British cellist Steven Isserlis enjoys a uniquely varied career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, author, and broadcaster. He appears with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, and as a chamber musician, he has curated concert series for venues such as Wigmore Hall, New York’s 92nd St Y, and the Salzburg Festival.  

He has a strong interest in historical performance and is also a keen exponent of contemporary music, having premiered many new works, including John Tavener’s The Protecting Veil, Thomas Adès’s Lieux retrouvés, and Gyorgy Kurtag’s ‘For Steven.’

Steven Isserlis records for Hyperion Records, Ltd. and BIS Records. His discography includes J.S. Bach’s cello suites for Hyperion (Gramophone’s Instrumental Album of the Year); Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano with Robert Levin; and the Elgar and Walton concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Paavo Järvi. His recent recordings include the Brahms Double Concerto with Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and—as director and soloist—concertos by Haydn and C.P.E. Bach with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, which was shortlisted for a 2019 Grammy award. A special First World War-inspired disc with Connie Shih was also released in 2017. His latest album, featuring Shostakovich’s and Kabalevsky’s cello sonatas with pianist Olli Mustonen, entered the UK classical album chart at number one.                

Since 1997, Mr. Isserlis has been Artistic Director of the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove, Cornwall. His honors include a CBE in recognition of his services to music, the Schumann Prize of the City of Zwickau, and the Piatigorsky Prize in the US. He gives most of his concerts on the “Marquis de Corberon (Nelsova)” Stradivarius cello of 1726, kindly loaned to him by the Royal Academy of Music. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in 1995. For more information, visit stevenisserlis.com.

(May 2019)

Jeremy Denk is one of America’s foremost pianists. Also a New York Times bestselling author, he is the recipient of both the MacArthur Fellowship and the Avery Fisher Prize, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In the 2024–25 season, Denk continues his collaboration with longtime musical partners Joshua Bell and Steven Isserlis, with performances at the Tsindali Festival and Wigmore Hall, following on from his multi-concert artist residency at Wigmore in 2023–24. He also returns to the Lammermuir Festival in multiple performances, including the complete Ives violin sonatas with Maria Wloszczowska, and a solo recital featuring female composers from the past to the present day. He performs this same solo program on tour across the US, as well as continuing his exploration of Bach in ongoing performances of the complete partitas. Denk is known for his interpretations of the music of American visionary Charles Ives, and in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth, Nonesuch Records will release a collection of his Ives recordings later this year.

Denk is also known for his original and insightful writing on music. His New York Times bestselling memoir, Every Good Boy Does Fine was published to universal acclaim by Random House in 2022. He also wrote the libretto for a comic opera presented by Carnegie Hall, Cal Performances, and the Aspen Festival, and his writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the New Republic, the Guardian, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and on the front page of the New York Times Book Review.

Denk’s latest album of Mozart piano concertos was released in 2021 on Nonesuch Records. His recording of the Goldberg Variations for Nonesuch Records reached No. 1 on the Billboard Classical Charts, and his recording of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Opus 111 paired with Ligeti’s Études was named one of the best discs of the year by the New Yorker, NPR, and the Washington Post. His account of the Beethoven sonata was selected by BBC Radio 3’s Building a Library as the best available version recorded on modern piano. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in 2006.