Christoph Eschenbach is music director of the National Symphony Orchestra as well as of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. He is in demand as a guest conductor with the finest orchestras and opera houses throughout the world. Artistic director of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival from 1999 to 2002, he has continued a close relationship with that festival, regularly conducting the orchestra at home and on tour as well as playing piano concertos and appearing in recital.

Highlights of Mr. Eschenbach's recent seasons have included multiple appearances with the Orchestre de Paris, where he was music director until August 2010; performances of the Verdi Requiem with the National Symphony Orchestra, his first as music director; tours with the London Philharmonic and the Dresden Staatskapelle; and engagements with the Vienna Philharmonic, Filarmonica della Scala, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Hamburg's NDR Symphony (where he served as music director from 1998 to 2004), and Rome's Orchestra Sinfonica dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, which he conducted in a special open-air concert in St. Peter's Square in the presence of the Pope. As a pianist, he continues his collaboration with baritone Matthias Goerne, with whom he is recording Schubert's three song cycles for release on the Harmonia Mundi label.

A prolific recording artist for more than five decades, Mr. Eschenbach has recorded as both a conductor and as a pianist on labels including Deutsche Grammophon, Sony/BMG, Decca, Ondine, Warner, and Koch. His Ondine recording of the music of Kaija Saariaho with the Orchestre de Paris and soprano Karita Mattila won the 2009 MIDEM Classical Award in Contemporary Music.

Mentored by George Szell and Herbert von Karajan, Christoph Eschenbach's other past posts include chief conductor and artistic director of Zurich's Tonhalle-Orchestra (from 1982 to 1986, and music director of the Houston Symphony (1988-99), Ravinia Festival (1994-2003), and The Philadelphia Orchestra (2003-08). His many honors include the Légion d'honneur, Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the Officer's Cross with Star and Ribbon of the German Order of Merit, and the Commander's Cross of the German Order of Merit. He also received the Leonard Bernstein Award from the Pacific Music Festival, where he was co-artistic director from 1992 to 1998.

Pinchas Zukerman has been a phenomenon in the world of music for over four decades, equally respected as violinist, violist, conductor, pedagogue, and chamber musician. Mr. Zukerman’s 2012–13 season includes more than 100 performances across North America, Europe, and Asia. He is in his 14th season as music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa. In his fourth season as principal guest conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, he leads the ensemble in concerts in Switzerland, Russia, and the United Kingdom.

Additional orchestral engagements include the Boston, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Colorado, and Kansas City symphony orchestras, as well as international appearances with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Mariinsky State Theatre Orchestra, Orchestre de Monte Carlo, Czech Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi, Miyazaki Festival Orchestra, and Teatro San Carlo Orchestra in Naples. He joins pianist Angela Cheng in recitals in Salzburg, Prague, Philadelphia, Palm Beach, Milan, Taiwan, Madrid, Helsinki, and Verbier. His chamber ensemble, the Zukerman ChamberPlayers, appears at the Ravinia and Toronto summer music festivals and in China, Japan, Europe, and South America.

Mr. Zukerman chairs the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music, where he has pioneered distance-learning technology in the arts. In Canada he has established the National Arts Centre Institute for Orchestra Studies and the Summer Music Institute, encompassing the Young Artists, Conductors and Composers Programs.

Born in Tel Aviv in 1948, Pinchas Zukerman came to America in 1962, where he studied at The Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian. He has been awarded the Medal of Arts and the Isaac Stern Award for Artistic Excellence, and was appointed the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative’s first instrumentalist mentor in the music discipline. Mr. Zukerman’s extensive discography contains more than 100 titles and has earned him 21 Grammy nominations and 2 awards.