Guest ArtistsMatthias Pintscher, conductor

Matthias Pintscher is the Music Director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain. Beginning in 2016-17 he also takes up post as Principal Conductor of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra. He continues his partnerships with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra as its Artist-in-Association, and with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra as artist-in-residence. Pintscher is also named as the first composer-in-residence and artist-in-focus at Hamburg's new Elbphilharmonie concert hall which opens in autumn 2016, and will be featured in a series of portrait concerts in its inaugural season. Equally accomplished as conductor and composer, Mr. Pintscher sees his two main spheres of activity as entirely complementary; he has created significant works for the world’s leading orchestras, and his intrinsic understanding of the score from the composer’s perspective informs his ability to communicate on the podium.

In the 2016-17 season Mr. Pintscher will guest conduct the Cleveland Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), Cincinnati Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Bayerische Rundfunk and Radio Symphonie Orchestre Wien, among other orchestras. In summer 2016 he led concerts at the London Proms and the Edinburgh International Festival with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. With the Ensemble Intercontemporain, he celebrates the 40th anniversary of its founding and takes the orchestra on tour to Asia. This upcoming season will also see the premiere of Mr. Pintscher's new cello concerto, which will be performed by Alisa Weilerstein and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, as well as a new work commissioned by the NDR Sinfonieorchester in Hamburg. Mr. Pintscher recently made conducting debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, D.C.) and Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Pintscher began his musical training in conducting, studying with Peter Eötvös, but composing took a more prominent role in his life while he was in his early twenties. Soon after, he divided his time equally between the two disciplines of conducting and composing. Naturally noted for his interpretations of contemporary music, he developed an affinity for repertoire of the late 19th and the 20th centuries – Bruckner, the French romantic masters, Beethoven, Berlioz, Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky and for the Second Viennese School – along with a rich variety of contemporary scores.

“My thinking as a conductor is informed by the process of my own writing,” notes Pintscher, “and vice versa of course.” He may justly be called the most sought-after German composer of his generation, and his music is championed by some of today’s finest performing artists, orchestras and conductors. His works are frequently performed by orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, NDR Hamburg, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia London, BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre de Paris.

A prolific composer, Mr. Pintscher's most recent orchestral composition idyll was given its world premiere in October 2014 by the Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst, followed by performances by the Bayerische Rundfunk and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. In summer 2015 his works Now I for solo piano and Now II for solo cello were respectively premiered at the Lucerne Festival and the Moritzburg Festival; also that summer, gemini calls – a fanfare for two trumpets – was commissioned by and premiered at the Grafenegg Festival. Mr. Pintscher was the 2012 recipient of the Roche Commission. His work, Chute d’Étoiles: Hommage à Anselm Kiefer for two trumpets and orchestra, premiered at the Luzern Festival in August 2012 by the Cleveland Orchestra, and was subsequently performed at Severance Hall in Cleveland and at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Mr. Pintscher works regularly with leading contemporary music ensembles such as the Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble contrechamps, Avanti (Helsinki), remix (Porto) and the Scharoun Ensemble. Since 2011 he has curated the music segment of the Impuls Romantik Festival in Frankfurt. He has also served as the artistic director of the Heidleberg Atelier of the Heidelberg Spring Festival since 2007, which has now transformed into the Heidelberg Young Composer’s Academy. In September 2014 Mr. Pintscher joined the composition faculty at The Juilliard School.

Mr. Pintscher conducts throughout Europe, U.S. and Australia. Past conducting engagements have included the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Berlin, DSO-Berlin, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Paris Opera Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de France, Accademia Nazionale di Santa CeciliaOrchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI Mariinsky Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony and Sydney Symphony, among others.

Matthias Pintscher makes his home in New York and Paris. His works are published by Bärenreiter-Verlag. Recordings can be found on Kairos, EMI, ECM, Teldec, Wergo and Winter & Winter.