Born in Milan, he completed his musical training at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory, graduating with highest honors in Choral Music, Choir Conducting, and Vocal Polyphonic Composition. He later earned a diploma in Composition and refined his conducting through advanced masterclasses abroad.
From 1998 to 2007, he was Chorus Master of the Giuseppe Verdi Symphony Choir in Milan, working with renowned conductors such as Riccardo Chailly, Claudio Abbado, Luciano Berio, Vladimir Jurowski, Christopher Hogwood, and Helmuth Rilling. Between 2016 and 2023, he held leadership roles at the Milan Symphony Orchestra and Choir Foundation, first as Artistic and Executive Director, then as General and Artistic Director. He now serves as Superintendent and Artistic Director of the Arturo Toscanini Foundation in Parma. His repertoire ranges from Baroque to contemporary music, with a focus on reviving overlooked Baroque gems. He has collaborated with institutions and festivals such as La Biennale di Venezia, Teatro alla Scala, Milano Musica, Teatro Real, RTSI Lugano, UiS Stavanger, the Enescu, Gluck, and MITO Festivals, and Wigmore Hall in London. For over twenty years, he led the Mailänder Kantorei, tied to Milan’s German community. In 2008, he founded laBarocca, a vocal and instrumental ensemble devoted to 17th- and 18th-century music, performing across Italy and Europe. Highlights include Wigmore Hall, Teatro Gerolamo, Enescu Festival, and a CIDIM-supported tour.
Since 2014, he has regularly conducted major liturgical celebrations at Milan Cathedral. laBarocca’s acclaimed recordings include Heroes in Love (2017), Bach’s Solo Cantatas for Bass (2018), and Zelenka’s Missa Omnium Sanctorum (2019).
Sandra Parr is the Artistic Planning Director (Orchestra and Ensembles) for the award-winning Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.
As well as overseeing the work of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, the Liverpool Philharmonic international Chamber Music Series and engaging all the conductors and artists who perform with the company, she has also coordinated over 40 international tours for the Orchestra around the world from Asia to USA, and all over Europe, as well planning dozens of the Orchestra’s many recordings.
Since joining the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in 1981, she has held several posts within the company including Head of Programming, Orchestra Director, and Concerts and Tours Manager before becoming Artistic Planning Director in 2012. Over that time, she has worked closely with ten Chief Conductors, including the appointment of the current Chief Conductor, Domingo Hindoyan.
Liverpool Philharmonic is proud of the work undertaken with young people through the company’s many engagements and has a keen interest in supporting young musicians. Last year Sandra delivered a reunion concert of the over 150 past players from the Merseyside / Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, which is administered by Liverpool Philharmonic, and which was conducted by one of their own alumni, Sir Simon Rattle.
Sandra is frequently in demand as an after-dinner speaker and as well as working with many international artists to give public talks when they are visiting Liverpool. Outside of her role in Liverpool Philharmonic, she has adjudicated at various competitions in London and at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK.
Han-Na Chang was born in December 1982 in Suwon, South Korea, and began cello lessons at age six. In 1993, her family moved to New York so she could study at the prestigious Juilliard School. Her most influential mentors included Mischa Maisky, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Giuseppe Sinopoli. At age 11, she won First Prize and the Contemporary Music Award at the 5th Rostropovich International Cello Competition in Paris (1994), judged unanimously by a jury led by Rostropovich, launching her international career. As a cellist, she has performed with top orchestras worldwide, including the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, La Scala Philharmonic, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestre National de France, Cleveland Orchestra, and Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras. Han-Na officially debuted as a conductor in 2007 at 24, shifting her career focus entirely to conducting. She served as Music Director of the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra (2013-14), Principal Guest Conductor (2013-17), and later Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Trondheim Symphony Orchestra & Opera. In 2009, she founded the Absolute Classic Festival in South Korea, directing it until 2014. Since 2022, she has been Principal Guest Conductor of the Symphoniker Hamburg and Music Director of the new annual “Han-Na Chang’s DaejeonGrandFestival,” inaugurated in November 2024. She regularly guest conducts major orchestras worldwide, including Rotterdam Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Vancouver Symphony, Singapore Symphony, Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, Vienna Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, and many others. In the 2024-25 season, she was scheduled to make her much-anticipated debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Her Warner Music recordings as a cellist were Grammy-nominated, won numerous awards, and remained bestsellers globally.
Born into a family of musicians in Shanghai, Lü Jia began studying piano and cello at a young age. He later pursued conducting studies at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing under the guidance of Maestro Zheng Xiaoying. At the age of twenty-four, he enrolled at the Berlin University of the Arts, where he continued his studies with Hans-Martin Rabenstein and Robert Wolf. The following year, in 1989, he won both the First Prize and the Jury Prize at the Antonio Pedrotti International Conducting Competition in Trento, Italy, marking the start of his conducting career. In 2017, Lü Jia was appointed Artistic and Musical Director of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) and Musical Director and Principal Conductor of the China NCPA Orchestra; he had previously served as Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of Opera at the same institution. He is currently also Musical Director and Principal Conductor of the Macao Orchestra and has formerly been Artistic Director of the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra in Spain. Lü Jia has conducted orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Münchner Philharmoniker, the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestre National de Lyon. He was also the first Chinese conductor to lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Previously, Lü Jia served as Artistic and Musical Director of the Arena di Verona, becoming the first Asian conductor to hold the position of Artistic Director at a major Italian opera institution. He has also been Principal Conductor of the Teatro Lirico di Trieste and has conducted productions at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, among others. In 2007, he was awarded the Prize of the President of the Italian Republic, presented by Giorgio Napolitano, for his contributions to Italian culture. In 2012, he was a member of the jury for Operalia, the international opera singing competition founded by Plácido Domingo.
Mónica Lorenzo was born in La Palma (Canary Islands). She holds a degree in Piano from the Conservatorio Superior de Música del País Vasco (Musikene), a Master’s in Classical and Contemporary Music Performance from the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC), a Master’s in Cultural Management
from the International University of Catalonia, and an Executive MBA from EAE Business School.
Over the last two decades she has established herself as a reputable manager in the cultural and artistic space. She started at Agencia Camera, one of the most internationally renowned classical music agencies. She joined the agency in 2011 as an artist manager, became Head of Artist Representation between 2015 and 2016, and subsequently served as General Director from 2016 to 2020.
In these roles, she managed prominent artists and organized international tours for major orchestras and conductors, working with renowned figures such as Valery Gergiev, Teodor Currentzis, Daniel Harding, Daniil Trifonov, Maria João Pires, and Pinchas Zukerman, among many others.
In 2020, she was appointed Artistic Coordinator of the Spanish National Orchestra and Choir (OCNE), an ensemble under the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM), based at the National Auditorium of Music in Madrid. In this position, she is responsible for planning and designing the concert seasons
in collaboration with the technical and musical directors, selecting repertoire, guest conductors, and soloists, and ensuring the artistic and logistical coherence of the programming.
As Vice President for Artistic Planning at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association(CSOA), Rocca is responsible for the design and execution of all artistic plans, developing innovative programmes and engaging guest artists for the Chicago Symphony, her role also includes supervision of the Symphony Center Presents series.
Working for more than ten years alongside Riccardo Muti, the CSO then Music Director, she has played an important role in enhancing the visibility of one of the most prestigious orchestras in the United States.
Prior to Chicago, she was artistic director of the Orchestre National de France (Radio France) and Director of Artistic Planning for the Cleveland Orchestra.
Born in Bologna, Rocca was Artistic Manager for the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg; Head of Concerts and Programming at the Bournemouth Symphony and Head of Artistic Planning for the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.
For a brief period, she was Artistic Director of the LPO, before she rejoined the CSOA. At the beginning of her career, she worked in the Artistic Administration of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and the Opera de Paris.
She has been on the jury of several international competitions and member of four committees for the search of a music director.
In 2020 she received the French Legion of Honor.
Since May 2023 she is on the Board of the Orchestre Français des Jeunes.
Marian van der Meer graduated with a double master’s degree from the University of Amsterdam; musicology and cultural sciences.
After working as a policy officer for a branch organization for the performing arts and as a host for a Dutch classical music radio broadcaster, she started working for the Concertgebouw.
Originally as an executive assistant of the director and editor of the Concertgebouw programme magazine and festival books on Mahler, Bruckner, Britten and Shostakovich, and in the long run as a programmer. She is responsible for the classical concerts and festivals in the Main Hall in the subscription season. She curates a.o. the international orchestra series, the soloist’s series, the choir series and the early music series. In addition, she initiated and curated numerous festivals and special projects.
A recent example is the Mahler Festival that took place in in May 2025 with the Berliner Philharmoniker, The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Besides her work as a programmer, she published programme notes and articles on classical music, and a book about the history of the famous Saturday afternoon series of the Dutch broadcasting company (‘De Matinee op de vrije zaterdag’).
She was also active in various boards and/or advisory committees of classical music institutions, like the Netherlands Youth String Orchestra.
She is a jury member for the Edison Award, an annual Dutch music prize awarded for outstanding achievements in the music industry, and De Ovatie, an annual award for the most impressive performance on the concert stage in The Netherlands.
