Christoph Koncz
Conductor

The young Austrian conductor Christoph Koncz has already established himself as one of the outstanding musicians of his generation, performing worldwide with orchestras such as the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal and Hong Kong Philharmonic.

During the upcoming season, Christoph Koncz will appear for the first time with the London Symphony and Swedish Radio Symphony orchestras as well as at the National Theatre Prague and the Wiener Staatsoper. He will also return to the New World Symphony Miami and the Opernhaus Zürich and make further debuts with the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Orquestra Sinfónica de Castilla y León, Aarhus Symphony and Tampere Philharmonic.

Currently in his fourth season as Chief Conductor of the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss am Rhein, Christoph Koncz has recently been appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the renowned French period instrument ensemble Les Musiciens du Louvre. His debut at the 2013 Salzburg Mozartwoche was followed by concerts at such prestigious venues as the Berlin, Cologne and Munich Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus, KKL Lucerne and Concertgebouw Amsterdam as well as at the Salzburg Festival.

Christoph Koncz is particularly noted for his interpretations of the works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His recording of the Complete Violin Concertos as soloist and conductor with Les Musiciens du Louvre was released by Sony Classical in October 2020 under the title Mozart’s Violin and caused an international sensation for being the first recording of these famous works on the composer’s original Baroque violin. The Strad magazine described Koncz’s performance as “a masterly demonstration of melodic playing”.

Born 1987 in Konstanz into an Austrian-Hungarian family of musicians, Christoph Koncz received his first violin lessons at the age of four. Only two years later he entered the Vienna University of Music, where he also enrolled in the conducting class of Mark Stringer in 2005. Master classes with Daniel Barenboim, Daniel Harding and David Zinman further enriched his musical education. At the age of just nine, he received worldwide acclaim for starring as child prodigy Kaspar Weiss in the Canadian feature film The Red Violin, which won an Academy Award for Best Original Score.

Christoph Koncz made his North American debut as a violin soloist at age twelve with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit, leading to collaborations with conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Gábor Takács-Nagy and Marc Minkowski. An avid chamber musician, his musical partners include Leonidas Kavakos, Joshua Bell, Vilde Frang, Renaud Capuçon, Antoine Tamestit, Kim Kashkashian, Gautier Capuçon, Nicolas Altstaedt, Andreas Ottensamer and Rudolf Buchbinder. His concert engagements have taken him to numerous countries across Europe and to the Middle East, Asia, Australia as well as North and South America.

In 2008, at the age of twenty, Christoph Koncz was appointed principal second violin of the Vienna Philharmonic, a position he has held ever since. He plays the 1707 ex Brüstlein violin by Antonio Stradivari on generous loan by the National Bank of Austria.

Lisa Batiashvili
Violin

“Batiashvili’s fearless playing is so tonally rich and technically immaculate.” (The Guardian)

Lisa Batiashvili, the Georgian-born German violinist, is praised by audiences and fellow musicians for her virtuosity. An award-winning artist, she has developed long-standing relationships with the world’s leading orchestras, conductors and musicians.

Batiashvili is the Artistic Director of Audi Sommerkonzerte, Ingolstadt. For the 2020 festival, she originally designed a programme to celebrate the festival’s 30th anniversary year, as well as Beethoven year 2020 under the motto ‘Lights of Europe’. Due to the global pandemic, an adjusted version with streamed concerts under the motto ‘Together for Music’ featured Lisa and other leading musicians, sending out a strong message of solidarity and adaptability.

Lisa Batiashvili regularly appears on stage with orchestras including the Berliner Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa and Boston Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra