René Jacobs
René Jacobs was born on October 30, 1946. He is a musician from Belgium. He first became famous as a countertenor, which is a type of male singer with a high voice.
Marc Minkowski
Marc Minkowski was born on October 4, 1962. He is a French conductor who is especially known for performing classical music from the French Baroque period. From 2013 to 2017, he served as the musical director of Mozartwoche in Salzburg, Austria.
Christopher Hogwood
Christopher Jarvis Haley Hogwood CBE (10 September 1941 – 24 September 2014) was an English conductor, harpsichordist, and musicologist. He started the early music group called the Academy of Ancient Music. He was an expert in historically informed performance and played a key role in the early music revival during the late 20th century.
Roger Norrington
Sir Roger Arthur Carver Norrington (16 March 1934 – 18 July 2025) was an English conductor. He was most famous for performing music from the baroque, classical, and romantic periods using methods that followed historical practices. His performances often used vibrato very little and applied historical techniques to modern orchestras.
John Eliot Gardiner
Sir John Eliot Gardiner was born on April 20, 1943. He is an English conductor who is well known for performing the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. He led a special project in 2000 called the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage.
Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Johann Nikolaus Harnoncourt was born on December 6, 1929, and died on March 5, 2016. He was an Austrian conductor who performed music in a way that closely followed historical practices. He was especially known for his work with music from the Baroque era, but later also performed music from the Classical and early Romantic periods.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Yannick Nézet-Séguin (born Yannick Séguin on March 6, 1975) is a Canadian conductor and pianist. He is the music director of the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montréal, the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. From 2008 to 2018, he was the principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.
Kirill Petrenko
Kirill Garrievich Petrenko (Russian: Кирилл Гарриевич Петренко; Latin script: Kirill Garrievič Petrenko) was born on February 11, 1972. He is a conductor from Russia and Austria. He currently serves as the chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic.
Andris Nelsons
Andris Nelsons OBE was born on November 18, 1978. He is a conductor from Latvia. Currently, he serves as the music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.
Paavo Järvi
Paavo Järvi (pronounced “PAH-voh YAR-vee” in Estonian; born December 30, 1962) is a conductor from Estonia and the United States. He currently works as the main conductor and music leader of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, as the artistic director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and as the founder and artistic director of the Estonian Festival Orchestra.