James Ehnes was born in 1976 in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. He began violin studies at the age of four, at age nine he became a protégé of the noted Canadian violinist Francis Chaplin. He studied with Sally Thomas at the Meadowmount School of Music, then in 1993 at The Juilliard School. He graduated from Julliard in 1997, winning the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music.

Vassily Sinaisky has been Chief Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic since 1996 and is a regular and popular visitor to the BBC Proms each summer. Sinaisky’s international career was launched in 1973 when he won the Gold Medal at the prestigious Karajan Competition in Berlin. His early work as Assistant to the legendary Kondrashin at Moscow Philharmonic, and his study with Ilya Musin at the Leningrad Conservatoire provided him with an incomparable grounding.