François Leleux, Lisa Batiashvili, Frankfurt Radio Symphony & Andrés Orozco-Estrada
Biographie François Leleux, Lisa Batiashvili, Frankfurt Radio Symphony & Andrés Orozco-Estrada
Francois Leleux
Conductor and oboist Francois Leleux is renowned for his irrepressible energy, exuberance, and musical clarity. Leleux has previously featured as Artistic Partner of Camerata Salzburg, Artist-in-Association with Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, and Artist-in-Residence with orchestras such as hr-Sinfonieorchester, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Berner Symphonieorchester, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife.
In the 2024/25 season, Leleux’s conducting engagements include appearances with Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, and Robert Schumann Philharmonie Chemnitz. Leleux furthers his international profile as a play-conductor via his continued close association with Camerata Salzburg and appears as a soloist with the SWR Symphonieorchester under conductor Andres Orozco-Estrada and Orchestre de Paris under Roberto González-Monjas. Additional season highlights include a residency with Orquesta de Valencia as both conductor and soloist, Leleux’s first appearance with Estonian National Symphony Orchestra as conductor, and the first of several collaborations with Kammerakademie Potsdam in anticipation of Leleux taking over as Artistic Director of the Kammerakademie Potsdam in 2025-26.
As an oboist, Leleux has performed with orchestras such as New York Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Swedish Radio and NHK symphony orchestras. A dedicated chamber musician, he regularly performs worldwide with long-standing recital partners Lisa Batiashvili, Eric Le Sage and Emmanuel Strosser, as well as with his critically acclaimed woodwind sextet Les Vents Français who in 2024/25 will give numerous concerts across Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and Japan.
Lisa Batiashvili
the Georgian-born German violinist, is praised by audiences and fellow musicians for her virtuosity. An award-winning artist, she has developed long-standing relationships with the world’s leading orchestras, conductors and musicians.
In 2021 Batiashvili formed and continues to lead the Lisa Batiashvili Foundation, which serves her lifelong dream and commitment in supporting young, highly talented Georgian musicians to thrive in their musical careers.
Following her time as resident artist of the Berliner Philharmoniker, she is now looking forward to an exciting 2024/25 season! Starting with appearances at the Lucerne Festival, including the Orchestre de Paris (Klaus Mäkelä), extended tours with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich (Paavo Järvi), the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam (Klaus Mäkelä), the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Daniel Harding) and the London Symphony Orchestra (Antonio Pappano) will follow. She also returns to the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Robin Ticciati), New York Philharmonic (Ivan Fischer) and the National Symphony Orchestra (Gianandrea Noseda), among others.
She gives concerts with Giorgi Gigashvili and Tsotne Zedginidze, two talented young Georgian pianists and composers who are supported by her foundation.
In summer 2025, Lisa Batiashvili returns to the stage with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and cellist Gautier Capuçon.
Recording exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon, Batiashvili’s latest album Secret Love Letters was released in August 2022, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as Franck Sonata with Giorgi Gigashvili.
Her previous 2020 recording, City Lights, marks a musical journey that takes listeners around the world to eleven cities with an autobiographical connection with music ranging from Bach to Morricone, and Dvořák to Charlie Chaplin. A twelfth city was added in 2022 with the release of her single Desafinado, celebrating Rio de Janeiro. At the renowned Concert de Paris on Bastille Day in 2020 she performed the title track City Memories which was broadcast internationally.
An impressive discography also includes Visions of Prokofiev (Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Yannick Nézet-Séguin) which won an Opus Klassik Award and was shortlisted for the 2018 Gramophone Awards. Earlier recordings include the concertos of Tchaikovsky and Sibelius (Staatskapelle Berlin/Daniel Barenboim), Brahms (Staatskapelle Dresden/Christian Thielemann), and Shostakovich (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Esa-Pekka Salonen).
Bastiashvili has had DVD releases of live performances with Berliner Philharmoniker/Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Bartók’s Violin Concerto No.1) and with Gautier Capuçon, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann (Brahms’ Concerto for Violin and Cello).
She has won a number of awards: the MIDEM Classical Award, Choc de l’année, Accademia Musicale Chigiana International Prize, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival’s Leonard Bernstein Award and Beethoven-Ring. Batiashvili was named Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year in 2015, was nominated as Gramophone’s Artist of the Year in 2017, and in 2018 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Sibelius Academy (University of Arts, Helsinki).
Lisa was also Artistic Director of Audi Sommerkonzerte Ingolstadt for 4 years between 2019 and 2022. In 2025, she is honoured with the Kaiser Otto Prize of the city of Magedburg for her commitment against war and anti-semitism and for promoting the European idea.
Lisa lives in Berlin and plays a Joseph Guarneri “del Gesu” from 1739, generously loaned by a private collector.
Andrés Orozco-Estrada
Energy, elegance and spirit - that is what particularly distinguishes Andrés Orozco-Estrada as a musician. After a wonderful collaboration with the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai in May 2022, Andrés Orozco-Estrada is appointed the new principal conductor of the Rai Orchestra from the 23/24 season, whose 30th anniversary he will celebrate in October 24 with two festive concerts in Turin.
From the 2025/26 season, he will take up the position of GMD of the city of Cologne and Gürzenich Kapellmeister. Orozco-Estrada attaches great importance to inspiring all the people of Cologne with music and for music, and to representing and presenting Cologne as a city of music internationally. This season, a series of performances of Carmen will mark his opera-debut as GMD-designate.
Right at the beginning of the 24-25 season, Orozco-Estrada makes his debut with performances of ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’ at the Semperoper Dresden. Further debuts will take him to the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, the KBS Symphony Orchestra in Seoul and the Spanish National Orchestra (OCNE) in Madrid.
Orozco-Estrada has been re-invited to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Orchestre National de France, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and the radio orchestras of SWR, WDR and the DSO Berlin. He will also return to the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt (Principal Conductor 2014-2021) and the Houston Symphony Orchestra (Music Director 2014-2022).
Born in Medellín (Colombia), Andrés Orozco-Estrada began his musical education by playing the violin, receiving his first conducting lessons at the age of 15. In 1997 he moved to Vienna, where he was accepted into the conducting class of Uroš Lajovic, a student of the legendary Hans Swarowsky, at the renowned Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst.
Since October 2022, Orozco-Estrada has been professor of orchestral conducting at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts.
