Khatia Buniatishvili & Friends Digital Programme

The versatile, multilingual European actress Amira Casar trained at the Paris Conservatoire. She has over 80 acclaimed films to her name, alongside TV productions, theatre and musical productions, podcasts and radio plays, as well as appearing in leading national theatres, stages and festivals around the world.

Her musical work includes the title-role in Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher at the Barbican with Marin Alsop and the London Symphony Orchestra (2011), Medea in Cherubini’s Médée at the Salzburg Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic (2019), and in Purcell’s The Indian Queen with Teodor Currentzis and Peter Sellars (2023), the latter of which she has toured this season to Paris, Antwerp and Berlin. Next season she will narrate Honegger’s Le Roi David with the Choeur de Radio France at the Maison de la Radio in Paris.

On stage, she has performed iconic roles such as Petra in The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Hedda in Hedda Gabler and Mindy in Aunt Dan and Lemon at the Almeida Theatre. At Paris’s Odéon Theatre, she starred in Les Enfants de Saturne and as Olga in Three Sisters. Her portrayal of Goneril in King Lear at the 2015 Festival d’Avignon was widely praised, and she returned to the festival last year to portray the Spanish mystical saint Teresa of Avila.

Her film credits include The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes by the Quay Brothers, Catherine Breillat’s Anatomie de l’enfer and Thomas Gilou’s trilogy La Vérité si je mens!, which earned her a César nomination. 

On the television screen Amira Casar has appeared as Edith Frank in A Small Light (2023), Perle Foster in La Maison (2024), Kristina in 40 (2003) and as Daria in Rebecca Zlotowski’s series Les sauvages. Her podcasts include Batman Autopsie and L’Amie Prodigieuse. In 2015 she was awarded the Académie Charles Cros Prize for best actress for her audiobook recording of Nobel prize-winner Alice Munro’s novel Too much happiness and was honoured with the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2016.

One of the most beloved and celebrated opera stars of this decade, Jakub Józef Orliński has established himself as one of the world’s leading artists. His sold-out concerts and recitals throughout Europe and America have attracted new followers to the art form. He is an exclusive artist on the Warner Classics/Erato label; his recent recording, Farewell, earned him an OPUS Klassik award for Male Singer of the Year (2023); he followed this with the album Beyond. 

He has a global fanbase with hundreds of thousands of social media followers and has worked as a model and influencer with international brands including Netflix, Louis Vuitton, Levi’s, Nike, BMW, Lacoste and MAC Cosmetics. He is also an accomplished breakdancer.

Previous season highlights include European and American tours of his album Beyond with Il Pomo d’Oro; he also returned to the operatic stage at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, in Jean-Christophe Spinosi’s new production of Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade; and collaborated with pianist Michał Biel for recitals throughout Europe.

This season he has continued to tour extensively with Il Pomo d’Oro, including appearances at the Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival, Peterskirche Basel, Wigmore Hall, NTGent Schouwburg Ghent, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and in Asia. His new project #LetsBaRock with Aleksander Dębicz was launched at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, as well as being performed in Berlin. He has also sung the role of Ottone (Agrippina) at Zurich Opera House and performed oratorios by Pergolesi and Handel. 

Jakub Józef Orliński’s discography continues to expand to new horizons, with Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice marking his directorial debut, while his newest album reimagines Baroque music with pop instruments including drums and bass guitar.

Sodi Braide is a cosmopolitan artist, influenced by numerous cultures. Currently living in Paris, he performs recitals and chamber concerts in France, the UK, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Spain, Luxemburg, Romania and the US (notably in the Ravinia ‘Rising Stars’ and the ‘Dame Myra Hess’ concert series). He was invited to perform in South Africa in 1994, becoming one of the first black African pianists to perform there after the end of apartheid, and has also toured extensively in Latin America). 

Born in the UK to Nigerian parents, he started playing the piano at the age of 3 and continuing his studies back in Nigeria, where he came to the attention of French pianist Eric Heidsieck during a competition organised by the Musical Society of Nigeria. This led to further studies in France, at the Paris Conservatoire, and later in Madrid. He participated in masterclasses by leading figures including Leon Fleisher, Fou Ts’ong, Andreas Staier, Alicia de Larrocha and Charles Rosen. He has won numerous prizes and awards, including at international competitions such as Pretoria, South Africa, Leeds and Van Cliburn.

Sodi Braide is an avid chamber music performer. He has also appeared with orchestras such as the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Paris International Philharmonic Orchestra, Toulouse Capitole Orchestra and Caracas National Philharmonic Orchestra. He took part in the 2003 DVD recording of Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals, narrated by Pierre Arditi, and has also released an album of solo piano music by Franck. He teaches piano at the Geneva Conservatory of Music.

Mezzo-soprano Axelle Saint-Cirel captured global attention with her rendition of La Marseillaise  during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.  

She is a graduate of the Paris Conservatoire and has been selected as one of 14 participants for the prestigious Salzburg Young Singers Project this summer and will perform as part of this year’s Salzburg Festival.

Next season she makes debuts at the Wexford Festival singing Watawa in Delius’s The Magic Fountain, at Opéra national de Bordeaux singing Second Lady in The Magic Flute and at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in the role of Maria in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. She also appears as a recitalist at Opéra national de Bordeaux, Festival des heures musicales de Biot and Festival International de Musique Saint-Georges as well as, under the auspices of Opera for Peace, with the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra.

Performance experience so far includes roles in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges under the direction of Kazuki Yamada at Opéra de Monte-Carlo; a trilogy of Bernstein’s musicals Trouble in Tahiti, West Side Story and Wonderful Town; the title-role in Carmen at Opéra d’Avignon; and Nicklausse in The Tales of’Hoffmann.

Axelle Saint-Cirel represented France at Opera for Peace’s 2023 Academy and was named an Emerging Artist for the 2024–25 season. She has won the international Gordes Melody, the Nuits Lyriques de Marmande and Voix des Outre-mer competitions and was a finalist of the 2023 Génération Opéra programme.  

She has attended masterclasses given by  Anne Sofie von Otter, Barbara Frittoli, Stéphane Fuget, Brian Jagde, Sumi Jo and Sophie Koch and, by special invitation of Sabine Devieilhe, joined her for a programme of Mozart concert arias at Salle Gaveau.

Axelle Saint-Cirel has experience in both jazz and musical theatre alongside her core opera training.