Jean-Guihen Queyras is one of the finest cellists performing today. His recordings of the complete Suites for solo cello by Bach are widely regarded as the best since Pablo Casals's recordings in the 1930s. As a soloist, he has performed with many of the world’s great orchestras, including the Philharmonia, Orchestre de Paris, Philadelphia, Tonhalle Zürich, Leipzig Gewandhaus, among others, and he and is a regular soloist with several early music ensembles such as Freiburg Baroque. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in New York in March 2004 and his BBC Proms debut - to unanimous acclaim - in 2008.

Alexander Melnikov graduated from the Moscow Conservatory and his career was much influenced by an early encounter with Sviatoslav Richter, who thereafter regularly invited him to festivals in Russia and France. As a soloist, Melnikov has performed with orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Philadelphia Orchestra, among others, and under conductors such as Mikhail Pletnev, Charles Dutoit, and Valery Gergiev.  His recording of the complete Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich was named by the BBC Music Magazine as one of the '50 Greatest Recordings of All Time'.  His superlative recording of the Schumann Piano Concerto with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra was a Gramophone 'Editor's Choice' for 2015.