Live Autumn 2025 European Tour Fri 10 – Sun 19 October

Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård is the Music Director of the Minnesota Orchestra, as well as the Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, following six seasons as their Principal Guest Conductor. Between 2012 and 2018, he served as Principal Conductor of BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW), after stepping down as Principal Conductor and Musical Advisor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

He has appeared with many notable orchestras in leading European centres, such as Berlin (including Berliner Philharmoniker, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin), Munich (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunk), Zurich (Tonhalle Orchester Zurich), Leipzig (Gewandhausorchester), Paris (Orchestre National de France), London (London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, London Symphony and Philharmonia Orchestra), Amsterdam and Rotterdam (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic) and is a familiar figure in Scandinavia, with such orchestras as Oslo Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Danish National Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony and Helsinki Philharmonic. North American appearances to date have included the symphony orchestras of New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Baltimore, St Louis, Toronto, Atlanta, Montreal, Vancouver, Houston and Seattle. He has also made highly successful tours to China, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

With the Minnesota Orchestra in 2025/26, Thomas leads a diverse range of programmes, including the continuation of their Nordic Composers Festival and projects with leading soloists such as Joyce DiDonato, Yo-Yo Ma & Kirill Gerstein. In addition to their Scotland series and recording projects, highlights with the RSNO include leading the closing concert of the 2025 Edinburgh International Festival and extensive tours of Europe & China. Guest conducting for this season will include returns to the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Philharmonia Orchestra, Danish National Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony & Oslo Philharmonic, alongside debuting with the Orquestra Sinfònica de Barcelona. Thomas will also sit on the jury of the 2025 London Symphony Orchestra Donatella Flick Conducting Competition.

As part of the 2015 anniversary celebrations of both Sibelius and Nielsen, he conducted a wide variety of their works with many leading orchestras. A passionate supporter of the music of Carl Nielsen, his performances with the Swedish Radio Symphony of his Symphony No. 5 was praised as “equal of the great pioneers of Nielsen interpretation… It’s hard to imagine a finer performance of this remarkable symphony.” (Dagens Nyheter); and in 2019 participated in a special concert to celebrate Nielsen’s works with the Royal Danish Academy of Music Copenhagen.

Following his acclaimed debut for Royal Danish Opera (Kafka’s Trial), he has since returned regularly to conduct a broad repertoire, including Die Walküre, which won the 2022 Reumert Award for Best Opera Production, Elektra, Le nozze di Figaro, Il barbiere di Siviglia, La bohème, Cunning Little Vixen, Il viaggio a Reims; and has also made short concert tours with the Royal Danish Orchestra. He has also enjoyed successful collaborations with Staatsoper Stuttgart, Norwegian Opera and Royal Swedish Opera. His Stockholm productions of Tosca and Turandot (both with Nina Stemme) led to his Bayerische Staatsoper debut, conducting main season and Opera Festival performances of Turandot with her and he most recently returned to for the Opera’s Akademiekonzert series. He made his Deutsche Oper Berlin debut with the world premiere of Scartazzini’s Edward II and has since returned for Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet and R.Strauss’ Elektra.

His discography covers a broad range of contemporary and mainstream repertoire, including Carl Nielsen (The Royal Danish Orchestra, Naxos Records), Poul Ruders (Arhus Symphony, Norwegian Radio, Royal Danish Opera (Kafka’s Trial) for Da Capo and Bridge Records); Sibelius symphonies and tone poems with BBC NOW and Prokofiev and Richard Strauss with RSNO for Linn Records; Lutoslawski and Dutilleux concertos with ‘cellist Johannes Moser and Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin (Pentatone); and Vilde Frang’s celebrated debut recording (WDR Koln for EMI).

In October 2023, Thomas was a recipient of the Carl Nielsen and Anne-Marie Carl Nielsen’s Foundation award for his outstanding contribution to Danish musical life. In January 2022, Thomas was decorated with a prestigious Royal Order of Chivalry – the Order of Dannebrog (Ridder af Dannebrogordenen) by Her Majesty Margrethe II, Queen of Denmark.

Malaysian pianist Magdalene Ho came to international attention after winning the Clara Haskil Piano Competition in 2023. Formerly a pupil of Patsy Toh at the Purcell School, she currently studies with Dmitri Alexeev at the Royal College of Music on a full scholarship.

In the 2025/26 season Magdalene Ho marks her recital debuts at the Tonhalle Zürich as well as with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Orchestra. Other highlights of the season include her performances at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Rheingau Festival, the Lille Piano(s) Festival and as part of SWR Kultur Internationale Pianisten series in Mainz.

Only in the 2024/25 season, Magdalene Ho performed at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Théâtre de la Ville Paris and the Teatro alla Scala Milan with Ensemble “Giorgio Bernasconi” under Wilson Hermanto , as well as with the Orchestre de Suisse Romande under Cornelius Meister, the SWR Symphonieorchester under Kirill Karabits and the Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra under Rafael Payare.

Magdalene Ho was born in 2003 and started learning the piano at the age of four. In 2013, she began studying in the UK. In 2015, she received the ABRSM Sheila Mossman Prize and Silver Award. In 2018, she made her concerto debut playing Mendelssohn’s first Piano Concerto with the Oxford Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robert Max. As part of a prize won at the PIANALE piano festival in Fulda, Germany, she released an album of Bach and Messiaen works in 2019. She also had a composition shortlisted by the BBC Young Composer competition in the same year. She was a finalist at the Düsseldorf Schumann Competition 2023 and was awarded the Joan Chissell Schumann Prize for Piano at the Royal College of Music a few months later.

In September 2023, Magdalene Ho won the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Vevey along with receiving the Audience Prize, Young Critics’ Prize and Children’s Corner Prize. In summer 2024, she was featured by Jed Distler in International Piano Magazine’s series “One to Watch”. In November 2024, she won the International German Piano Award. In August 2025, she has received the Tabor Foundation Award granted to the best pianist participating in the Verbier Festival Academy.

Last year, Magdalene performed chamber music concerts with such artists as Simon Trpčeski, Daniel Müller-Schott, Pierre Genisson, Noa Wildschut or Marc Coppey. Since 2024, she is mentored by the Vevey Spring Classic and in connection with the Festival she will be performing this season with Veronika Eberle, Maxim Rysanov, Daniel Müller-Schott, Dietrich Henschel as well as Orchestra dell’Accademia Teatro alla Scala under Wilson Hermanto.

Magdalene has been studying with Dmitri Alexeev at the RCM since September 2022, where she is a Gordon Calway Stone Scholar. She is also sponsored by the Weir Award via the Keyboard Charitable Trust.

See Magdalene Ho perform Brahms’ Piano Concerto No1 with the RSNO on 10 October 2025.

Jan Lisiecki’s interpretations and technique speak to a maturity beyond his age. At 28, the Canadian performs over a hundred yearly concerts worldwide, and has worked closely with conductors such as Antonio Pappano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Daniel Harding, Manfred Honeck, and Claudio Abbado (†).

In 2021/2022, Lisiecki presents a new recital programme featuring Chopins Nocturnes and Études in more than 30 cities all around the globe. Recent return invitations include Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for performances at Carnegie Hall and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. Lisiecki recently performed a Beethoven Lieder cycle with baritone Matthias Goerne, among others at the Salzburg Festival, and has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestre de Paris, Bavarian Radio Symphony and London Symphony Orchestra.

At the age of fifteen, Lisiecki signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. The label launched its celebrations of the Beethoven Year 2020 with the release of a live recording of all five Beethoven concertos from Konzerthaus Berlin, with Lisiecki leading the Academy of St Martin in the Fields from the piano. His Beethoven Lieder cycle with Matthias Goerne, released shortly after, was awarded the Diapason d’Or. Lisiecki’s eighth recording for the prestigious label, a double album of Frédéric Chopin’s Complete Nocturnes which he also showcases in his current recital programme, appeared in August 2021 and in February 2022 on vinyl, immediately topping the classical charts in North America and Europe. Most recently, his previous solo programme Night Music, featuring works by Mozart, Ravel, Schumann and Paderewski, was released as a digital album. His recordings have been awarded with the JUNO and ECHO Klassik. At eighteen, Lisiecki became both the youngest ever recipient of Gramophone’s Young Artist Award and received the Leonard Bernstein Award. He was named UNICEF Ambassador to Canada in 2012.

See Jan Lisiecki perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No3 with the RSNO on 11, 12 & 19 October 2025.

Swiss-Italian pianist Francesco Piemontesi, a native of Locarno, has over the years gained a reputation as one of the leading interpreters of the German classical and romantic repertoire. He appears as a regular guest with many of the world’s leading orchestras, in concert halls and music festivals around the globe, while still being firmly anchored on the shores of Lago Maggiore as Artistic Director of the music festival Settimane Musicali di Ascona.

With his subtle but mesmerising interpretations of Schubert’s piano sonatas as well as the solo works and piano concertos of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Liszt, he has been acclaimed internationally by critics and audiences alike. His playing is characterized by sensitivity, intimacy and poetry, but also by power and brilliance. Above all, it is important to him to illuminate the scores from within: ​“Making music is like a second language for me. It feels like an existential necessity. I don’t want to entertain the audience, I want to let them participate in the deep dimensions of music.”

Highlights of the 2024/25 season include appearances at the BBC Proms, an extensive tour with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, performing Mozart’s concerto for two pianos KV 365 with Jan Lisiecki under the direction of Gianandrea Noseda. The tour features a special appearance by the orchestra in Locarno, where Piemontesi continues to hold the position Artistic Director of the Settimane Musicali di Ascona. Further ahead, Piemontesi appears with the Filarmonica della Scala, also conducted by Noseda, L’Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai, Gewandhausorchester under Manfred Honeck, and returns to the Frankfurt Radio Symphony and SWR Symphonieorchester. Further engagements include returns to the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, NHK, Chicago and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra with Robin Ticciati, as well as the Helsinki Philharmonic. In recital, Piemontesi appears at Auditorium Lyon, Rudolfinum/​Dvořák Hall, Tonhalle Zurich, and La Chaux-de-Fonds, to mention just a few.

In addition to the classical and romantic periods, Francesco Piemontesi’s wider repertoire includes works by Bach and Handel in original versions and transcriptions, piano concertos by Ravel, Debussy, Bartók, Rachmaninov and Schönberg, as well as works by Olivier Messiaen and Unsuk Chin. Among his many important musical influences, he highlights his distinguished teachers Arie Vardi and Alfred Brendel, but above all French concert pianist Cecile Ousset. It is to her that he owes his rounded tone and a somnambulistic technique that is rooted in the French piano tradition going back to Marcel Ciampi.

Francesco Piemontesi’s musical artistry is documented on numerous recordings that have received awards and critical acclaim, such as Schubert’s last Piano Sonatas, Debussy’s Preludes and Mozart’s Piano Concertos with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Andrew Manze. His latest release on Pentatone is dedicated to two of the most demanding pieces of piano literature: Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes and the B minor Sonata.

Working with fellow musicians and orchestras alike, Francesco Piemontesi’s collaborations form themselves from the nucleus of friendship, appreciation and creativity. He recently has been Artist in Residence with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Dresden Philharmonic and Gstaad Menuhin Festival. A long-standing relationship links him to the Schubertiade Festival and London’s Wigmore Hall. As adept on the concert stage as he is in smaller chamber combinations, Francesco Piemontesi appears with a variety of partners including Renaud Capuçon, Leonidas Kavakos, Martha Argerich, Janine Jansen, Daniel Müller-Schott, Augustin Hadelich and Jörg Widmann.

As a soloist, he has played alongside leading orchestras such as Berlin, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks Munich, the Chicago, Boston and London Symphony orchestras, as well as the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Swedish, Danish National and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestras. He regularly collaborates with distinguished conductors such as Fabio Luisi, Antonio Pappano, Daniele Gatti, Lorenzo Viotti, Robin Ticciati, Iván Fischer, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Marek Janowski, Joana Mallwitz, Thomas Søndergård, Daniel Harding, Paavo Järvi, Zubin Mehta and Nathalie Stutzmann.

Francesco Piemontesi travels the world and has appeared in many prestigious venues including Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall New York and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. As a welcomed guest he was featured in the festivals of Salzburg, Edinburgh, Aix-en-Provence, Lucerne, Verbier and Schleswig-Holstein as well as in La Roque d’Anthéron, New York Mostly Mozart and Klavierfestival Ruhr.

See Francesco Piemontesi perform Brahms’s Piano Concerto No1 with the RSNO on 2, 15 & 18 October 2025.

See Francesco Piemontesi perform Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major with the RSNO on 3, 4, 14, 16 & 17 October 2025.