James Gaffigan serves as music director of Komische Oper Berlin, where he begins his third season in 2025–26. Guest engagements this season include returns to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Music Academy, and Houston Grand Opera. In Europe, he makes return engagements with the NDR Elbphilharmonie, Les Arts Valencia Opera, and the Verbier Festival.

Gaffigan regularly works with the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, and Metropolitan Opera, among many others. In Europe, he has appeared with the London Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Norwegian Opera and Ballet, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Staatskapelle Berlin, and Czech Philharmonic.

Gaffigan’s previous titles include music director of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, Spain; principal guest conductor of both the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and Opera; chief conductor of the Lucerne Symphony; and assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in December 2006 and served as Associate Conductor from 2006 to 2009. He returns twice in June 2026 for a special concert with Yo-Yo Ma (June 1) as well as Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (June 18, 20, 21).
 

Ray Chen first came to attention with first prizes at the 2008 Yehudi Menuhin Competition and 2009 Queen Elisabeth Competition, and since then has built a profile in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Signed in 2017 to Decca Classics, his forthcoming recording with the London Philharmonic follows three critically acclaimed albums on Sony, the first of which, Virtuoso, received an Echo Klassik Award.

Mr. Chen’s profile continues to grow: he was featured on Forbes’s list of 30 most influential Asians under 30, made a guest appearance on Amazon’s Mozart in the Jungle, and performed for live television audiences on France’s Bastille Day and at the Nobel Prize Concert in Stockholm.

Mr. Chen made his San Francisco Symphony debut in January 2011, became a Shenson Young Artist in 2018, and has performed with the London Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Pittsburgh Symphony, among others, and will make upcoming debuts with the Berlin Radio Symphony and Bavarian Radio Chamber Orchestra. His commitment to music education is paramount, inspiring the younger generation of music students with his series of self-produced videos combining comedy and music, and drawing new audiences to the concert hall.

Born in Taiwan and raised in Australia, Mr. Chen was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music at age 15, where he studied with Aaron Rosand and was supported by Young Concert Artists.

He plays the 1715 “Joachim” Stradivarius violin on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation, an instrument once owned by the famed Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim.