Pietari Inkinen / Saleem Ashkar

PIETARI INKINEN

He was born in Kouvola, Finland, in 1980 and began studying music at the age of four. He graduated in violin and conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He is the Music Director of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra since 2008, Principal Guest Conductor at the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra since 2010 and, from 2015, will be the Principal Conductor of the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele. He works with major orchestras such as the Dresden Staatskapelle, La Scala Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Together with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra he recorded for Naxos the complete cycle of the symphonies of Sibelius. In 2013, he directed Das Rheingold at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, winner of the Premio Franco Abbiati as the best opera production of the year.

SALEEM ABBOUD ASHKAR

He was born in Nazareth in 1976 and began studying piano at seven. He continued his education at the Royal Academy of Music in London and Hochschule für Musik in Hannover. At seventeen he made his debut playing the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta. Five years later he performed at Carnegie Hall in New York alongside Daniel Barenboim, followed by engagements at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels and Teatro alla Scala. In 2006 he performed with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Riccardo Muti at the Salzburg Festival and a gave recital at the Mozarteum. His discography includes works by Brahms, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Beethoven, published by EMI and Decca.