Ung Filharmoni
John Storgårds
Lucas & Arthur Jussen Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Fazil Say

Outi Tarkiainen (f. 1985) comes from the Finnish city of Rovaniemi, just south of the Arctic Circle. Lapland's untouched nature is a central source of inspiration for Tarkiainen's music, and in Midnight Sun Variations, she deals with the infinite nuances of the Arctic summer nights. Tarkiainen had her breakthrough as a composer and a conductor for some of Europe's finest jazz orchestras. She has written multiple pieces for symphony orchestras, and her first opera premiered in 2022. John Storgårds conducted the premiere of Midnight Sun Variations during the BBC Proms in 2019. 

Turkish Fazil Say (f. 1970) was first famous as a concert pianist at a top level before he became an internationally recognized composer with a large and varied production in the last decades. The four-hand piano concerto Pheonix - in Turkish Anka Kuşu - premiered in Munich in January of 2022. "In a perfect world, all [orchestral] commissions would result in music as fresh, exciting, and accessible for first-time listeners as Fazil Say's Anka Kuşu," wrote a reviewer after the Boston Symphony Orchestra's performance the same year. 

From 1877 Pyotr Tchaikovsky received an artist's salary from the businesswoman Nadezhda von Meck and could compose music full-time. Early in the autumn, he went abroad to recover from a personal crisis, and after stays in Switzerland and Paris, he arrived in Italy. On 23 November in Rome, he received the sketches for his Symphony No. 4, which he had begun in the spring. 

About Lucas and Arthur Jussen

‘It is like driving a pair of BMWs’, remarked conductor Michael Schønwandt, after directing the Dutch brothers Lucas (b. 1993) and Arthur Jussen (b. 1996). Despite their young age, they have been part of the international concert world for years and are praised vigorously by both press and audience.

Lucas and Arthur received their first piano lessons in their native town of Hilversum. It became clear quickly that they were great talents. As children, they were already invited to perform for the Dutch Queen Beatrix. First awards at competitions followed shortly. In 2005, the brothers studied in Portugal and Brazil for nearly a year at the invitation of Portuguese master pianist Maria João Pires. During the following years they took lessons from both Pires and two renowned Dutch teachers. Lucas completed his studies with Menahem Pressler in the US and with Dmitri Bashkirov in Madrid. Arthur graduated from the Amsterdam Conservatory, where he studied with Jan Wijn.