He won the Koussevitzky Prize in Tanglewood in 1958 and received the first prize at the Mitropoulos Competition in New York in 1963, which earned him the position of assistant to Leonard Bernstein. Herbert von Karajan invited Abbado to the Salzburg Festival in 1965, where he conducted the Vienna Philharmonic. In the following year, he made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic. From 1968 to 1986, Abbado was musical director of La Scala, Milan, where he established his reputation as an innovator keen to promote contemporary music and "Regietheater" (director's theater). He is also widely acclaimed for having opened the venue to a more-diverse audience. During his time at La Scala, Abbado's international career also flourished. He was chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra from 1979 to 1988, directed the Vienna State Opera from 1986 to 1991, and was appointed director of the Berlin Philharmonic in 1989. Abbado took over the leadership of the Salzburg Easter Festival in 1994. After leaving Berlin in 2002, he formed the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, which has played yearly since 2003.

Encouraging young musical talent is a cause close to Abbado's heart. In 1978, he was one of the founders of the European Community Youth Orchestra and later helped to set up the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. In 1986, he launched the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and, in 2004, the Orchestra Mozart. Abbado has received countless awards, including the Siemens-Musikpreis in 1994 and the Praemium Imperiale in 2003.

Conductor: Tan Dun

Tan is a famous composer known for his unusual artistic means, Orchestral Theatre Series and large amount of pieces in his works. He has won numerous honors including the top award of Bartók International Competition in 1987, World Excellent Composer, New Zealand in 1988, the top award of Yirino Yoshiro Composition Contest in 1990, BBC's Best Orchestral Album and the Best Classical Album by Japan Institute of Literature and Art in 2004, and the Best Original Score of the 73rd Academy Award in 2006. He has worked as a judge for the Munich International Opera Contest, Holland International Composition Contest, Taiwan International Composition Contest for Chinese Descent, and Rockefeller Composition Contest. His main works include: string quartet Feng?Ya?Song, multimedia Map, multimedia opera The Gate, Symphony 1997: Heaven Earth Mankind, and opera Tea, the Heart's Mirror and The First Emperor.

Piano Solo: Yuja Wang

Graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, the twenty-two year old Chinese pianist Yuja Wang is widely recognized for playing that combines the spontaneity and fearless imagination of youth with the discipline and precision of a mature artist. Regularly lauded for her controlled, prodigious technique, Yuja's command of the piano has been described as "astounding" and "superhuman", and she has been praised for her authority over the most complex technical demands of the repertoire, the depth of her musical insight, as well as her fresh interpretations and graceful, charismatic stage presence. This past season The Washington Post called her Kennedy Center recital debut "jaw-dropping" and following her San Francisco recital debut The San Francisco Chronicle wrote "The arrival of Chinese-born pianist Yuja Wang on the musical scene is an exhilarating and unnerving development. To listen to her in action is to re-examine whatever assumptions you may have had about how well the piano can actually be played."

In the few short years since her 2005 debut with the National Arts Center Orchestra led by Pinchas Zukerman, for which the Canadian press reported "a star is born," Yuja has already performed with many of the world's prestigious orchestras including the Baltimore Symphony, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Houston Symphony, New World Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the San Francisco Symphony, in the U.S., and abroad with the Tonhalle Orchestra, China Philharmonic, Nagoya Philharmonic and the NHK Symphony in Tokyo. In 2006 Yuja made her New York Philharmonic debut at the Bravo! Vail Music Festival and performed with the orchestra the following season under Lorin Maazel during the Philharmonic's Japan/Korea visit. Besides the States, Yuja will make her debut with the London Symphony Orchestra led by Michael Tilson-Thomas and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra led by Claudio Abbado.