Sir Antonio Pappano has been Music Director ofAccademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia since 2005; since 2002 he has been Music Director of London's Covent Garden. He has held other prestigious positions in the past: in 1990 he was appointed Music Director of the Norske Opera in Oslo, and from 1991 to 2002 he held the same position at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. Born to London in 1959 from Italian parents, he studied piano, composition and conducting in the United States. Among the most prestigious milestones in his career are from recalling his debuts at the Vienna State Opera in 1993, the Metropolitan in New York in 1997 and the Bayreuth Festival in 1999. Antonio Pappano has conducted many of the world's leading orchestras, including New York Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Berliner Philharmo-niker, Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, London Symphony Orchestra, he is a regular guest atopera the most prestigious theaters such as Staatsoper Vienna, Metropolitan New York, La Scala Milan and many others. Sir Antonio Pappano records exclusively for Warner Classics and with the Orchestra and Chorus of Santa Cecilia has recorded numerous CDs. Recent recordings include The Puccini Album with Jonas Kaufmann, the CD Anna Netrebko. Verismo (DGG) and Saint-Saëns' Third Symphony and The Carnival of the Animals, with Martha Argerich at the piano, a box set with Bernstein's Three Symphonies (International Classical Music Award 2019), Verdi'sOtello, with Jonas Kaufmann in the title role, the latest release with the Santa Cecilia Orchestra is dedicated to Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben and Burleske. From 2023 Antonio Pappano will be Principal Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and will serve as Conductor Emeritus of the Orchestra dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia.

Embodying music with unparalleled dramatic sensitivity, soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan is an artist at the forefront of creation. The Grammy Award-winning Canadian musician has demonstrated a deep commitment to the music of our time and has premiered more than ninety new creations. With a 30-year career, Hannigan's artistic colleagues have included Reinbert de Leeuw, Pierre Boulez, Sasha Waltz, John Zorn, Krszysztof Warlikowski, Simon Rattle, Katie Mitchell, Henri Dutilleux, Vladimir Jurowski, Gyorgy Ligeti, Kirill Petrenko, George Benjamin, Andreas Kriegenburg, and Hans Abrahamsen. He is Principal Guest Conductor of the Göteborgs Symfoniker, Première Artiste Invitée of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Associate Artist of the London Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestra from Lausanne Chamber (from 2024/25 onwards) and Reinbert de Leeuw Professor of Music at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She has released six albums with Alpha Classics, including her latest disc, Infinite Voyage, in 2023. Barbara's commitment to the younger generation of musicians led her to to create the mentoring initiatives Equilibrium Young Artists (2017) and Momentum: our Future Now (2020). Barbara resides in Finistère, on the northwest coast of France, just across the Atlantic from where she grew up to Waverley, Nova Scotia.

First clarinet of the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia since 2003, Alessandro Carbonare has lived to Paris, where for fifteen years he held the position of first clarinet soloist of the Orchestre National de France. He has also collaborated with the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. He has distinguished himself in the most important international competitions (Geneva, Prague, Toulon, Munich and Paris) and has been the winner of two Diapason d'oro discographies. At the personal invitation of Claudio Abbado, he holds the position of First Clarinet in the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and the Mozart Orchestra. A Guest Professor at the Juilliard School in New York and the Royal College of Music in London, he has served on the juries of major international competitions for his instrument. For Decca he recorded the CD The Art of the Clar inet and for DGG the Clarinet Concerto K 622 (Orchestra Mozart conducted from Claudio Abbado), which won a Grammy Award in 2013. He is a professor at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena and at the master classes of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia.