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Pianist Beatrice Rana can certainly be counted as a prodigy, with major concerts, prizes, and recordings under her belt even before she reached her 21st birthday. She has also approached her adult career intelligently, continuing to study even after reaching the pianistic top rank, setting aside a work (the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1) for which she felt unready at 15 and returning to it later.

Rana was born in Copertino, Italy, on January 22, 1993. In a way, her training began in the womb; her parents are both professional pianists and played in her presence during her mother's pregnancy. When Beatrice was six months old, she was reaching toward a piano keyboard from her mother's lap, and at four, she began formal lessons. A younger sister, Ludovica, also became a classical musician, a cellist. At nine, Beatrice gave a concerto performance at the San Marino International Piano Competition, and by her teenage years, she was performing with major European orchestras. She studied with Arie Vardi in Hannover, Germany, and with Benedetto Lupo in Rome; the latter remained her teacher and mentor in the late 2010s.

Rana's breakthrough came in 2011 with the first prize and special jury prizes at the Montreal International Piano Competition. "From the moment she sat down at the piano during the first round of the competition, Rana sent chills through the room," reported La Scena Musicale. She almost missed the competition after officials at her high school demanded that she take scheduled exams, but a compromise was finally brokered by her mother. In 2012, she released her debut album on the ATMA Classique label, featuring music by Chopin and Scriabin. A silver medal at the 2013 Van Cliburn Competition showed that her Montreal win was no fluke, and Rana began to attract honors with a wider time frame, such as inclusion on International Piano's 30 under 30 listing in 2014 and BBC New Generation Artist designation the following year.

The year 2015 also saw the release of Rana's well-received debut album on Warner Classics, pairing the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16 (during a performance of which she once broke a piano string), and the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1, with the accompaniment of conductor Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. In 2017, Rana released a recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, a work not normally essayed by young pianists. Rana has continued to record for Warner Classics, issuing an album of Ravel and Stravinsky in 2019, a Chopin release in 2021, and, in 2023, an album containing the piano concertos of Robert and Clara Schumann, backed by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin. ~ James Manheim

Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin has had one of the most meteoric rises of any conductor of the early 21st century. Since conducting virtually all of the major Canadian orchestras while still in his twenties, he has established a substantial international career.

Nézet-Séguin was born in Montreal on March 6, 1975. He began studying piano at age five and decided on a career as a conductor at age ten after attending a performance by the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal under Charles Dutoit. He studied piano, chamber music, conducting, and composition at the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec, and he studied choral conducting at Westminster Choir College. When he was 14, he began leading rehearsals of the Chœur polyphonique de Montréal at the Montréal Cathedral; he became the group's conductor in 1994, at age 19. That same year, Nézet-Séguin, who had a lifelong admiration for the work of Carlo Maria Giulini, was invited to follow the famed conductor for a year, observing rehearsals and concerts and working extensively with Giulini during his final year of public performances. In 1995, Nézet-Séguin founded Le Chapelle de Montréal, a vocal and instrumental group that began with a focus on the Baroque. He continued performing with this group until 2002.

From 1998 until 2002, Nézet-Séguin was the chorus master and assistant conductor of L'Opéra de Montréal. In 2000, he was named the artistic director and principal conductor of Orchestre Métropolitain du Montréal. From 2008 until 2018, he served as conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, succeeding Valery Gergiev. From 2008 until 2014, he was the principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2012, Nézet-Séguin succeeded Dutoit as the music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. In 2018, he was named the music director of the Metropolitan Opera, following annual appearances leading the company. He also took on the title of Honorary Conductor with the Rotterdam Philharmonic in 2018. The following year, after extending his contract several times, the Orchestre Métropolitain du Montréal awarded Nézet-Séguin a lifetime contract.

Nézet-Séguin records mainly for Deutsche Grammophon, but he has also recorded for several other labels. In addition, he is active as a pianist and is featured on a number of discs as a soloist or accompanist. In 2019, he released several albums, including Verdi, with the Orchestre Métropolitain du Montréal and soloist Ildar Abdrazakov. An unusually active 2021 saw eight releases, including his first-ever solo piano album, Introspection, and a Grammy Award-winning recording of Florence Price's first and third symphonies with the Philadelphia Orchestra. That year, he was the subject of Patrick Delisle-Crevier's book about his life and career, Raconte-moi Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The following year, he led the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in a cycle of Beethoven's symphonies, and he backed Lisa Batiashvili on her album Secret Love Letters, once again with the Philadelphia Orchestra. ~ Stephen Eddins & Keith Finke