Jimmy Chiang

A native of Hong Kong, the conductor and pianist Jimmy Chiang started learning piano at the age of four and was already appearing as a concert pianist at the age of 13; he later studied harpsichord, organ, cello, and composition. Seiji Ozawa and Leopold Hager rank among his mentors. After Chiang won first prize at the International Lovro-von-Matačić Competition in Zagreb in 2007, he was initially engaged by the Theater Lübeck. In 2009 he transferred to the Theater Freiburg as Kapellmeister, where he led a production of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre together with stage director Calixto Bieito. Chiang has been Kapellmeister of the Vienna Boys’ Choir since 2013, where he directs the Haydn Choir, one of the four subgroups into which the Vienna Boys’ Choir is divided. He has given concerts with this ensemble throughout Europe and has toured to the United States (including to Carnegie Hall in New York) and Canada several times. Chiang has regularly performs with the Vienna Boys’ Choir in Asia, including on tours to Korea, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Japan, where he most recently prepared the Choir for a program of works by Salieri and Schubert conducted by Riccardo Muti. Chiang has collaborated as a guest conductor with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, and the Zagreb Philharmonic. He has made guest appearances at the Komische Oper Berlin, the Theater Heidelberg, and the Schlosstheater Schönbrunn in Vienna. In 2016 he made his debut as Artistic Director of the new Hong Kong – Vienna Music Festival conducting Gustav Mahler’s Eighth Symphony.

5 February 2019