Karina Canellakis has been chief conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic since 2019 and principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic since 2021. This season she debuts at the Bavarian State Opera, Pittsburgh Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and Gothenburg Symphony, and returns to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Chicago Symphony, and Berlin Radio Symphony.

Canellakis made her conducting debut with the Vienna Philharmonic in January 2026 and has developed close relationships with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, and Vienna Symphony. She is a repeat guest with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. She was principal guest conductor of the Berlin Radio Symphony from 2019–23, and in 2023–24 was a featured artist in residence at the Musikverein. She has toured Australia and made her debut in Japan in July 2025 with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo. She made her San Francisco Symphony debut in October 2019.

Her recordings with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic on Pentatone include a Grammy Award-nominated release of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra and Four Orchestral Pieces. Last June, her recording of Rachmaninoff’s The Bells and Symphonic Dances was released to critical acclaim. Canellakis grew up in a musical family in New York and was encouraged to become a conductor by Simon Rattle while playing as a violinist in the Berlin Philharmonic’s Karajan-Akademie. She performed for several years as soloist, guest leader, and chamber musician, spending summers at the Marlboro Music Festival, until conducting eventually took over after she won the Sir Georg Solti Award in 2016.

Nicola Benedetti appears this season with the Cincinnati Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. She made her San Francisco Symphony debut at the 2012 New Year’s Eve concert, and made her subscription debut in March 2017, an became a Shenson Young Artist in 2020.

Winner of the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo in Wynton Marsalis’s Violin Concerto, as well as Best Female Artist at both 2012 and 2013 Classical BRIT Awards, Benedetti records exclusively for Decca. In 2021, BBC Music Magazine named her “Personality of the Year” for her online support of many young musicians during the pandemic.

In 2019, she established the Benedetti Foundation, which delivers transformative experiences through mass music events and unites those who believe music is integral to life’s education. In its first four years, the foundation has worked with close to 70,000 participants of all ages and levels, instrumentalists and non-instrumentalists alike, across 105 countries. Its free online educational video resources have had more than six million views.

Benedetti was appointed a CBE in 2019, awarded the Queen’s Medal for Music in 2017, and an MBE in 2013. In addition, she holds the positions of vice president of the National Children’s Orchestras; “big sister” for Sistema Scotland; and patron of the National Youth Orchestras of Scotland’s Junior Orchestra, Music in Secondary Schools Trust, and Junior Conservatoire at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. In 2022, Benedetti became the festival director of the Edinburgh International Festival, becoming both the first Scottish and first female director since its beginning in 1947.

Benjamin Pesetsky has been Associate Director of Editorial at the San Francisco Symphony since 2021 and has organized the Inside Music Talks series since 2025. As a writer, he has contributed program notes to the SF Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, Carnegie Hall, La Jolla Music Society, and Tippet Rise Art Center. He holds degrees in composition and philosophy from Bard College Conservatory and Bard College.