Homage to Ligeti: Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Susanna Mälkki and the Karajan Academy

Before studying conducting with Eri Klas, Jorma Panula and Leif Segerstam in Helsinki, Susanna Mälkki was principal cellist of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and was also active as a soloist and chamber musician – experience that she would not want to be without today: “Orchestras are very special entities. It’s good to get to know some of them from the inside. You understand how they work.” Her interest in orchestral conducting had already been aroused in the orchestra of the conducting class at the Sibelius Academy, however: “I found it all very interesting and thought about it a lot. Perhaps I already developed a taste for it then.” In the meantime, Susanna Mälkki is one of the most sought-after conductors of our day. During opera and concert performances throughout the world, she impresses audiences with her precise baton technique, her feeling for tonal colour and her passionate commitment. She was chief conductor of the Stavanger (Norway) Symphony Orchestra, music director of Ensemble intercontemporain, with whom she presented the (world) premieres of numerous contemporary works, and the first woman to conduct at La Scala in Milan. Susanna Mälkki has been chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra since the 2016/17 season. The Finnish musician also collaborates with leading European and North American orchestras and has appeared with the Berliner Philharmoniker several times since 2008.

“When I make music, I have the feeling that I no longer exist,” says the young German conductor and composer Oscar Jockel. He is currently Kirill Petrenko’s conducting assistant with the Berliner Philharmoniker and conducting scholar at the  Karajan Academy for two years, after winning the Siemens Conductors Scholarship during the conducting competition at the Philharmonie Berlin in October of 2021. Jockel was also appointed assistant conductor with Ensemble intercontemporain and its music director Matthias Pintscher at the Philharmonie de Paris in 2021. He studied with Paavo Järvi and his father, Neeme Järvi, at the Järvi Conducting Academy in Estonia in 2018 and received a Conducting Seminar Fellowship of the Tanglewood Music Center with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons and Stefan Asbury in 2019. Oscar Jockel became a scholarship holder in the Conductors Forum, the support programme of the German Music Council, in 2021. He received the Herbert von Karajan Prize in 2023 for his achievements as a composer and conductor. During the 2022/23 season, he was invited to appear as guest conductor with the Easter Festival in Salzburg, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Bruckner Festival in Linz, the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Munich Radio Orchestra.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard was described as a “shining light and an international key figure in contemporary musical life” when he was awarded the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2017 – for “a life devoted to the service of music”. According to the citation, he is a pianist “of light and colour who brings clarity and life to everything he plays”. Pierre-Laurent Aimard has made an international name for himself especially with contemporary works. The French musician works closely with leading composers, including Pierre Boulez, George Benjamin and in particular György Ligeti, whose complete works for piano Aimard has recorded and who entrusted the pianist with several world premieres. Pierre-Laurent Aimard was also acclaimed by the Guardian as “one of the best Messiaen interpreters around”, and Messiaen himself described him as the “leading interpreter” of contemporary music. At the age of 19, Aimard was appointed by Pierre Boulez as the first solo pianist of Ensemble intercontemporain, with whom he continued to perform for 18 years. During this time, he collaborated on countless world premieres and established his reputation as one of the most prominent interpreters of contemporary music. Baroque, Classical and Romantic repertoire is also important to the musician, however, as acclaimed recordings of works by Bach, Mozart and Liszt demonstrate.