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The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is the first British orchestra to be funded by a city council. Its opening concert was conducted by composer Edward Elgar. Since then, the orchestra has thrived as a bastion of musical culture in the Midlands. It has also gained a reputation for adventurous programming, underlined by the long, fruitful appointment of Simon Rattle as music director.

The City of Birmingham Orchestra was founded in 1920 by, among others, Neville Chamberlain, a prominent citizen who later became prime minister of the U.K. The orchestra's first conductor was Adrian Boult, who was quickly snapped up by the newly formed BBC Symphony Orchestra in London. Boult was replaced by one of his pupils, Leslie Heward. In 1932, Harold Gray was named associate conductor, a post he held for nearly 50 years. In 1944, the musicians were hired on a full-time basis, and George Weldon was appointed music director to replace Heward, who had succumbed to tuberculosis.

The orchestra was renamed City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) in 1948, the name it retains to this day. It began to expand its dominion with tours and London performances, including a debut at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1951. An interesting appointment came in 1957 when composer Andrzej Panufnik was named principal conductor. He lasted until 1960, when he returned to composing, but the emphasis on new music took hold. In 1962, the CBSO gave the first performances of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem at nearby Coventry Cathedral. Louis Frémaux was named principal conductor in 1969 and led the orchestra through a series of well-received recordings for EMI. In 1980, Simon Rattle, just 25 years old but already a major talent, was appointed Frémaux's successor. He remained with the CBSO for almost 20 years. In that period, Rattle established himself as one of the world's top conductors, and the orchestra solidified its international reputation through tours and an impressive series of recordings. Rattle oversaw a number of interesting innovations during his tenure: one was the establishment of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG), a subset of the orchestra dedicated to performing the music of its time.

In 1990, Mark-Anthony Turnage was appointed composer-in-association, and he created a series of successful scores, such as Three Screaming Popes. He was succeeded in 1995 by Judith Weir, who followed up Rattle's knighthood (still in his thirties!) with her own Companionship of the British Empire. Along with new British music, the CBSO commissioned works by international composers such as Luciano Berio, Tristan Murail, and Toru Takemitsu. When Rattle moved on to the Berlin Philharmonic in 2002, the CBSO continued its reputation as a forward-looking, world-class orchestra rooted in a community proud of its independence. Conductor Sakari Oramo led the orchestra into the new millennium with enthusiasm and dedication. Andris Nelsons succeeded Oramo as music director in 2008, staying until 2015. Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla was named music director in February 2016, becoming the orchestra's first female director.

The CBSO has been featured on well over 100 albums, with the bulk of its output being on the EMI label. It also has recordings on many other labels, such as Chandos and Warner Classics. In 2019, Gražinytė-Tyla, in her debut recording, led the CBSO on the album Weinberg: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 21 on Deutsche Grammophon, earning a Grammy nomination. Gražinytė-Tyla and the CBSO returned in 2022 with Weinberg: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 7, once more presenting two of Weinberg's symphonies and his Flute Concerto No. 1. After serving as principal guest conductor since 2018, the CBSO announced that Kazuki Yamada would be its next chief conductor and artistic advisor beginning in 2023. ~ James Harley & Keith Finke

Yakov Kreizberg was a naturalized American conductor and pianist, born in Russia with the name Yakov Bychkov. A piano prodigy at age 5, he began composing by 13 and took up conducting lessons with Ilya Musin around the same time. When he emigrated to the United States in 1976, he was unable to bring his compositions with him, so out of frustration with Soviet policies, he gave up composing entirely and dedicated himself to conducting full-time.

Once settled in the United States, Kreizberg entered the Mannes College The New School for Music, where he studied with his brother, conductor Semyon Bychkov. (Kreizberg adopted his mother's maiden name shortly after graduation, to differentiate himself from his brother). Following graduate work at the University of Michigan with Gustav Meier, Kreizberg studied with Erich Leinsdorf, Seiji Ozawa, Leonard Bernstein, and Michael Tilson Thomas, becoming the latter's assistant at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. In 1985, he returned to Mannes College to direct the school's orchestra and also conducted the New York City Symphony's concerts.

Having dual careers in conducting orchestral concerts and opera, Kreizberg served as general music director of the United Municipal Theaters of Krefeld-Mönchengladbach and as conductor of the Niederrheinische Sinfoniker. At the Berlin Comic Opera, he oversaw productions of standard repertoire as well as revivals of forgotten operas, and conducted many heavily attended concerts. He went on to conduct operas at Glyndebourne, the Canadian Opera Company, the English National Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, and the Royal Opera House. His concert activities included performances with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and the London Symphony Orchestra, where he conducted Mahler's Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection," to critical acclaim. Additionally, Kreizberg appeared in the United States with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic.

After 2003, Kreizberg was chief conductor and artistic adviser of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, as well as principal guest conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. He recorded for Decca and PentaTone Classics. Yakov Kreizberg died on March 15, 2011, in Monaco at age 51, following a long illness.

François Le Roux is a leading French baritone, considered the finest interpreter of Debussy's role of Pélleas in his time.

After studying science and English at university, he switched to vocal studies at the age of nineteen. His main teachers were François Loup, Vera Rozsa, and Elisabeth Grümmer, the latter two at the Opéra Studio of Paris.

He won the Barcelona Maria Canals Competition and the international competition of Rio de Janeiro and in 1980 became a member of the Lyon Opera Company, where he remained until 1985.

He became a full-time freelance singer in 1985 and immediately started filling numerous invitations to sing at major opera companies and the leading European music festivals. In addition, in 1985 he sang the role of Pélleas for the first time and was proclaimed the "greatest Pélleas since Jacques Jansen." He has sung the role over a hundred times around the world and recorded it on Deutsche Grammophon with Claudio Abbado conducting. In 1998, for the first time, he sang the role of Golaud rather than Pélleas in the opera, at the Paris Opéra-Comique and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

Among his notable appearances are as Ramiro in Ravel's L'Heure Espagnole (Glyndebourne), Marcello in La Bohème (Oslo and Hamburg), Orestes in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride (Frankfurt), Lescaut in Massenet's Manon (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), Papageno in The Magic Flute, and Figaro in Rossini's Barber of Seville.

His Paris Opéra debut in 1988 was in the role of Valentine in Gounod's Faust. His portrayal of Mozart's Don Giovanni on the same stage brought him the "Prix de Révélation de l'Année of the French Music Critics. He has frequently sung the Don on several other major stages.

His operatic repertoire is varied and includes operas from all eras. From the Baroque, he sings, for instance, the title role of Tancrède by Campra, the title role of Monteverdi's Orfeo, and Pollux in Castor and Pollux by Rameau. He sings all the major baritone parts in Mozart operas, Rossini's Figaro, Malatesta, Prinz Ottokar in Der Freischütz, and Marcello. His twentieth-century parts include The Clock and The Cat in Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortiléges, Rivière in Dallapiccola's Vole di Notte, Der Prinz von Homburg by Henze, and Birtwistle's Gawain, David Lang's Modern Painters (as John Ruskin) and Von Bose's Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (the last three being world premieres).

He is also a renowned recital and concert artist. He has recorded the complete songs of Duparc and Fauré, and won the French Record Academy Award for his Fables of de La Fontaine on EMI. He sings Berlioz's L'Enfance du Christ, which he has recorded with Charles Dutoit and the Montréal Symphony Orchestra on Decca, and has released sets of songs by Severac (Hyperion), Poulenc (Decca), Roussel (BMG-RCA), and other recordings for Erato, and REM. His frequent accompanists include Irwin Gage, Graham Johnson, and Roger Vignoles.

Le Roux is the Artistic Director of the Académie Francis Poulenc in Tours, where every August he teaches a master course in French song interpretation.

He has been chosen Musical Personality of the Year 1997 by the French Critics Union, and been awarded the rank of Chevalier of the French National Order of Arts and Letters (1996).

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

Berthold Goldschmidt was one of the many composers designated "degenerate" (entartete) by the Nazi regime in Germany. Even if he had not been a Jew, it would certainly be difficult to find a composer more different from their ideal, ultra-Romantic in sound as well as subject matter. Goldschmidt's two famous operas, Der Gewaltige Haburei (The magnificent cuckold) and Beatrice Cenci, are merciless in their exposure of human frailty and cruelty, and his Marche militaire is an equally pitiless parody of military glory. While often using discord, his works remain largely traditional in structure and style, usually featuring a vivid energy of expression.

Goldschmidt studied music first at the University of Hamburg, following that with studies at Friedrich Wilhelm University, and finally at the Berlin Hochschule for Musik, where he came under Franz Schreker's tutelage and won the Mendelssohn composition prize for his Passacaglia for Orchestra, Op. 4. After his 1925 graduation, he became assistant conductor at the Darmstadt Opera and also wrote orchestral music. The next year, he became assistant conductor at the Berlin State Opera and wrote Der Gewaltige Haburei during 1929 and 1930. It was a success at its local premiere, but plans for a Berlin staging were ended when the Nazi party rose to full power. He remained in Germany, not able to conduct or publish, though still able to give lessons, but after an interrogation session with the Gestapo, Goldschmidt fled to England in 1935. There he continued to coach opera and conduct, including for the first Edinburgh Festival (substituting for an ailing George Szell), and compose, including the 1939 ballet Chronica (which was subjected to an almost Verdian "adaptation" to suit political sensibilities -- the story of the rise and fall of a dictator was moved to the Renaissance) -- a 1944 symphony, and the 1948 Ballata e scherzo. He also collaborated with Deryck Cooke on the reconstruction of Mahler's Symphony No. 10. In 1949, he began Beatrice Cenci and completed it in 1951, though it was not produced.

After the 1950s, he fell more or less out of public attention as a composer, largely due to the rise of atonalism, and he wrote relatively few pieces, concerti, and vocal works. In the 1980s, however, he came back to the limelight, composing many new pieces, including the Third and Fourth string quartets, and witnessing revivals of his stage works, including Beatrice Cenci in a 1988 concert performance. He was not a particularly prolific composer and much of his early work was lost: He had left it with a friend in Germany for safe-keeping, but the friend's house was destroyed during the war.