Anja Bihlmaier’s musical intuition, charisma, and passion allied with precision make her one of the leading conductors of her generation. She has been Chief Conductor of the Residentie Orkest since August 2021.

In 2024/25 she conducts the Munich Philharmonic, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Bergen Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Spanish National Orchestra, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia. She returns to the National Symphony in Dublin for Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 and takes the Residentie Orkest to Bonn for the start of her three-year residency at the Beethovenfest. In June 2025 she will conduct a new production at the Berlin State Opera.

Following her BBC Proms début in 2023, she returns in 2024, again with the BBC Philharmonic but also bringing Glyndebourne’s production of Carmen after performances at the main festival throughout August. Notable débuts in the past season have included: London Philharmonic, Wiener Symphoniker, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, and at Salzburg’s Mozartwoche.

Bihlmaier has a wide-ranging repertoire that includes Haydn, Mahler, R. Strauss, B. A. Zimmermann, Sibelius, Bartók, Dvořák, Shostakovich, Debussy, Britten, Galina Ustvolskaya, and Unsuk Chin.

Bihlmaier gained many years of experience through positions in Hanover, Chemnitz, and Kassel, and guest conducting at the Vienna Volksoper and across Scandinavia, notably in Malmo (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Trondheim (Faust), Tampere (Fliegender Hollaender) and Oslo (La traviata).

After studying at the Freiburg Hochschule für Musik with Scott Sandmeier, Bihlmaier was awarded a scholarship at Mozarteum University Salzburg and went on to study with Dennis Russell Davies and Jorge Rotter. She was accepted into the Deutsche Dirigentenforum and received a scholarship from the Brahmsgesellschaft Baden-Baden.

Eric Abramovitz joined the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 2018 as Associate Principal and E-flat Clarinet, and was appointed Principal Clarinet in 2021. Prior to joining the TSO, he held positions with the Nashville Symphony and the Santa Barbara Symphony. Recently featured on the CBC’s “30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30” list, Abramovitz won first prize at the Vandoren Emerging Artist Competition in 2017. Also a first-prize winner at the OSM Standard Life Competition in 2011, he has been featured as a soloist with numerous orchestras including the McGill and USC Symphonies, l’Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. A versatile musician, Abramovitz enjoys playing klezmer and jazz music whenever he can, and, in the 2022/23 season, he made his solo début with the TSO, not only on clarinet, but also on saxophone.

Abramovitz was a Sylva Gelber Career Grant recipient in 2016, and has toured throughout Japan and South Korea with the New York Symphonic Ensemble and l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, respectively. A Montreal native, Abramovitz obtained his bachelor’s degree at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music, and pursued graduate studies at the University of Southern California. Abramovitz’s teachers include Zaven Zakarian, Alain Desgagné, Robert Crowley, Simon Aldrich, Jean-François Normand, Kimball Sykes, and Yehuda Gilad.