874 by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, on generous loan from the luthier Marcel Richters.

Guido Sant’Anna has been supported by the KD SCHMID Fellowship Scheme since May 2023.

SEASON 2023/2024