Maltese-Dutch conductor Lawrence Renes garners acclaim in both operatic and symphonic realms, delivering performances brimming with passion, nuance, and style.

The 2025/26 season includes returns to Finnish National Opera, Seattle and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, and debuts with the Korean National and Montreal Symphony Orchestras. Renes also makes his debut at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, leading Luca Guadagnino’s new production of John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer.

In recent seasons, Renes has appeared in the UK with the Philharmonia and the London Philharmonic Orchestras; in Europe with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de Lyon, Netherlands Radio and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestras, Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Residentie Orkest, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Stockholm, Oslo and Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestras; in Asia and Australasia with NHK, Tokyo Metropolitan and Singapore Symphony Orchestras, the Seoul Philharmonic and at the Seoul Arts Center International Music Festival, Melbourne, Sydney and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras; and in the Americas, OSESP in São Paulo, Minnesota Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, St Louis and New Jersey Symphony Orchestras among many others.

Formerly Music Director of the Royal Swedish Opera, Renes’ repertoire there ranged from Mozart through to the 21st Century. He is an energetic champion of contemporary repertoire and is particularly associated with the music of John Adams and George Benjamin. Recent operatic engagements have included Salomé for Finnish National Opera, and the premiere of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin with Shanghai Symphony Orchestra at the Beijing Music Festival, later followed by performances of the same production with the Orchestra of Santa Cecilia in Rome. He has also led productions at Dutch National Opera, English National Opera, La Monnaie, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera and Santa Fe Opera inter alia.

Víkingur Ólafsson is one of the most celebrated classical artists of our time; a unique and visionary musician who brings his profound originality to some of the greatest works in music history. His recordings resonate deeply with audiences around the world, reaching over one billion streams and winning numerous awards including the 2025 Grammy for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for his album of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, BBC Music Magazine Album of the Year and Opus Klassik Solo Recording of the Year (twice). Other notable honours include the Rolf Schock Music Prize, Gramophone’s Artist of the Year, the RPS Gold Medal, the Order of the Falcon (Iceland’s order of chivalry) and the Icelandic Export Award, given by the President of Iceland.

Ólafsson opens the 2026-27 season with a European tour with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Santtu-Matias Rouvali, three sold-out nights at London’s Wigmore Hall with his Opus 109 project – which he also tours across South Korea, China and Taiwan – and the release of his latest album on Deutsche Grammophon, Continuum II, of works by J.S. Bach. He also returns to the Berlin Philharmonic with Kirill Petrenko.

Complementing the album release in early 2027 of the same, After the Fall – the piano concerto written by John Adams expressly for Ólafsson – forms a central part of the season: he tours the work across Europe with London Symphony Orchestra and performs with New York Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Adams himself. Marking 10 years since the release of his first album on the Deutsche Grammophon label, Philip Glass: Piano Works, as well as celebrating the composer’s 90th birthday, in 2027 Ólafsson presents a new recital combining works by Glass, Debussy and Rameau. He tours the new programme widely, bringing it to the greatest concert halls across Europe, North America and Australia. May 2027 marks the second edition of Pulse, the festival created and curated by Ólafsson as part of the Lucerne Festival.