Maria Badstue works as a guest conductor throughout the Nordic Region with symphony orchestras including the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Kristiansand Symphony, Helsingborg Symphony and Malmö Symphony. She was recently chosen by the prestigeous TAKI Concordia Fellowship as a TAKI Award Recipient and will receive ongoing support from Marin Alsop in Baltimore and Vienna. She is well known in Denmark through past engagements with Odense Symphony, Danish National Chamber Orchestra, Aalborg Symphony and Copenhagen Phil. In 2018 she made her Swedish debut with 14 performances of Massenet´s DON QUIXOTE at FolkOperan. She made her opera debut in 2012 with the production of ANGELO – LA OPERA by Lars Klit in Copenhagen, and in 2015 she was invited to conduct the production of A DOLL ́S HOUSE by John Frandsen with Athelas Sinfonietta. She also assisted Michael Boder with Hindemith ́s CARDILLAC at Wiener Staatsoper. In the summer of 2017 Maria was invited to conduct IL MATRIMONIO SEGRETO at the Royal Opera House of Mumbai. Maria was mentored by Jorma Paula and she earned her masters degree in 2014 with Jukka Pekka Saraste and Ole Kristian Ruud at the Norwegian State Academy. She attended influential masterclasses with Bernhard Haitink and assisted Esa-Pekka Salonen with the Philharmonia Orchestra. In 2012 she founded Nordic Masterclass with Jorma Panula and South Denmark Philharmonic serving as artistic director and teaching assistant.

Originally a native of Chicago, Emma Steele performs both nationally and internationally as a soloist and as part of chamber ensembles. Steele currently holds position as one of the concertmasters of the Royal Danish Orchestra (Det Kongelige Kapel) in Copenhagen. Steele has participated and won awards in many competitions, including in the Sibelius International Violin Competition where she became a finalist and received the Young Talent Prize. She has also received the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts Silver Award, the WAMSO Elaine Louise Lagerstrom Memorial Violin Award, and a study grant from the International Pablo de Sarasate Violin Competition 2009. She also became a finalist and Silver Prize winner in the prestigious Irving M. Klein International String Competition 2012 in San Francisco. She has a Bachelor’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University where she studied with Cyrus Forough, and continued her studies at the Curtis Institute of Music with Aaron Rosand.

The Danish concert pianist Christina Bjørkøe was born in Copenhagen in 1970. At the age of 19, she was accepted by the Juilliard School of Music in New York where she studied with Seymour Lipkin, as later with Anne Øland at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. She received her first musical training from Therese Koppel. At the age of 16, Christina Bjørkøe was already performing as a soloist with an orchestra. She has appeared as a soloist, with orchestral engagements and as chamber musician at venues in Denmark, including the Tivoli Concert Hall’s major Beethoven, Chopin and Schubert series, as well as in Sweden, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Croatia, Poland, France, South America, China, USA, and many domestic venues. Christina Bjørkøe is an associate professor at the Danish National Academy of Music.