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Virtuoso pianist Jorge Bolet began his keyboard studies at the age of nine. His progress excited his local teachers and he received a scholarship at the age of 12 to study in the United States, at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. There his piano teacher was David Saperton. Beginning in 1932 he studied with Leopold Godowsky and Moritz Rosenthal, and, briefly, with Rudolf Serkin. He won the Naumburg Prize in 1937 and the Josef Hofmann Award in 1938. He became Rudolf Serkin's teaching assistant at the Curtis Institute in 1939. In 1942 he joined the United States armed forces. After the end of the war he was a part of the U.S. cccupying forces in Japan. There, he conducted the first performance in that country of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. He resumed his piano career after taking private lessons with Abram Chasins. Over a period of a few years he developed a reputation as a virtuoso player of astonishing power, able to play the most difficult works by Liszt with an impression of natural ease that left the feeling that there was no limit to his pianistic range. He became the head of the piano faculty at Curtis, and also was on the piano faculty of Indiana University at Bloomington. While in the United States he preferred the pronunciation "George" for his first name.

Until nearly the end of his life he maintained a major performing and recording career. His recordings were primarily for the Decca (London) company. He produced many estimable performances, notably those of the major piano works by Franz Liszt, as well as concertos and other works. As exciting as some of these recordings were, he was an artist whose full range of brilliance was not caught by the microphone.

The Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal ("Montreal Symphony Orchestra") has established itself as one of the best orchestras in North America. With the leadership of several world-class music directors, the OSM has toured the world, accompanied soloists and opera productions, and received acclaim for many of its recordings. Rafael Payare has been the orchestra's music director since 2022. In 2024, Payare led the OSM on the album Strauss: Ein Heldenleben; Mahler: Rückert-Lieder with soprano Sonya Yoncheva.

The Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal was founded in 1934 as the Concerts Symphoniques de Montréal (several Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal's were founded and failed in the late 19th to early 20th centuries). The CSM came to be through the financial support of Athanase David, the Secretary of the Province of Quebec. The orchestra's first music director was Wilfrid Pelletier, who began the CSM's community outreach with youth matinee concerts and the Festival de Montréal, which offered free concerts to the public until 1964. Désiré Defauw became the music director in 1940, and he began to draw in international soloists to perform with the orchestra. Defauw departed the CSM in 1952, and in 1953, the orchestra was renamed Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal. In 1957, Igor Markevitch became the music director, bringing with him an advancement of contemporary music and beginning the yearly commissioning of new works from Canadian composers. During Markevitch's tenure, the OSM became a fully professional orchestra.

Zubin Mehta was named the music director in 1961, and it was during his tenure that the orchestra became an international success. Mehta led the OSM on the first-ever European tour by a Canadian orchestra in 1962. In 1963, the orchestra opened a new residence, the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, in the Place des Arts. In this venue, the OSM performed its first opera production, Puccini's Tosca. Franz-Paul Decker succeeded Mehta in 1967 and continued the orchestra's touring activities, taking the OSM to Japan in 1970. Under Decker, the OSM began a series of pop concerts to reach a broader audience in Montreal. Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos served as the music director from 1975 to 1976, taking the orchestra to New York for its first performance at Carnegie Hall. Frühbeck de Burgos' tenure ended following public disagreements, for which he apologized in 2002.

With Frühbeck de Burgos' departure, the OSM performed under guest conductors. One of these, Charles Dutoit, was named the new music director in 1977, beginning a nearly 25-year partnership. Shortly after the appointment of Dutoit, the OSM signed with the Decca label. The orchestra's first recording with Decca, Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé, was an international success. Dutoit would lead the OSM on tours throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Under Dutoit, the orchestra won two Grammy Awards, for Berlioz's Les Troyens in 1996 and, with Martha Argerich in 2000, for an album of Prokofiev and Bartòk piano concertos. In 2002, Dutoit stepped down following animosity with the musicians of the OSM; he returned for the first time as a guest conductor in 2016.

Jacques Lacombe served as principal guest conductor from 2002-2006, leading the OSM in the interim period between the announcement of new music director Kent Nagano in 2003 and the beginning of his tenure in 2006. Under Nagano, the OSM resumed its international tours, opened the Maison Symphonique, and launched a webcast series. Under Nagano, the orchestra won the Diapason d'Or for its 2016 Decca release of Honegger & Ibert's opera L'Aiglon. Nagano remained with the OSM until the close of the 2019-2020 season. The OSM issued two albums under Nagano in 2019: an Analekta release of Chopin concertos with Charles Richard-Hamelin and The John Adams Album on Decca. In 2021, the OSM announced the appointment of Rafael Payare as its next music director, beginning in 2022. Payare made his recording debut leading the OSM in 2023 on a recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 5, returning the following year with soprano Sonya Yoncheva on a recording of Mahler's Rückert-Lieder and Strauss' Ein Heldenleben. ~ Keith Finke

Charles Dutoit is among the world's most acclaimed conductors, perhaps best known for his long tenure as the music director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He has also held positions with venerable orchestras around the world, such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. Dutoit has collaborated with many leading musicians during his career, including Salvatore Accardo, James Galway, and especially Martha Argerich, with whom he won one of his two Grammy Awards and was also married to for a time. Though controversy has surrounded his late career and several associations were ended, he held the posts of co-director of Shanghai's MISA Festival and principal guest conductor of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra as of the mid-2020s.

Dutoit was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, on October 7, 1936. He studied violin, viola, piano, and percussion as a child and became interested in conducting early after watching Ernest Ansermet leading the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in concert and rehearsal. Dutoit attended the Lausanne Conservatory, studying violin, piano, and conducting, then moved to the Geneva Conservatory to study viola and conducting, taking first prize in the latter and graduating in 1958. While still a student, Dutoit began his professional career, performing viola in several ensembles in South America and Europe. He also studied conducting with Alceo Galliera at Siena's Accademia Chigiana and attended Tanglewood in 1959. That year, he made his professional conducting debut, joining Argerich and a Radio Lausanne orchestra, and began regular guest-conducting appearances with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. His first appointment was as the Radio Zurich conductor from 1965 until 1967. The following year, he succeeded Paul Kletzki as the chief conductor of the Bern Symphony Orchestra, leading that group until 1978. In 1969, Dutoit married Argerich, and they had a daughter together. Though the marriage ended in 1973, the two continued a professional relationship.

Dutoit held several other posts during his Bern tenure, including with the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico (1973-1975) and the Gothenburg Symphony (1975-1978). In 1977, he was appointed artistic director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He refined that group and, thanks to a substantial and lengthy recording contract with the Decca label, brought the Montreal Symphony to international recognition. Among these acclaimed recordings are Holst: The Planets (1987), Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande (1991), and Berlioz: Les Troyens (1995); the latter earned Dutoit a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. During his tenure with the Montreal Symphony, Dutoit helmed the Philadelphia Orchestra's summer concert series at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts (1990-1999) and in Saratoga Springs (1990-2010). In 1991, he became the music director of the Orchestre National de France and took the same post with the NHK Symphony Orchestra from 1998 until 2003, after serving as principal conductor since 1996. Dutoit earned his second Grammy Award in 2000 for a recording of piano concertos by Bartók and Prokofiev, leading the Montreal Symphony with Argerich as a soloist. Dutoit stepped down from the Orchestre National de France post in 2001, and the next year, after complaints about his behavior by the Quebec Musicians Guild, he abruptly resigned from his Montreal position.

In 2008, Dutoit became the chief conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra and took the artistic director and principal conductor positions with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 2009. That year, he also began his tenure as the music director of the Verbier Festival Orchestra. He was named co-director of the MISA Festival in Shanghai in 2010, and the Philadelphia Orchestra named Dutoit its conductor laureate in 2012. In 2017, he became conductor emeritus of the Verbier Festival Orchestra, and he was given the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal Award. During that year and the following year, accusations of sexual assault were levied against Dutoit for incidents that occurred between the late '70s and 2010. He has denied all accusations. Engagements with multiple orchestras worldwide were canceled, he was stripped of his laureate title from the Philadelphia Orchestra, and he resigned his posts with the Royal Philharmonic in early 2018. Later that year, he was named the principal guest conductor of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, continuing to hold that post and the co-directorship of the MISA Festival as of 2024. ~ Keith Finke