Franz Welser-Möst has served as Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra since 2002. In addition to their concert series in Severance Hall and at the Blossom Music Center, they also regularly appear at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Miami Performing Arts Center, and LUCERNE FESTIVAL; his contract was recently extended to 2018. In September 2010 Welser-Möst additionally began his tenure as General Music Director of the Vienna Staatsoper, where he previously led new productions of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde as well as the Ring cycle; he launched his first season at the helm with Hindemith’s Cardillac and Janácek’s Katya Kabanová. In addition he conducted the celebrated New Year’s Concert given by the Vienna Philharmonic and the Sommernacht concert held in the open air on the grounds of Schönbrunn Palace. Welser-Möst who was born in 1960 in Linz, was only 25 when he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival. Shortly after he was appointed music director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, where he remained from 1990 to 1996. For 13 years—from 1995 to 2008—he held leading positions at Zurich Opera, serving most recently as General Music Director. During this period, he conducted more than 50 premieres, many of which are available on DVD. Welser-Möst has additionally appeared as guest conductor with many other leading orchestras around the world, including in Berlin, Munich, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York, and Boston. His numerous CD recordings have garnered the Gramophone Award, the Diapason d’Or, and the Japanese Record Academy Award, among others; in 2003 Musical America named him Conductor of the Year. Welser-Möst is an Honorary Member of the Vienna Singverein. His book Cadences: Observations and Conversations was published in 2007.
LUCERNE FESTIVAL (IMF) debut on 26 March 1999 with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in Mahler’s Sixth Symphony.
August 2011