Christoph Campestrini
Recognized widely as a conductor of enormous musical talent and deep introspection, Austrian native Christoph Campestrini has been lauded by critics for his “youthful energy and nice sense of phrasing” (The New York Times) and “vibrant eloquence” (Le Soleil).
He has conducted more than 120 orchestras across five continents, including regular North American engagements with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Oregon Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra Ottawa, Calgary Philharmonic, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec and many others.
International engagements have included performances with the London Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Moscow Radio Symphony, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Vienna Radio Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, Seoul Philharmonic, and KBS Symphony Orchestra. He has worked extensively with soloists such as Lang Lang, Gidon Kremer, Julian Rachlin, Rudolf Buchbinder, Alisa Weilerstein and Julia Fischer.
Campestrini is equally in demand as an accomplished opera conductor. In 2012 he was appointed music director at the Oper Klosterneuburg Festival outside Vienna, where he debuted with a production of Don Pasquale that received the Austrian Radio and Television Award for the Top Performances of the year in Vienna. Previously he also served as Principal Conductor of the Essen Aalto Musiktheater, where he conducted more than fifteen operas in more than 100 performances. Other recent opera credits have included the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Düsseldorf), Zagreb National Opera, Opera Lyra Ottawa, Minnesota Opera and the Sakai City Opera Osaka.
Highlights in 2013–2014 feature appearances with Rochester Philharmonic, Symphony Silicon Valley and Kalamazoo Symphony, as well as performances with the Texas Round Top Festival celebrating Richard Strauss’ 150th birthday. He will also return to Minnesota Opera premiering the revised version of Argento’s The Dream of Valentino. His European re-engagements will include appearances with the Orquesta Filarmonica de Gran Canaria, Slovak Philharmonic Easter Festival conducting Rossini’s Stabat Mater, National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Teatro Regio Torino for a new production of Lehár’s The Merry Widow.
The 2012–2013 season brought debuts at the Edmonton Opera with Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann as well as with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and the return to the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec. Highlights overseas include engagements with the Real Orquesta Sinfonica de Sevilla, Orquesta Filarmonica de Gran Canaria and the Liège Royal Philharmonic as well as debuts in China and Taiwan. In addition, he toured Austria with both the Chamber Orchestra of the Vienna Symphony and the Polish National Radio Symphony Katowice.
Christoph Campestrini was born in Linz, Austria, and received his musical education at the Juilliard School and at the Yale University/Affiliate Artists Conducting program, where he worked with Wolfgang Sawallisch, Lorin Maazel and Kurt Sanderling. In addition, while studying in New York, he simultaneously majored in philosophy and languages at Columbia University.
