Christoph Campestrini, conductor
The Austrian conductor Christoph Campestrini received his musical education in the United States He studied in New York at The Juilliard School and simultaneously also majored in philosophy and languages at Columbia University. In addition to German and English he speaks Italian, French, Russian and Spanish.
Following his studies at Juilliard he was the only European representative admitted to the founding class of the prestigious Yale University / Affiliate Artists Conducting Program, where he had the possibility to work with prominent conductors such a Lorin Maazel, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Kurt Sanderling.
After his return to Europe he started an active international career, conducting more than 80 Symphony Orchestras on all 5 continents. Among them are the London Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Sinfonie Orchester Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Cologne Radio Symphony, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Moscow Radio Symphony, Prague Radio Symphony, Prague Philharmonia, Vienna Radio Symphony, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Orchestre Lamoureux Paris, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre National de Lorraine, Philharmonia Hungarica, Xalapa Symphony (Mexiko), Israel Sinfonietta and many others.
He has worked together with soloists such as Gidon Kremer, Julian Rachlin, Rudolf Buchbinder, Sharon Kam, Julia Fischer and Emmanuel Pahud.
Christoph Campestrini has served as 1.Kapellmeister (Principal Conductor) at the prestigious Essen Aalto Musiktheater and the Essen Philharmonic Orchestra, where he conducted more than 100 performances of 15 different operas. Other opera credits include the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf/Duisburg, Zagreb National Opera, Austin Lyric Opera and The Hongkong Opera Academy.
In Europe he maintains a permanent relationship with the Czech State Philharmonic Brno, which he conducts in several programs each season as well as on tour, in addition to working with orchestras such as the Camerata Salzburg, Bruckner Orchestra Linz and the Slovak Philharmonic.
In Asia Christoph Campestrini has undertaken several tours with The Hongkong Academy to China, Vietnam and Thailand as well as to Europe. In Korea he has repeatedly appeared in concert with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and in Japan his opera debut in a new production of "Rusalka" by Dvorak will take place in September 2007.
A new center of his musical actvities leads him frequently to North America where he has appeared with orchestras such as the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), Colorado Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Omaha Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Honolulu Symphony and the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago.
2007/08 promises to become a particularily important season in the US and Canada including major subscription debuts with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, The Florida Orchestra and Texas Music Festival. In addition, after his successful debut in 2006 he will be returning to a third series of concerts with Houston Symphony and in the summer of 2007 he will debut with Detroit Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico.