Live Love & Fairy Tales
Rachmaninov & The Mermaid Fri 13 – Sat 14 February

German conductor Kevin John Edusei is sought-after the world over. He is praised repeatedly for the drama and tension in his music-making and the sense of architecture, warmth and insight that he brings to his performances. He is deeply committed to the creative elements of performance, presenting classical music in new formats, cultivating audiences and conducting an eclectic range of repertoire.

Highlights of Edusei’s 2024/25 season included debuts with the New York Philharmonic, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan Philharmonic Orchestra and at the Musikverein with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. His return engagements included the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra at the Concertgebouw and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in his final season as Principal Guest Conductor. A strong advocate of contemporary music, Edusei’s carefully curated programmes across the 24/25 season included premieres of works by Hannah Kendall, Thomas Larcher, Samy Moussa, Brian Nabors, Derrick Skye and Gabriella Smith.

Edusei is a regular guest conductor across the world with orchestras including the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony and Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He has a long-standing relationship with the Chineke! Orchestra with whom he performed this season at London’s South Bank Centre, Konzerthaus Berlin, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and at BOZAR, Brussels. Edusei is the former Chief Conductor of the Munich Symphony Orchestra and the Bern Opera House.

In Autumn 2022, Edusei made his debut at the Royal Opera House conducting Puccini’s La bohème, which was streamed across cinemas world-wide, and in 2023/24 he returned for a production of Madama Butterfly. Previously he has enjoyed great success with productions at the Semperoper Dresden, English National Opera, Hamburg State Opera, Volksoper Wien and Komische Oper Berlin. During his tenure at the Bern Opera House, he led highly acclaimed new productions including Peter Grimes, Ariadne auf Naxos, Salome, Bluebeard’s Castle, Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde, Kátya Kábanová and a cycle of the Mozart-Da-Ponte operas.

Born in Bielefeld, Germany, Edusei studied sound engineering, classical percussion and orchestral conducting at the University of the Arts Berlin and the Royal Conservatory The Hague with Jac van Steen and Ed Spanjaard. In 2004 he was awarded a conducting fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival by David Zinman, in 2007 he was a prize-winner at the Lucerne Festival conducting competition under the artistic direction of Pierre Boulez and in 2008 he won the first prize of the Dimitri Mitropoulos Competition in Athens. Edusei is an alumnus of the Deutsche Bank Akademie Musiktheater heute and the Dirigentenforum of the German Music Council. He resides with his family in Munich.

See Kevin John Edusei conduct Love & Fairy Tales: Rachmaninov & The Mermaid with the RSNO on 12, 13 & 14 February 2026.

Makoto Ozone is a unique force in both jazz and classical music, blending sound worlds and a host of influences into his performances. Born in Kobe, Japan, he was self-taught in jazz, under his father’s guidance, first on the organ, then piano. He first came to public attention when he gave his solo recital at the Carnegie Hall in 1983, following his graduation from Berklee College of Music. Makoto then became the first Japanese artist to sign an exclusive contract with CBS and released his first album, Ozone, a year after his Carnegie debut.

His stellar career in jazz, which earned him a Grammy nomination in 2003, has brought him regularly to the forefront of the international jazz scene, recording and touring with musicians such as Gary Burton, Chick Corea, Paquito D’Rivera, Anna Maria Jopek, Branford Marsalis, and others. In 2004, he formed his own big band in Japan, No Name Horses, which has regularly toured to Europe, North America and Asia since its creation.  In more recent years, Makoto has expanded into classical repertoire, alongside his jazz engagements. Having first performed Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue in 1996, he now performs concertos by Mozart, Bernstein, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Rachmaninov with major orchestras. Alongside his performing schedule, Makoto composes music, with over 300 pieces to his name, many for No Name Horses, as well as a symphony and piano concerto.

In 2014, Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic invited Makoto to join their Asian tour. Following this, he performed with the orchestra at the Lincoln Center, New York, in 2014 and again in 2017, from which a recording Beyond Borders with performances of Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue and Bernstein The Age of Anxiety was released. He has collaborated with a prestigious list of conductors including François-Xavier Roth, Marin Alsop, Alan Gilbert, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Lahav Shani, Thomas Zehetmair and Charles Dutoit and orchestras including San Francisco Symphony, Sao Paulo Symphony, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, as well as many orchestras in Japan, such as the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra and Sapporo Symphony.

In the 2024/25 season, Ozone made his debut with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, performing the European premiere of his own piano concerto Mogami. He also performed with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Lahav Shani, both in Rotterdam and at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, with the Oregon Symphony and Kevin John Edusei, and was the featured soloist at the Philharmonie Essen for their New Year’s concert, as well as performances at Chopin and His Europe Festival in Warsaw and Melbourne International Jazz Festival.

Recent highlights include performances with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic at Hollywood Bowl, WDR Big Band, a collaboration project with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, as well as a year-long residency with the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra. Ozone collaborates with a prestigious list of conductors including Marin Alsop, Bertie Baigent, Jader Bignamini, Kevin John Edusei, Alan Gilbert, Jun Maerkl, Lahav Shani, Kahchun Wong and Kazuki Yamada.

Makoto Ozone has an extensive discography, releasing over 30 albums under his name and as a composer in solo, duo and trio settings, as well as performing as a collaborator on many others. January 2024 saw the hugely successful release of Makoto’s latest album Trinfinity (Universal Music), featuring Shimpei Ogawa on bass and Kunito Kitai on drums.

Makoto’s many awards include the Kinokuniya Theatre Award (2000), Kobe City Culture Award (2005), Fumio Nanri Prize (2007), Hyogo Prefecture Culture Award (2009), Art Encouragement of Education, Culture, Sports, Science Minister’s Prize (2014). In 2018, Makoto received the Medal of Honour with Purple Ribbon by the Government of Japan. This is Japan’s highest award to individuals who have made significant contributions to the nation’s academic or cultural life.

See Makoto Ozone perform Love & Fairy Tales: Rachmaninov & The Mermaid with the RSNO on 12, 13 & 14 February 2026.