Fresh faces on the Philharmonie stage
The debuts of the 2025/26 season

Each season, the Berliner Philharmoniker welcomes new artists for the first time. From seasoned masters to exciting young talents, these debuts offer fresh perspectives and formidable impressions. With our special flex package, you can curate your own subscription series, and be there for these one-off events.

It’s never too early – or too late – to make your debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker. Pianist Menahem Pressler was 91; violinist Himari just 13 years old. So, when legendary Catalan early music pioneer Jordi Savall makes his conducting debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker this season at the age of 84, he won’t be unusually old for the honour. 

Not that Savall is a latecomer. Ever since he joined his hometown choir in Igualada at the age of six, Savall has been making musical waves. At 17, he taught himself to play the viola da gamba and almost single-handedly brought the instrument back to the international concert platform. He worked with director Alain Corneau on the soundtrack for the 1991 film Tous les matins du monde, about the relationship between Marin Marais and his teacher, Sainte-Colombe, during the reign of Louis XIV. When major recording labels rejected Savall’s proposal for an album, he founded his own label and released the disc himself; it became a bestseller, cementing his global reputation as a performer. He used this platform to revive interest in a vast range of previously neglected Baroque repertoire, especially from his Catalan homeland and South America. With his ensembles Hespèrion XXI, Le Concert des Nations, and La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Savall has explored music from the Renaissance to the Romantic era. For his Berliner Philharmoniker debut, he conducts Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony alongside works by Rameau and Gluck.

Rising Stars on the podium

Thomas Guggeis was just 24 when he stepped in for an indisposed Zubin Mehta at only a few hours’ notice to conduct a new production of Salome at Berlin’s Staatsoper. His debut caused a sensation, with the Financial Times praising his “polished, delicate and balanced sound,” calling the performance “sensitive, lyrical, taut and coherent.” He has since taken on the prestigious role of General Music Director at Frankfurt Opera and makes his Berliner Philharmoniker debut with Strauss’s iconic Also sprach Zarathustra, made famous by Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey – and hilariously mangled by the Portsmouth Sinfonia (Google them if you need a giggle).

Lithuanian conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla conducted her first choral concert at 13 and won the Salzburg Young Conductors Competition in 2012. A former Gustavo Dudamel Fellow of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, she later served as assistant conductor there. After working with opera houses in Heidelberg and Bern, she became chief conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (2016–2021). Her recordings for Deutsche Grammophon of Benjamin Britten, Vaughan Williams, Walton, Weinberg, and others have been acclaimed for their crisp originality. Gražinytė-Tyla is no stranger to Berlin, having already conducted the DSO and at the Komische Oper, but her Berliner Philharmoniker debut marks a significant step in her growing career.

Young virtuosos take the spotlight

Cellist Maximilian Hornung was also a young achiever, winning the German Music Competition at 19 and the ARD Music Competition two years later. At 23, he became principal cellist of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, a post he left four years later to focus on his solo and chamber music career. By then, he had collected a string of awards, including the ECHO Klassik Prize as Young Artist of the Year (2011), the Bavarian Kunstförderpreis (2014), and the European Prize of the European Cultural Foundation (2015).

The youngest musician to debut as part of a Berliner Philharmoniker series this year is 18-year-old organist Jan Liebermann, laureate of the 2024 Northern Ireland International Organ Competition. Liebermann has netted prizes from Wuppertal to Moscow and already amassed an impressive portfolio of international performances. He has performed Bach’s complete trio sonatas from memory.

At just 22, Spanish violinist María Dueñas already boasts an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon and a string of competition victories, including the 2021 Menuhin Competition. Her career has included debuts at Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. At 13, she composed Farewell for piano, which won the Robert Schumann International Piano Competition Award in 2016. She writes her own cadenzas for Mozart’s violin concertos, and her performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto – featuring her own cadenza – received wide critical acclaim.

New faces at the piano

The Jussen brothers, Lucas and Arthur, make their orchestral piano-duo debut with the Philharmoniker this season, performing Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos – a work originally written for Mozart and his sister Nannerl. The brothers have performed together since childhood.

Russian-born pianist Yulianna Avdeeva became only the fourth woman ever to win the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw (2010), following Martha Argerich’s historic victory in 1965. Her solo recital for the Berliner Philharmoniker blends beloved works by Chopin with music by Polish-Jewish pianist and Holocaust survivor Władysław Szpilman, whose life story inspired Roman Polanski’s film The Pianist.

Fazıl Say was a child prodigy, reportedly able to perform complex mathematical calculations by the age of two. The Turkish composer-pianist wrote his first piano piece at 14 and has courted controversy throughout his career, including facing blasphemy charges (later dropped) in Turkey after quoting 11th-century poetry on Twitter. His recital combines Bach’s Goldberg Variations with his own compositions.

String quartet Brooklyn Rider’s concert programme for the Philharmoniker moves seamlessly from Haydn to Bob Dylan, via Matana Roberts and Philip Glass; their genre-bending approach to chamber music repertoire embraces classical, folk, jazz, and indie traditions, making theirs a refreshing contribution to an already-diverse season.

A season rich in discovery
 

This season’s debuts span generations, epochs, and geographies. From Savall’s long-awaited debut to Guggeis’s rapid ascent, from youthful virtuosos like Dueñas and Liebermann to unconventional ensembles like Brooklyn Rider, the Philharmoniker’s new season continues to balance tradition with reinvention. These artists bring technical mastery, fresh perspectives, humour, and humanity to the Philharmonie stage – ensuring that the next chapter of musical excellence remains full of surprises.