A consummate musician, masterful programmer, and dynamic presence, David Robertson has established himself as one of today’s most sought-after American conductors. He has forged close relationships with major orchestras around the world through his exhilarating music-making and stimulating ideas. In fall 2012, Mr. Robertson launched his eighth season as music director of the 133-year-old St. Louis Symphony, and in January 2014 he will become chief conductor and artistic director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in Australia.

In September 2012 the St. Louis Symphony and David Robertson embarked on a European tour, which included appearances at London’s BBC Proms, the Berlin and Lucerne Festivals, and Paris’s Salle Pleyel. The tour, which featured violinist Christian Tetzlaff as soloist, marked the orchestra’s first European engagements since 1998 and first ever with music director David Robertson. In March 2013 they return to California for their second tour of the season, which includes an intensive three-day residency at the University of California–Davis and a performance at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts with violinist James Ehnes as soloist. The orchestra will also perform at venues in Costa Mesa, Palm Desert, and Santa Barbara, with St. Louis Symphony principal flute Mark Sparks as soloist.

Mr. Robertson is a frequent guest conductor with major orchestras and opera houses around the world. During the 2012–13 season he appears with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and San Francisco Symphony, as well as internationally with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bavarian and Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestras, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and Ensemble Intercontemporain. In past seasons he has appeared with the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras, and, internationally, with the Berlin Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, among others.

With more than 45 operas in his repertoire, Mr. Robertson, who returned to The Metropolitan Opera in October 2012 for Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, has appeared at many of the world’s most prestigious opera houses, including Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, Opéra de Lyon, Bavarian Staatsoper, Théâtre du Châtelet, Hamburg Staatsoper, Santa Fe Opera, and San Francisco Opera.

Born in California, David Robertson was educated at London’s Royal Academy of Music, where he studied horn and composition before turning to orchestral conducting, and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. He made his New York Philharmonic debut in April–May 2001, and his most recent appearance was in June 2012 conducting CONTACT!, the Philharmonic’s new-music series.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard performs throughout the world each season with major orchestras under conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Christoph von Dohnányi, Gustavo Dudamel, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Peter Eötvös, and Simon Rattle. Artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival, he has also created, directed, and performed in residencies at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, Berlin’s Philharmonie, Lucerne Festival, Mozarteum Salzburg, Tanglewood Festival, and London’s Southbank Centre. Highlights of Mr. Aimard’s 2012–13 season include solo recitals in London, New York, Chicago, Paris, and Tokyo; concerto appearances with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, and the Vienna Philharmonic in Salzburg; and directing concerts from the keyboard with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Born in Lyon in 1957, Pierre-Laurent Aimard studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Yvonne Loriod and in London with Maria Curcio. In 1973 he won first prize in the Messiaen Competition, and three years later Pierre Boulez appointed him to become the Ensemble Intercontemporain’s first solo pianist. He received the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist Award in spring 2005 and was named “Instrumentalist of the Year” by Musical America in 2007.

Mr. Aimard records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon. His first DG release, a recording of Bach’s Art of Fugue, received the Diapason d’Or and Choc du Monde de la Musique awards, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s classical chart, and topped iTunes’s classical album download chart. He has received ECHO Classik Awards, most recently in 2009, for his recording of solo piano pieces titled Hommage à Messiaen, and he has received Germany’s Schallplattenkritik Honorary Prize and a Grammy Award. Pierre-Laurent Aimard made his New York Philharmonic debut in November–December 2002 performing Janáček’s Capriccio and Richard Strauss’s Burleske in D minor conducted by Christoph von Dohnanyi. In his most recent appearance, in December 2007, he performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Stockhausen’s Klavierstueck VIII (a solo encore performed in memory of Stockhausen, who died that week), conducted by Philippe Jordan.