THE ARTISTS
CHRISTOPH ESCHENBACH
Music Director Designate of the National Symphony as well as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, Christoph Eschenbach is in demand as a guest conductor with the finest orchestras and opera houses throughout the world. Now in his 10th and final season as Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris, he was music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra from 2003 to 2008.
Highlights of Mr. Eschenbach’s current season include his first concerts with the National Symphony as Music Director Designate; tours with the London Philharmonic, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchestra, and the Staatskapelle Dresden; and engagements with the Wiener Philharmoniker, the Filarmonica della Scala, the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the Münchner Philharmoniker, the Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and the NDR Symphony, where he served as music director from 1998 to 2004. As a pianist, Mr. Eschenbach continues his collaboration with baritone Matthias Goerne, with whom he is recording Schubert’s three song cycles for the Harmonia Mundi label.
A prolific recording artist over five decades, Mr. Eschenbach has recorded as both a conductor and a pianist on labels including Deutsche Grammophon, Sony/BMG, Decca, Ondine, Warner, and Koch. His recent Ondine recording of the music of Kaija Saariaho with the Orchestre de Paris and soprano Karita Mattila won the 2009 MIDEM Classical Award in Contemporary Music.
Mentored by George Szell and Herbert von Karajan, Mr. Eschenbach held the posts of chief conductor and artistic director of the Tonhalle-Orchester from 1982 to 1986; music director of the Houston Symphony from 1988 to 1999; music director of the Ravinia Festival from 1994 to 2003; and artistic director of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival from 1999 to 2002. His many honors include the Légion d’honneur, Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the Officer’s Cross with Star and Ribbon of the German Order of Merit, and the Commander’s Cross of the German Order of Merit. He also received the Leonard Bernstein Award from the Pacific Music Festival, where he was co-artistic director from 1992 to 1998.
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