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Artistic Director and 2026 Conductor
Vadim Gluzman
Festival Artistic Director
Violin
Universally recognized among today’s top performing artists, Vadim Gluzman breathes new life and passion into the golden era of the 19th and 20th centuries‘ violin tradition. Gluzman’s wide repertoire embraces new music, and his performances are heard around the world through livestreams, broadcasts and a striking catalogue of award-winning recordings on BIS, Platoon and EuroArts lables.
The Israeli violinist appears with world’s leading orchestras and conductors, including Tugan Sokhiev with the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony and Orchestre de Paris; Neeme Järvi with Chicago Symphony and London Philharmonic; Riccardo Chailly with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Santtu-Matias Rouvali with Gothenburg Symphony and Philharmonia Orchestra, as well as with the Cleveland Orchestra under the batons of Hannu Lintu and Michail Jurowski. He appears at Ravinia, Tanglewood, BBC Proms, Grant Park and the North Shore Chamber Music Festival, he has founded in 2011.
Gluzman starts the 2024/25 season with return to the Grant Park and Colorado Music Festivals, followed by performances with the Gewandhaus, NDR Elbphilharmonie, and the Bavarian Radio Orchestras, Solistes Européens Luxembourg, as well as Pittsburgh, Vancouver and New Jersey Symphony Orchestras. He continues to lead performances with the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in Columbus, Ohio, where he serves as a Creative Partner and Principal Guest Artist.
Gluzman has premiered works by Sofia Gubaidulina, Moritz Eggert, Giya Kancheli, Elena Firsova, Pēteris Vasks, Michael Daugherty and Lera Auerbach. In the current season he continues to introduce the new violin concerto by Erkki-Sven Tüür “Dialogues with the Unknown”, commissioned for Gluzman by the HR Frankfurt Radio Orchestra and the Oregon Symphony.
Accolades for his extensive discography include the Diapason d’Or of the Year, Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice, Classica magazine’s Choc de Classica award, and Disc of the Month by The Strad, BBC Music Magazine and ClassicFM.
Distinguished Artist in Residence at the Peabody Conservatory, where he teaches a selected group of young violinists, Gluzman performs on the legendary 1690 ‘ex-Leopold Auer’ Stradivari, on extended loan through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.
Andrew Litton
2026 Jill Ward Conductor-in-Residence
Andrew Litton is Music Director of the New York City Ballet and Conductor Laureate of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He was previously Music Director of Norway’s Bergen Philharmonic, where he led the orchestra to international acclaim through extensive touring and recordings, including debuts at the BBC Proms, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Vienna’s Musikverein, Berlin’s Philharmonie, and Carnegie Hall. For his contributions, he was awarded the Norwegian Royal Order of Merit by King Harald V.
As Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (1994–2006), he led three European tours, appeared four times at Carnegie Hall, created a nationally broadcast children’s television series, produced 28 recordings, and helped grow the orchestra’s endowment from $19 million to $100 million.
He continues to guest conduct widely, with recent engagements including the Vancouver Symphony, South Netherlands Philharmonic, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, BBC Symphony, English Chamber Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Seattle Symphony, Adelaide Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Symphony Orchestra of India, Grant Park Music Festival, and the Dallas and Royal Swedish Orchestras.
Highlights of the 2025/26 season include performances with the Colorado, Phoenix, and Seattle Symphony Orchestras, a return to Galicia, and a full season at New York City Ballet. A frequent opera conductor with a strong theatrical sense, Litton has led performances at the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Australian Opera, and Deutsche Oper Berlin. As Artistic Director of the Minnesota Orchestra’s Sommerfest for 14 years, he concluded each season with sold-out opera performances including Salome, Der Rosenkavalier, Madama Butterfly, Tosca, and La Traviata. In 2021, he conducted the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for the Cardiff Singer of the World competition.
An accomplished pianist, he frequently conducts from the keyboard, most recently in Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Adelaide Symphony and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in Singapore. A leading Gershwin expert, he advises the University of Michigan Gershwin Archives and has recorded the composer’s works extensively. His solo album A Tribute to Oscar Peterson reflects his lifelong love of jazz. His discography includes over 140 recordings, with honors such as the Classical Brits/BBC Critics Award for his Rachmaninoff concertos with Stephen Hough and a Grammy nomination for Sweeney Todd with the New York Philharmonic and Patti LuPone.
"Without music, life is a mistake."
-Carl Nietzche
the ones behind the music