Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

David Afkham is Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Orquestra y Coro Nacional de España since September 2019, following a highly successful tenure as the orchestra’s Principal Conductor since 2014. His work with the OCNE so far has featured critically acclaimed performances of Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, Mahler’s Symphony No. 6, Bruckner Symphony No. 9, Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, Brahms’ Requiem, Haydn’s Die Schöpfung, as well as several world premieres and semi- staged projects with Wagner’s Die fliegende Holländer,   Strauss’ Elektra,   Bach’s St.   Mathew   Passion and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle. Born in Freiburg, Germany, in 1983, David Afkham is in high demand as a guest conductor with some of the world’s finest orchestras and opera houses, and has established a reputation as one of the most sought after conductors to emerge from Germany in recent years.

Future highlights as a guest conductor include debuts with the Belgian National Orchestra, Münchner Philharmoniker, the Symphony Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona) as well as return invitations to the Copenhagen Philharmonic and NDR Elbphilharmonie.

As an opera conductor, David Afkham made a noted debut at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 2014, with Verdi’s La Traviata, later reviving the production for performances around the UK and Ireland for Glyndebourne on Tour. In 2017, he conducted Ginastera’s Bomarzo at Teatro Real in Madrid in a new production by Pierre Audi, to unanimous critical acclaim, and leading to an immediate re-invitation. In season 18/19 he made his German opera debut at Frankfurt Opera with Humperdinck’s Hänsel&Gretel, followed by Stuttgart Opera with Wagner’s Die fliegende Holländer. He opened his 19/20 season at Theater an der Wien with Dvorak’s Rusalka and is looking forward to productions of Strauss’ Arabella and Wagner’s Meistersinge at the Teatro Real Madrid.

David Afkham began piano and violin lessons at the age of six in his native Freiburg. At 15, he entered the city’s University of Music to pursue studies in piano, music theory and conducting and continued his studies at the Liszt School of Music in Weimar. David Afkham was the first recipient of the ‘Bernard Haitink Fund for Young Talent’ and assisted Maestro Bernard Haitink in a number of major projects including symphony cycles with the Chicago Symphony, Concertgebouworkest and London Symphony Orchestra. He was the winner of the 2008 Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London, and was the inaugural recipient of the ‘Nestle and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award’ in 2010. He and was Assistant Conductor of the Gustav Mahler Jungendorchester 2009-2012.

Highlights among David’s guest conducting projects to date include the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the 2016 and 2017 Tanglewood festivals, the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, DSO-Berlin, Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestre National de France, Gothenburg Symphony, Swedish radio Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as the Mostly Mozart Festival New York, tours with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Deutscher Kammerphilharmonie and Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and regular appearances at the Musikverein, Vienna with the Wiener Symphoniker and the Gustav Mahler Jungendorchester.

Christian Tetzlaff has been one of the most sought-after violinists and exciting musicians on the classical music scene for many years. With an extensive repertoire and equally at home in Classical, Romantic and contemporary repertoire, he sets new standards with his interpretations of the concerti of Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Berg and Ligeti, and is renowned for his innovative chamber music projects and performances of Bach solo repertoire. He frequently turns his attention to forgotten masterpieces, such as Joseph Joachim’s Violin Concerto which he successfully championed, while attempting to bring new works to the mainstream repertoire such as Jörg Widmann’s Violin Concerto, which he premiered in 2013.

Tetzlaff follows the musical manuscript as closely as possible, foregoing standard performance tradition and without indulging in usual technical short-cuts on the instrument, which often allows a renewed clarity and richness to develop in works that are already well-known to audiences.

A former Artist-in-Residence with Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Berliner Philharmoniker, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and hr-Sinfonieorchester, this 2020/21 season Tetzlaff shares his artistic ideas as Artist-in-Residence with London Symphony Orchestra. In November 2020 he performs at the Artist Portrait concert series with Susanna Mälkki.

Further engagements in the 2020/21 season include tours to Australia and the U.S. as well as a tour with Bundesjugendorchester, Kammerakademie Potsdam and invitations from Budapest Festival Orchestra, Mozart Orchestra Lugano and Orchestre National de Belgique.

His recordings have received numerous awards such as the Gramophone Classical Music Award in 2018 for his album of Bartók’s concerti Nos.1&2 with Hannu Lintu and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. His most recent recording for the label Ondine of Beethoven and Sibelius violin concerti with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Robin Ticciati, released in the autumn 2019, immediately received a mention as Album of the Month in Gramophone Magazine. Other awards include a Diapason d’Or and the Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik in 2018, Midem Classical in 2017, the Edison, and several Grammy nominations. His discography includes violin concerti by Dvořák, Mozart, Lalo, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Jörg Widmann; Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Mambo Blues and Tarantella; violin sonatas by Mozart, Bartók, Schumann and Brahms; and of special significance, Bach’s complete solo Sonatas and Partitas, which he recorded three times over the years, the latest having been released in September 2017.

Chamber music is as an important facet of his musical life as his work as a soloist, with and without the orchestra. Christian founded the Tetzlaff Quartett in 1994, which received the Diapason d’Or in 2015, while the trio with his sister Tanja Tetzlaff and pianist Lars Vogt was nominated for a Grammy award. The Tetzlaff Quartett tours extensively every year and in the 2020/21 season will perform amongst others at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris.

Born in Hamburg in 1966, Christian Tetzlaff studied at the Lübeck Conservatory with Uwe-Martin Haiberg and in Cincinnati with Walter Levin.

He plays a violin by German maker Peter Greiner and teaches regularly at the Kronberg Academy, near Frankfurt.