Agata Zając completed her conducting studies at the Poznań Academy of Music in Poland. She quickly gained international recognition, holding roles of Junior Fellow in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, Assistant Conductor to Ludovic Morlot at the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, and Conducting Fellow of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester in Hamburg.

Agata’s recent engagements include performances with The Hallé, Real Filharmonia de Galicia, Grazer Philharmoniker, Orchestre national de Metz alongside leading Polish ensembles like NOSPR and Szczecin Philharmonic.

She has participated in conducting academies, studying with Paavo Järvi, Alan Gilbert, Jorma Panula, Marin Alsop, and Peter Eötvös. In 2023, she was a Conducting Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Festival, mentored by Andris Nelsons.

Agata’s accolades include 2nd Prize at the 2023 Siemens Hallé International Conductors Competition. She is also a scholarship recipient of the Polish Minister of Culture and an Associate Member of the RNCM.

Taiwanese conductor Brian Liao, based in Paris, is gaining international recognition for his clear musical vision and refined, expressive approach to orchestral sound.

In 2026, he was awarded First Prize at the Sofia International Conducting Competition, following earlier successes including First Prize at the Lliria “City of Music” International Conducting Competition (Spain, 2023) and Third Prize with Orchestra Prize at the Lovro von Matačić Competition (Croatia, 2023). He also received Second Prize and the Orchestra Prize at the Bucharest International Conducting Competition (2025).

He has collaborated with orchestras such as the RTVE Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Lucerne Festival Strings, and the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra.

Liao serves as Artistic Director of the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra International Youth Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Counterpoint Ensemble.

He holds a Master’s degree in Conducting from the University Mozarteum Salzburg, where he studied with Bruno Weil and Alexander Drčar.

Daniel Reith served as Assistant and Associate Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra, as well as Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, from 2022 to 2025. He made his Cleveland Orchestra debut in 2023, stepping in for Klaus Mäkelä, followed by major appearances with the orchestra, including the 2024/25 season‑opening gala, an “All‑Tchaikovsky” program with Yuja Wang, a concert at the Blossom Music Festival, and a complete cycle of Beethoven’s piano concertos - including the Triple Concerto - with soloists such as Stephen Hough, Yunchan Lim, Garrick Ohlsson, and Augustin Hadelich.

Reith is equally active in Scandinavia, having conducted the Oslo and Bergen Philharmonics; the Stavanger, Kristiansand, Trondheim, and Aalborg Symphony Orchestras; the Norwegian Radio Orchestra; and the Norwegian Opera Orchestra. He is a winner of the Opptakt competition and a former Talent Norway conducting fellow. Reith studied conducting, piano, and music theory in Oslo, Frankfurt, and Freiburg.

Daniel Seonggeun Kim is a young conductor based in Germany with experience across symphonic repertoire, opera, and contemporary music. For the 2025/26 season he serves as Assistant Conductor to Chief Conductor Michael Sanderling at the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester.

Born in Seoul, he studied orchestral conducting at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar with Nicolás Pasquet and Ekhart Wycik, completing his Bachelor’s degree with honors in 2022 and his Master’s in 2024. He is currently pursuing his Konzertexamen.

Daniel has worked with orchestras including the MDR-Sinfonieorchester, Staatskapelle Weimar, Jenaer Philharmonie, and Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau. He assisted Markus L. Frank in Zemlinsky’s Der König Kandaules at the Anhaltisches Theater Dessau and Dominik Beykirch in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar.

He won First Prize at the 2024 MDR Conducting Competition and has been a fellow of the Forum Dirigieren program from 2023-25.

Conducting leading orchestras and curating imaginative collaborations across artforms, Elias Peter Brown is a quintessentially modern conductor – curious, versatile, and future-focused.

This season Brown debuts with Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and the Danish Chamber Orchestra, and returns to conduct the Odense Symphony and Lithuanian Chamber Orchestras.

Brown’s own talents as a composer and improviser, and his love of new music, have strengthened collaborations with leading contemporary ensembles across Europe, including Ensemble Modern, Ensemble MusikFabrik and Zafraan Ensemble. He has been personally mentored by Esa-Pekka Salonen as Salonen Fellow, serving as his Assistant Conductor at San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Orchestre de Paris, and most recently in a new Simon McBurney production of Khovanshchina at Salzburg Osterfestspiele. Brown completed his studies at Yale University, Royal Academy of Music, and Universität der Künste Berlin.

He is a two-time recipient of the Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award.

Ingunn Korsgård Hagen has quickly established herself as an exciting new talent on Norway’s conducting scene, working with orchestras such as Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra. She is scheduled to make her debuts with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and Semperoper Dresden.

From 2023 to 2025 she served as Assistant Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, working closely with Edward Gardner, Sir Mark Elder and distinguished guest conductors, and collaborating with internationally renowned soloists. She has also assisted Daniel Harding with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, as well as opera productions with the Royal Danish Opera and Bergen National Opera.

She has been a member of Talent Norway’s Dirigentforum, and participated in masterclasses with conductors such as Klaus Mäkelä, Sakari Oramo, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Jaap van Zweden.

Jooyoung Florian Chang is an Austrian-Korean conductor and pianist. A graduate of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw) with distinction under Prof. Mark Stringer, he was awarded the MDW Prize of Honour 2025. Having conducted orchestras including the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Sofia Philharmonic, he has also gained extensive opera experience as assistant conductor and repetiteur, working alongside distinguished conductors including Martin Haselböck and Daniel Linton-France.

A semifinalist of the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition with the London Symphony Orchestra and a selected candidate for the Concours de Genève 2025, he has further deepened his artistry through masterclasses with Marin Alsop, Petr Popelka, and Johannes Schlaefli. He holds a piano degree with distinction from the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz and is a prizewinner of several international competitions.

Kana Ide is an assistant conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra from 2025 under Fabio Luisi, with recent visits of Tugan Sokhiev, Charles Dutoit, Herbert Blomstedt and Paavo Järvi.

She was a regular conductor of the Kyoto City Junior Orchestra from 2024 to 2025. This summer, she was invited to the final stage of the Toscanini Competition in Italy, Parma. She has conducted many public concerts with orchestras including The Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo, Geidai Philharmonia Orchestra, Yokohama Sinfonietta and Kyushu Symphony Orchestra.

Kana Ide majored in violin at Toho Gakuen High School of Music and Toho Gakuen College of Music. She is currently an orchestra conducting student at the Tokyo University of the Arts. She has also studied abroad at the Sibelius Academy and Panula Academy in Helsinki.

Korbinian Krol is gaining increasing recognition as a conductor. He recently received the Talent Prize of the Danish Conductors Association and was admitted to Forum Dirigieren, Germany’s prestigious young conductor programme – having previously been part of its Danish counterpart, Dirigentløftet, in 2025.

As assistant conductor to Marie Jacquot, Krol works regularly with major ensembles such as the Royal Danish Orchestra and the WDR Symphony Orchestra, and will join the Savonlinna Opera Festival in the 2025/26 season in the same capacity. The coming summer will see him at the Fiskars Festival 2026 by invitation of Jukka-Pekka Saraste, with whom he will cotinue his studies following masterclasses with Riccardo Muti, Jorma Panula, and Johannes Schlaefli.

Rooted in church music and vocal studies in Freiburg, Helsinki, and Zurich, he began his conducting studies at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and is currently completing them in Copenhagen under the guidance of Giordano Bellincampi and Michael Schønwandt.

Mats Thiersch (*2003) is a German conductor. Since October 2024, he has served as Music Director of the Orchestre Symphonique du COGE (Chœurs et Orchestres des Grandes Écoles) in Paris, and in the same year was invited to the Gstaad Conducting Academy.

Thiersch began his musical education at the age of six on the violin. In 2021, he began studying composition with Miroslav Srnka at the Cologne University of Music and Dance (HfMT Köln). His works have received several awards, including the Composition Prize of the German Orchestra Foundation.

Since 2023, Thiersch has continued his studies in orchestral conducting at the Conservatoire de Paris in the class of Alain Altinoglu. He has gained further artistic insight in masterclasses with conductors such as Daniele Gatti, Mikko Franck, and Jaap van Zweden. Since 2025, he has been a scholar of Forum Dirigieren of the Deutscher Musikrat.

Matthew Rhodes holds a Master’s degree in Orchestral Conducting from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, and a Bachelor’s degree from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. In the 2025/26 season, he will debut with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, conduct a revival of Die Fledermaus in Sweden, and lead a production of Puccini’s Turandot in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Culture. He will also work with Malmö Opera on The Shining by Paul Moravec.

Rhodes has appeared with leading ensembles including the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, and Malmö Symphony Orchestra. He has participated in major competitions such as the Donatella Flick and Mahler Competitions.

A frequent participant in international festivals and masterclasses, he has worked with renowned conductors and is supported by the Swedish Royal Academy of Music and several scholarship foundations.

Italian conductor Mauro Mariani, winner of the 1st prize at the 4th Almeria Competition, 2nd prize and Orchestra prize at the Sofia Competition (Sofia Philharmonic), is a 3 time Conducting Fellow at the Aspen Festival (Colorado), where he received the James Conlon Prize.

With his Orchestre Universitaire de Strasbourg, he led the French premiere of Dora Pejačević’s Symphony. He studied conducting with Nicolás Pasquet (Weimar) and attended masterclasses with Sofia Gubaidulina, Riccardo Muti, Renée Fleming, Heinrich Schiff.

He was selected by Paavo Järvi for his Conductor’s Academy (Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich), Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and Jaap van Zweden for the Gstaad Academy, Daniele Gatti for the Accademia Chigiana, by Peter Eötvös for the European Creative Academy, for the Cabrillo Festival (California).

Recently he debuted with the Lucerne Symphony, Junge Kammerphilharmonie Berlin (Berliner Philharmonie), Niederrheinische Sinfoniker (La traviata, Theater Krefeld-Mönchengladbach), received a Bayreuth Festival scholarship and was selected to participate in the Mahler Competition.