Christoph von Dohnányi

Christoph von Dohnányi is recognised as one of the world's pre-eminent orchestral and opera conductors. In addition to guest engagements with the major opera houses and orchestras of Europe and North America, his appointments have included opera directorships in Frankfurt and Hamburg as well as principal orchestral conducting posts in Germany, London and Paris.

In the 2005/06 season, Christoph von Dohnányi is returning to his home town of Hamburg to become Chief Conductor of the NDR Sinfonieorchester. He leads the orchestra in subscription concerts in Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck, and on tour throughout Germany, Italy and Switzerland. He continues as Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonia Orchestra, having been Principal Guest Conductor since 1994. He leads the orchestra in London’s Royal Festival Hall in subscription concerts and on tour throughout England.

Highlights of last season include a tour with the London Philharmonia with performances in New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Amsterdam, Budapest, Vienna and Bruges. Maestro von Dohnányi and the Philharmonia have developed a successful collaboration with the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris where they performed Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten, Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron, Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, Strauss’s Die Schweigsame Frau and Arabella, among others. Maestro von Dohnányi also returned to the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia and the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, and led performances of Fidelio at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and subscription weeks with the Boston Symphony.

In recent seasons he led the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the city's new Disney Hall, the Chicago Symphony at Orchestra Hall and Ravinia, and performances with London's Philharmonia Orchestra in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Mr. von Dohnányi completed his tenure as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra in 2002, a post he assumed in 1984. During those years, he led the orchestra in a thousand concerts, fifteen international tours, twenty-four premieres, and recorded over a hundred works. Mr. von Dohnányi was named Music Director Laureate in Cleveland in 2002/03, and in that season made triumphant guest appearances in Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago and New York.

Maestro von Dohnányi has frequently conducted at the world's great opera houses, including Covent Garden, La Scala, Vienna State Opera, Berlin, and Paris. He has been a frequent guest conductor with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival, leading the world premieres of Henze's Die Bassariden and Cerha's Baal. Mr. Dohnányi returned to Salzburg in the summer of 2001 for a new production of Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, and in October 2001 he conducted Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten at Covent Garden. Mr. Dohnányi also appears with the Zurich Opera, where in recent years he conducted Strauss's Die Schweigsame Frau, a double bill of Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex and Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle, and new productions of Verdi's A Masked Ball and Berg's Wozzeck.

Maestro von Dohnányi has made many critically acclaimed recordings for London/Decca with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic. With Vienna, he has recorded a variety of symphonic works and a number of operas, including Beethoven's Fidelio, Berg's Wozzeck and Lulu, Schoenberg's Erwartung, Strauss' Salome, and Wagner's The Flying Dutchman. With the Cleveland Orchestra, his large and varied discography includes concert performances and recordings of Wagner's Die Walküre and Das Rheingold, the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann, symphonies by Bruckner, Dvorak, Mahler, Mozart, Schubert and Tchaikovsky, and among many others, works by Bartók, Berlioz, Ives, Varèse and Webern.