Johannes Moser, cello

Hailed by Gramophone magazine as "one of the finest among the astonishing gallery of young virtuoso cellists," German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser has performed with the world’s leading orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, BBC Philharmonic at the Proms, London Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Tokyo NHK Symphony and Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras with conductors of the highest level, including Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta, Vladimir Jurowski, Franz Welser-Möst, Christian Thielemann, Pierre Boulez, Paavo Järvi, Semyon Bychkov, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Gustavo Dudamel. 

Mr. Moser recently won his third ECHO Klassik award as 2017’s Instrumentalist of the Year for his Russian Recital disk on the label PENTATONE, for which he records exclusively. His latest recordings include the concertos by Dvořák, Lalo, Elgar and Tchaikovsky, which have gained him the prestigious Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and the Diapason d'Or. He returned to the recording studio in late 2017 to record Lutosławski and Dutilleux concertos. 

The 2017-18 season will see Mr. Moser in performances with the Chicago Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Danish National Symphony, Netherlands Radio, Orchestre National de Lille, City of Birmingham Symphony, New World Symphony, Seattle Symphony and San Diego Symphony. 

With his newly formed piano trio with Yevgeny Sudbin and Vadim Gluzman, Mr. Moser will tour extensively in the coming season throughout Europe and North America. A dedicated chamber musician, he has performed with Joshua Bell, Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, Menahem Pressler, James Ehnes, Midori and Jonathan Biss. He is also a regular at festivals including the Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, Gstaad and Kissinger festivals, Mehta Chamber Music Festival, and the Colorado, Seattle and Brevard music festivals. 

Renowned for his efforts to expand the reach of the classical genre, as well as his passionate focus on new music, Mr. Moser has been heavily involved in commissioning works by Julia Wolfe, Ellen Reid, Thomas Agerfeld Olesen, Johannes Kalitzke, Jelena Firsowa and Andrew Norman. He will take part in the European Premiere of Gubaidulina’s Triple Concerto with the Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra. In 2011 he premiered Magnetar for electric cello by Enrico Chapela with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, and in the following season he continued this relationship with the orchestra performing Michel van der Aa's cello concerto Up-close. Throughout his career, Mr. Moser has been committed to reaching out to all audiences, from kindergarten to college and beyond. He combines most of his concert engagements with master classes, school visits and pre-concert lectures. 

Born into a musical family in 1979, Mr. Moser began studying the cello at the age of eight and became a student of Professor David Geringas in 1997. He was the top-prize winner at the 2002 Tchaikovsky Competition, in addition to being awarded the Special Prize for his interpretation of the Rococo Variations. In 2014 he was awarded with the prestigious Brahms prize. 

A voracious reader of everything from Kafka to Collins and an avid outdoorsman, Mr. Moser is a keen hiker and mountain biker in what little spare time he has.

John Wilson, piano

Hailed for his “virtuosity” (Miami Herald), “elegance and energy” (Classical Miami Magazine), “inventiveness” (San Diego Tribune) and described as a “marvelous, musical mad scientist” (Music Critics Association of North America), American pianist John Wilson performs equally brilliantly as a solo recitalist, chamber musician and orchestral pianist. Mr. Wilson recently performed the solo pianoforte part to Stravinsky’s Petrushka for the San Francisco Symphony’s 2018 Carnegie Hall tour, under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas. His playing was subsequently described as “brilliant” by Classical Voice.

Mr. Wilson has performed extensively in North America, South America and Europe, in recital halls such as the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall at the Kaufman Center and at The American Academy of Arts and Letters. As a soloist he has performed with the New World Symphony, Napa Valley Symphony and both the New Amsterdam Symphony and Camerata Notturna in New York City. A top prize winner in international piano competitions, he most recently won the prize for the “Best Performance of an American Work” at the 2017 Liszt-Garrison International Piano Competition.

An avid chamber musician, Mr. Wilson has appeared in chamber ensembles with violin soloist Anthony Marwood, musicians of the San Francisco Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and San Diego Symphony. He has performed in duo recitals with violinist Joshua Bell numerous times, cellist Johannes Moser, and collaborated with soprano Audra McDonald and David Foster.