Yuuko Shiokawa
was born in Tokyo and took up the violin at the age of five. After moving with her family to Peru, she continued her musical studies in Lima with Eugen Cremer, formerly a member of the Berlin Philharmonic. At 15, she came to Germany, where she studied with William Stross and Sándor Végh. Hans Rosbaud, one of her early supporters, introduced her to Rafael Kubelik, who was to become her mentor.

She played her first concert under Kubelik in 1965, subsequently also working with Herbert von Karajan, Herbert Blomsted and other leading conductors. Yuuko Shiokawa has given concerts with many orchestras including the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, the London Symphony, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo. Her multi- faceted chamber music activities have included solo recitals world-wide, sonata evenings with Bruno Canino and András Schiff and performance cycles of the collected sonatas for violin and piano of W.A. Mozart. Yuuko Shiokawa is also a member of the Cappella Andrea Barca, founded by András Schiff in 1999.

András Schiff
was born in Budapest, Hungary and started piano lessons at the age of five with Elisabeth Vadász. Subsequently he continued his studies at the Franz Liszt Academy with Professor Pál Kadosa, György Kurtág and Ferenc Rados, and later in London with George Malcolm.

Recitals and special cycles, including the major keyboard works of J.S. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann and Bartók form an important part of his activities. Since 2004 he has performed complete cycles of the 32 Beethoven Sonatas worldwide and the cycle in the Tonhalle Zurich was recorded live for ECM New Series. His recordings of works by Schubert, Schumann, Janáček, Beethoven and Bach, have been released to the highest of critical acclaim. In 2016 ECM released Encores after Beethoven: a collection of encores performed after his Beethoven Cycle programs.

András Schiff has worked with most major international orchestras and conductors, but in recent years has performed mainly as a conductor and soloist. His chamber orchestra, the Cappella Andrea Barca, consists of international soloists, chamber musicians and friends. In addition to international tours with this orchestra, he works with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

He appears as conductor and soloist with the New York Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony this season, in addition to over a dozen recitals in two North American visits. His other concert performances bring him to Europe, Australia, Japan, China, and South America.

From 1989-1998 András Schiff was Artistic Director of the "Musiktage Mondsee" chamber music festival near Salzburg. In 1995, together with Heinz Holliger, he founded the “Ittinger Pfingstkonzerte” in Koartause Ittingen, Switzerland. In 1998 he started a similar series, entitled "Hommage to Palladio" at the Teatro Olimpico in Vizenza.

András Schiff's book, Musik kommt aus der Stille, essays and conversations with Martin Meyer, was published in March 2017 by Bärenreiter and Henschel.