Christian Jost

Born in Trier in 1963, Christian Jost studied composition and conducting at the Hochschule für Musik Köln and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Since the late 1980s, he has produced a substantial body of work that includes ten full-length operas and numerous symphonic compositions. His music, which places organic flow at its center, takes its starting point from improvisatory ideas and develops them into fully composed forms. His scores have been performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and the Taiwan Philharmonic, as well as by conductors including Marc Albrecht, Christoph Eschenbach, Iván Fischer, Daniel Harding, and Sir Simon Rattle. Constantly seeking modern perspectives in musical storytelling, Jost creates works for the stage whose dramatic structures dissolve notions of time and space. His Hamlet was named Best World Premiere of 2009 by Opernwelt magazine. Rumor was premiered at the Vlaamse Opera in 2012, followed by Rote Laterne at Zurich Opera in 2015, Egmont at Theater an der Wien in 2020, and Voyage vers l’espoir at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in 2023. Among Jost’s major successes is his 2017 arrangement of Schumann’s Dichterliebe, which can also be presented in staged form. He is currently working on OdysseeSymphony, commissioned by the Stuttgart Philharmonic. Jost, who received a sponsorship award from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation in 2003, has served as composer-in-residence at the Beethovenhalle Bonn, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the Dortmunder Philharmoniker, and the Grafenegg Festival. As a conductor, he has led such ensembles as the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, the Essener Philharmoniker, and the orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin. At the Konzerthaus Berlin, he curates and hosts the series “2× Hören”; since 2026, he has also presented the monthly podcast “Jost in Time.”

Christian Jost makes his Lucerne Festival debut as conductor with this concert.  

October 2026