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Vilde Frang has been among the most prominent and versatile Scandinavian violinists of the 21st century. She came on the scene as a teenage prodigy and has fulfilled the promise shown by the many awards she earned.

Frang was born in Oslo on August 19, 1986. She was a product of the Suzuki method violin instruction, which she began at age four. In 1993, she began studies at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo. She gained attention from her teachers, who included Henning Kraggerud, and in 1997, at age ten, she made her debut with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra; a year later, she was chosen by conductor Mariss Jansons to appear with the Oslo Philharmonic. In 1998, she met violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, who became an important mentor and inspiration. Mutter convinced Frang to move to Hamburg, and Frang held a scholarship at the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation there from 2003 to 2009. By the early 2000s, Frang's schedule included appearances with top-rank orchestras in many European capitals as well as in Tokyo. A major publicity boost was provided by her debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2007, and American audiences were exposed to her through a duo appearance with Mutter in a Bach two-violin concerto in 2008. After this already enviable career, Frang was still considered a young artist. She was named EMI Classics' Young Artist of the Year in 2010 after making her recording debut on that label with the Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47, and Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19, of Prokofiev that year, and the following year, she received the Edison Klassiek Newcomer Award in the Netherlands. Frang has also been an active chamber music player, and not only with Mutter: her partners include pianists Martha Argerich and Mitsuko Uchida and violinist Gidon Kremer.

Frang took her time before recording major repertory. When the Warner Classics imprint was split off from EMI, the charismatic and photogenic Frang was a natural; she issued an album of Mozart violin concertos with the historical-instrument ensemble Arcangelo in 2015 and has continued to record for Warner Classics. In 2018, she issued a recording of Bartók's Violin Concerto No. 1 on that label. Frang's concert appearances in the late 2010s included those with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Cleveland Orchestra. Among her conductor collaborators have been Valery Gergiev, Manfred Honeck, and Sir Simon Rattle. In 2019, she issued an album of music by Paganini and Schubert, and she was also heard that year on a recording of Sándor Veress' String Trio and Bartók's Piano Quintet. Frang returned on Warner Classics in 2022 with a recording of violin concertos by Beethoven and Stravinsky. ~ James Manheim

Conductor Robin Ticciati, a protégé of Simon Rattle and Colin Davis, is a rising star who specializes in late Romantic repertory. He is the principal conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.

Ticciati was born in London on April 16, 1983. His father and mother are, respectively, a lawyer and a therapist, but his paternal grandfather was a composer, cellist, and keyboardist. Ticciati showed multiple talents as a teen, joining the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain as both a violinist and timpanist. He began teaching himself conducting at age 15, and he was discovered by Simon Rattle. He also regards Davis as a mentor. Ticciati attended Clare College at Cambridge University, majoring in music. He never studied conducting formally, but his career in the field advanced rapidly. He earned a Borletti Buitoni Trust Fellowship, and as an outlet for his conducting ambitions, he formed the ensemble Aurora in 2005. The following year, he substituted for an ailing Riccardo Muti at La Scala, becoming the youngest conductor ever to appear there.

Ticciati served as the chief conductor of the Gävle Symphony Orchestra in Sweden from 2007 to 2009. He held the same post with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra from 2009 to 2018, and from 2010 to 2013, he was also the principal guest conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra in Germany, making his recording debut with that group in 2010 on a Tudor-label album by alto Alice Coote. Ticciati and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra joined the roster of the Linn Records label in 2012 with an acclaimed recording of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. After serving as the music director of Glyndebourne on Tour, he was named the music director of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 2011, effective in 2014. In 2017, he became the principal conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, where his contract has been extended through 2027. Ticciati has continued to record for Linn with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, releasing a performance of Rachmaninov's Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27, with the latter group in 2021. ~ James Manheim

With a history as a broadcast orchestra stretching back to the post-World War II era, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin has also became a major concert attraction. The group has attracted an international set of chief conductors and has often added contemporary works to its repertory.

Ultimately responsible for the orchestra's founding was the government of the American military occupation in West Berlin, which established the RIAS (Radio in the American Sector) broadcaster in 1946. The radio station in turn assembled an orchestra that by 1948 was well established and had hired its first permanent conductor, the Hungarian Ferenc Fricsay. He remained in his post until 1954. The orchestra underwent a period of instability in the mid-'50s as West and East Berlin dealt with forced cultural separation. It was renamed the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1956 and became the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in 1993, after German reunification. Fricsay returned from 1959 to 1963, often programming the music of Bartók and doing much to foster that composer's international popularity. His successors included the American Lorin Maazel (1964-1975), the Italian Riccardo Chailly (1982-1989), and the Russian-Icelandic Vladimir Ashkenazy (1989-1999); with the exception of Ingo Metzmacher (2007-2010), none of the orchestra's principal conductors has been German. The orchestra's leaders in the modern era have also included the American contemporary music specialist Kent Nagano (2000-2006), the Russian Tugan Sokhiev (2012-2016), and as of 2017, the Briton Robin Ticciati.

The orchestra still broadcasts on the radio but offers a full concert season, mostly at the Philharmonie in Berlin. Its recording catalog is large and includes a 2011 recording of music by Kaija Saariaho, conducted by Nagano, that won a Grammy award. Ticciati led the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in a performance of Bruckner's Symphony No. 6 in A major released on Scotland's Linn label in 2019; the orchestra has also recorded for CPO, Sony Classical, Capriccio, and other labels. ~ James Manheim