After becoming the youngest-ever violin winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1990, Akiko Suwanai has lived up to her early promise with an impressive international career. She champions contemporary music to an unusual degree and has several Japanese and world concerto premieres to her credit.

Suwanai was born on February 7, 1972, in Tokyo. After receiving a high school degree and a soloist's diploma in Japan, she attended the Juilliard School in New York with support from Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs. Studying with Dorothy DeLay and Cho Liang-Lin and simultaneously completing a degree in the history of political thought at Columbia University, she went on for further study at the Berlin University of the Arts. After winning second prizes at the Paganini Competition and the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium in 1989, Suwanai went on to win first prize in violin at Moscow's International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1990; she was the youngest ever to win the contest. She also took home the Bach Best Performer Award and the Tchaikovsky Best Performer Award. Suwanai began to find major bookings in both Japan and the West. Some of the most important were with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, and the NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg.

To an unusual degree for a Japanese player, Suwanai has emphasized contemporary music in her career. She gave the Japanese premiere of the Krzysztof Penderecki Violin Concerto No. 2 ("Metamorphosen") at Tokyo's Suntory Hall in 1999, with Penderecki conducting, and followed that in 2007 with the world premiere of the Violin Concerto of Peter Eötvös. Suwanai has played and recorded traditional repertory with equal enthusiasm, and her 2006 recording of Bach's violin concertos topped the iTunes classical sales chart. Suwanai has recorded mostly for the Teldec, Decca, and Philips labels, but in 2020, she was heard on RCA Red Seal on a recording of Takemitsu works, with the NHK Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paavo Järvi. Suwanai plays the so-called "Dolphin" Stradivarius violin of 1714, an instrument once used by Jascha Heifetz. ~ James Manheim

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

Sakari Oramo is among the best known and most heavily recorded Finnish conductors on the international scene. He has received high praise for his interpretations of Finnish music, including the music of Sibelius, Kaija Saariaho, and Magnus Lindberg, and has championed the music of British composers such as John Foulds. Oramo is the conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Oramo was born in Helsinki on October 26, 1965. He trained as a violinist and, from his teens, played with the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra for seven years. He also performed as a member of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, eventually becoming the concertmaster. From 1989 to 1992, he studied conducting at the Sibelius Academy with Jorma Panula. He made his conducting debut with the Finnish Radio Symphony in a performance of the Brahms First Symphony in 1993 and enjoyed such success that he was appointed the orchestra's associate principal conductor that same year. Among his earliest recordings with the orchestra was a 1995 Ondine album of works by Uuno Klami.

In 1998, Oramo became the principal conductor and artistic director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and assumed the post of music director the following year; he held these positions until 2008. With the City of Birmingham Symphony, he was a prominent leader of the Elgar 150th birthday celebrations in 2007 and received an Elgar Medal for his advancement of the composer's music in 2008. During his tenure with the City of Birmingham Symphony, Oramo championed the music of little-known English composer John Foulds and conducted works by a wide array of British composers, including Britten, Vaughan Williams, and Walton. In 2003, he was elevated to principal conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony, where he remained until 2012. Oramo co-founded the Kokkola Opera in 2004 and served as principal conductor until the company closed in 2018. In 2005, he recorded Mahler's Fifth Symphony with the City of Birmingham Symphony, an effort that drew much critical acclaim.

In 2008, Oramo became the chief conductor and artistic advisor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, concluding his tenure there following the 2020-2021 season and taking the role of conductor laureate. Among Oramo's more lauded recordings with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic is the Nobel Prize Concert 2010, issued in 2011 on Accentus, featuring works by Beethoven, Sibelius, and Tchaikovsky. Following a successful guest conducting appearance in 2011, Oramo assumed the post of chief conductor and artistic director of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 2015. Oramo was featured on several albums in 2019, including the Chandos album Sibelius: Lemminkäinen Suite; Spring Song; Suite from Belshazzar's Feast, conducting the BBC Symphony, and an Ondine album of horn concertos with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, featuring Markus Maskuniitty. Oramo has continued his rigorous recording pace in the 2020s, leading the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra on a recording of Unsuk Chin's Piano Concerto with pianist Sunwook Kim in 2023. ~ Robert Cummings & Keith Finke