Matthias Pintscher

Born in 1971 in Marl in North Rhine-Westphalia, Matthias Pintscher regards composing and conducting as complementary spheres of his artistic work. He studied composition with Giselher Klebe and Manfred Trojahn; Hans Werner Henze was also among his mentors, as was Peter Eötvös, who additionally taught him conducting. Pintscher quickly advanced to become one of the most successful composers of his generation: his music theater works Thomas Chatterton and L’Espace dernier received their premieres at the Dresden Semperoper and the Opéra national de Paris, respectively, and his orchestral works have been premiered by the Berlin and New York Philharmonics, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, and the Cleveland Orchestra. As a conductor, Pintscher has led such ensembles as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; he made his debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam in February 2018 and with the London Symphony in June. He has been affiliated with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra as artist-in-association since 2010, began his tenure as Music Director of the Ensemble intercontemporain in Paris in 2013, and in 2020 will serve as director of the Ojai Music Festival in California. The Hamburg Elbphilharmonie presented him as composer-in-residence and artist in focus during the inaugural 2016-17 season. From 2016 to 2018 he was regularly associated with the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ACADEMY as its Principal Conductor. Matthias Pintscher teaches composition at the Juilliard School of Music in New York.

LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut on13 August 2010 with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in a program of works by Fauré, Chausson, Wagner, and Ravel

July 2018