Conductors
François is co-founder and permanent member of the Ictus ensemble, which has performed and recorded music of our time worldwide since 1994.
Invited conductor at the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, he is regularly assistant conductor at the Vlaamse Opera since 2009, where he conducts several productions. He made his debut in Paris in 2013 at the Opéra Comique with vocalist Marianne Pousseur in Schönberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire”.
François leads together with conductor Lukas Vis the Ensemble Biennale at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse and is a coach of the International Ensemble Modern Academy. He teaches at several major schools, including Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, Conservatoire Royal de Liège and Pôle Sup Université de Lille and Strasbourg. He has taken an important role as a conductor in Daniel Barenboim’s project of creating a youth orchestra in the Palestinian territories.
Maestro Bojan Suđić, the most distinguished Serbian conductor today, has been, for more than a decade, the music director of the Music Production Department of Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) and the chief conductor of its two renowned ensembles – the RTS Symphony Orchestra and the RTS Choir. He is both a professor conducting at the Faculty of Music, Belgrade University of Arts and the chief conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of this academic institution.
His artistic and professional career has been built upon a complex and rich repertoire consisting of symphonic, choral, opera and ballet music. He has also become celebrated for directing and conducting large scale on-stage concerts, numbering more than five hundred musician performers – Symphony No. 8 by Gustav Mahler, Requiems by Hector Berlioz and Giuseppe Verdi, Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, etc., as well as for performing concerts in front of large audiences, some exceeding ten thousand people, with the intention of introducing and presenting
classical music to broader audiences.
Maestro Suđić is especially dedicated to the promotion of contemporary music. He has conducted premiere performances of numerous pieces by local and international composers, many of which were dedicated to him. He is particularly devoted to promoting the best young artists by giving them important space within the concert season of the Music Production ensembles.
Upon winning the first prize at the Yugoslav Competition of Music Artists in Zagreb in 1989 (later renamed to Lovro fon Matačić International Competition of Young Conductors) maestro Bojan Suđić expanded his professional career to Europe and Latin America, collaborating with more than fifty orchestras and numerous choirs.
In addition to being a guest conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra, symphony orchestras from Odense, Turku, Klagenfurt, the Helsinki Opera and many other renowned ensembles, M° Suđić has for the past ten years also established and maintained regular collaboration of such nature with the Montenegrin Symphony Orchestra and the OFUNAM from
Mexico.
He was the resident conductor of the Royal Swedish Opera, Stockholm, for five years, during which he conducted more than 150 opera and ballet performances. Throughout his career, he has also held the position of chief conductor and general music director of the Opera of the National Theatre in Belgrade, as well as permanent guest conductor of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra. Starting from the season 2018/19, maestro Bojan Suđić will become the principal guest
conductor of the UNIMI Orchestra, Milan. Maestro Suđić has collaborated with a number of the most prominent international artists such as Maxim Vengerov, Vadim Repin, Nigel Kennedy, Ivo Pogorelić, Denis Matsuev, Nikolai Lugansky, Michel Béroff, Shlomo Mintz, Emmanuel Pahud, Placido Domingo, Željko Lučić, Nemanja Radulović and many others.
Serbian music critics defined him as “the leading name among conductors in Serbian music” (Sonja Marinković, Belgrade), while Finnish critic Mats Liljeros (Huvudstadsbladet, Helsinki) described Maestro Suđić with the following words: “…a natural talent with an exceptional style and one of the most beautiful techniques I have ever seen.”
Born in 1991 into a musical family Lorenz Müller began his music career early. At the age of eight, he received cello lessons and soon started playing piano as well. In 2010, he passed the entry exam for composition and music theory studies at mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where he graduated from the classes of Reinhard Karger and Ertruğul Sevsay (instrumentation). Courses with personalities such as Manfred Trojahn or Péter Eötvös round off his education. In 2013, he was admitted to studying conducting as one of only six students.
Lorenz Müller finished the first part of his studies with distinction for which he received an achievement scholarship from the university. He decided to continue his studies specialising in orchestra conducting in the classes of Mark Stringer and Barbara Moser. He regularly takes part in master classes in order to get to know different orchestras and work with renowned conductors such as Christian Ehwald, Wolfgang Dörner, Atso Almila and Jorma Panula.
Recently he conducted part of Verdi’s «Nabucco» in the frame of a class taking place in Stettin, Poland and the suite from Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s «Ein Sommernachtstraum» with the Polish Baltic Frédéric Chopin Philharmonic. Müller also regularly performs as a pianist and conducts own compositions.
Zlatkov was born in 1992 to the family of a musician and a painter in Schumen, Bulgaria. He began piano lessons at the age of six with renowned teacher Nadezhda Mileva, winning his first competition as an 8-year-old. In 2010, Svetlomir Zlatkov began his work with Bulgarian conductor Slavil Dimitrov as his pupil and singer in his choir «Simenonis». Since 2013 he has studied conducting at mdw – University of music and performing arts Vienna in the class of Simeon Pironkoff. He also studies choir conducting with Thomas Lang.
As a conductor he has had numerous performances with the «Simeonis» choir, the symphonic orchestra and wind orchestra in his hometown Schumen. Since autumn 2014, he directs the «Ars Vivendi Wien» choir with which he performed Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s «Te Deum» in 2015 together with the KünstlerOrchester Wien. Two concerts of Joseph Haydn’s «Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze» were conducted by him in 2016.
Since autumn 2016, he directs the choir of Saint Peter Vienna and is responsible for the arrangement of high mass, orchestra and a cappella masses. He regularly takes part in projects at the mdw – University of music and performing arts Vienna, e.g. the closing concert of the Fanny-Hensel Composition Competition and the performance of «Carmina Burana» at Schlosstheater Schönbrunn.
Thomas Van Haeperen is the musical director and head of programming of ensemble Sturm und Klang. With this ensemble he assured many world’s creations and Belgian premieres of contemporary works (such as d’Hoop, Fafchamps, Guerrero, Lenot, Leroux, Rens, Schnittke, Slinckx, Van Rossum, Widmann,…).
Besides music of today, he is passionate about the great classical repertoire, romantic and 20th century. He also led the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, the Europa Chor Akademie, the Pauliner Kammerorchester, ensemble ON, ensemble Dextuor, the Orchestra and Choir of the Leipzig University and was assistant of Leo Hussain, guest conductor at La Monnaie.
Winner of the Belgian Vocation Foundation, Thomas Van Haeperen studied conducting in Germany, in Leipzig, with Wolfgang Unger. He also took masterclasses in Mainz with Sylvain Cambreling, to whom he says he owes the rigor and sensitivity in his interpretation of contemporary repertoire.
Mr Van Haeperen holds a degree in violin as well as Masters in philosophy; he is interested in all that unites music to thinking, memory and time. He is responsible for an orchestra class at the Academy of Arts of the City of Brussels and at the IMEP.
Hailed in the UK music press as “one to watch”, Jessica Cottis possesses intellectual rigour, innate musicality and an easy authority; she is a charismatic figure on the podium who brings dynamism, intensity and clarity of vision to all her performances.
Frequently in demand as guest conductor, highlights of recent seasons include performances with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Concert Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and recording with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
Highlights of the season 2016/2017 include Royal Albert Hall debut for the 2016 BBC Proms with BBC Concert Orchestra. In 2014 she was appointed Principal Conductor of the Glasgow New Music Expedition.
Born in Australia and a dual British-Australian citizen, Jessica Cottis was awarded a first class honours degree in organ, piano and musicology from the Australian National University and continued her studies as an organist with Marie-Claire Alain in Paris, winning awards from the Royal Philharmonic Society and Royal College of Organists. A wrist injury subsequently halted her playing career and after reading Law, she began conducting studies in 2006, studying with Colin Metters and Sir Colin Davis on the postgraduate conducting course at the Royal Academy of Music.
Sigi Feigl (b. 1961 in Leibnitz, Austria) started his musical education in 1977 at the University of Music in Graz. During his studies he founded ‘Big Band Süd’ for which he was also the artistic director. The ensemble held more than 100 concerts with guest soloists such as Art Farmer, Bob Brookmeyer, Toots Thielemans or Boško Petrović. Missing an official big string orchestra in Leibnitz, Feigl founded ‘Symphonic Orchestra Leibnitz’ in 1986 for which he was the conductor till 2003. During this time he worked as a music teacher at several institutions, mainly at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Graz where he served as Vice-Head of the department between between 2008 and 2015.
Feigl has founded several ensembles and cultural projects throughout his career such as ‘Jazz Festival Leibnitz’, ‘Kultur in Leibnitz’ and ‘Jazz Big Band Graz’. In addition to this, approximately 1500 cultural events have been organized by Feigl over the past 25 years and over the years the line-up of ‘Jazz Big Band Graz’ has included some of the most prestigious jazz musicians in Austria such as Fritz Pauer and Wayne Darling.
In addition to playing an important role in the development of jazz in Austria, Feigl has also played an important role for jazz music in Croatia. In 2002, Feigl founded the ‘HGM Jazzorkestar Zagreb’. Feigl served as the orchestra’s artistic director till 2014. The orchestra has performed at over 250 concerts, recorded 5 CDs and given the possibility to over 200 musicians to play with and learn from the best jazz musicians in the world. In addition to this, Feigl founded ‘HGM.A’Band’ (2010), ‘Zagreb Jazz Strings’ (2012) and ‘Zagreb Jazzorkestar’ (2014).
In 2007, Feigl established a local office of ‘Jeunesse Musicale Austria’ in Leibnitz. Five years later, Feigl toured with ‘Jeunesses Musicales Jazz World’, an ensemble established by Jeunesses Musicales International, as their artistic director. Since 1994, 12 CDs have been published with Sigi Feigl directing different Jazz Orchestras. Feigl is currently living and working in Graz, Austria.
James Morgan studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, before joining English National Opera as Assistant Chorus Master in 1994 and remaining there until 1998. He has also conducted opera for Glyndebourne, English Touring Opera and Raymond Gubbay. A versatile musician, he combines careers as a conductor, record producer and one half of the composing partnership Morgan Pochin.
He has conducted and recorded with many of the UK’s leading orchestras, including the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Royal and London Philharmonic orchestras, Philharmonia and the City of London Sinfonia and conducted the London Chamber Orchestra at the 2012 Classic Brit Awards. He works regularly with the Danish National Chamber Orchestra and City of Prague Philharmonic and has appeared as a guest conductor with the Copenhagen and West Kazakhstan Philharmonic orchestras and the Odense and Flanders Symphony orchestras. His wide-ranging repertoire encompasses Renaissance polyphony, new music and pop music, with artists as varied as Andrea Bocelli, Jamie Cullum, Rick Astley, Katie Melua and the BBC Singers, for whom he is a regular guest conductor.
Production and writing credits with Morgan Pochin include best-selling albums for Alfie Boe, Katherine Jenkins and Joe McElderry, while film credits include First Night with Richard E. Grant and Sarah Brightman, Quartet, starring Dame Maggie Smith and the Emmy Award-nominated Ridley Scott production Killing Jesus. A new orchestral piece for children, The Great Enormo, written in collaboration with the former Children’s Laureate, Michael Rosen, was premiered at the Brighton Festival in 2013, with further performances at the Royal Festival Hall and by the CIty of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
The Korean-Austrian conductor Chungki Min is since March 2011 a faculty member of the Mozarteum University Salzburg. He took over the artistic directorship for the Austrian-Korean Philharmonic Orchestra in March 2016. Alongside teaching in Salzburg at the University of Mozarteum, he keeps conducting many concerts in Korea and Europe.
Recently, Chungki Min had a big musical Successes in Korea with a sensational new production of the opera L’Elisir d’Amore at the grand theatre of the Sejong Centre and followed an immediate reinvitation for the next season. Also got many fabulous critics after his Début with Daegu Symphony Orchestra and the Korean Symphony Orchestra and followed reinvitations from the both of them for next season too.
He also worked out with following ensembles: Münchner Philharmoniker, Brucknerorchester Linz, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Orchester der Tiroler Festspiele, Gävle symfoniorkester, PKF-Prague Philharmonia, Filharmonie Bohuslava Martinù Zlin, Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM Mexico City, Deutsche Kammerakadmie Neuss am Rhein, ÖENM-Österreichisches Ensemble für Neue Musik, Melos-Ethos Ensemble, and also Bucheon Philharmonic Orchestra, Incheon Philharmonic Orchestra in South Korea.
Born in South Korea, he began piano at the age of 5. After winning the Grand-Prix form the Korean minister of Education in the young musician’s competition at the age of 12, he began to study music theory and composition. Later, he studied composition and conducting at Seoul Arts Highschool and Seoul National University.
At the age of 20, he began to work as a musical assistant for the opera productions Le Nozze di Figaro, Cosi fan tutte, Zauberflöte, Faust and La Boheme at Opera houses of Seoul Arts Center and KBS hall in Seoul.
In November 1996, he made his Debut in the grand concert hall of Seoul Arts Center with the 2nd Symphony of G. Mahler. In January 2001, he made his big successful Opera-debut in Seoul Arts Center with a new production of W.A. Mozart’s Magic Flute of which all 32 performances were sold out.
He conducted regularly in numerous festivals in South Korea and premiered over 60 contemporary compositions.
Chungki Min was the chief conductor of Bucheon Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and of Seoul Euharmonic Chamber Orchestra in South Korea.
In 2002, he moved to Austria and studied conducting further at the Mozarteum University Salzburg under Dennis Russell Davies. In April 2007 he finished the master degree with Top honour and awarded from International Foundation Mozarteum the Bernhard Paumgartner Medaille.
The pinnacle during this studying period was two Orchestra concerts:
First, in Dezember 2005 Le Sacre du Printemps from I. Strawinsky as the replacement for his teacher Dennis Russell Davies, in following March 2006 Ein Heldenleben from R. Strauss as the replacement for Peter Schneider. Both concerts gathered best critics.
Not only from those two concerts but also through the Opera Zauberflöte in June 2008 and the concert “Von Engeln und Dämonen“ in March 2014, he was well-known to the Mozarteum University as the one who jumped up onto the podium at the last moment of endangered performances and made them up to highly successed ones. He actively participated in the master classes of Peter Gülke, Neil Thompson, and MyungWhun Chung. He also assisted for Edo de Waart, Dennis Russell Davies, and Gustav Kuhn.
In May 2007, he has founded his own ensemble MozArt Sinfonietta Salzburg and has performed numerous concerts with the repertories from Baroque to very contemporary music.
Jürgen Bruns is artistic director and chief conductor of the Kammersymphonie Berlin. Since 2019 he is also chief conductor and music director of the Prussian Chamber Orchestra (Preussisches Kammerorchester).
After several years as chief conductor of the KOS Ljubljana and his comprehensive preoccupation with contemporary music, he has become a sought-after conductor throughout Europe and Asia.
His concerts are constantly being broadcast on air, over the past ten years there have been more than 40 live broadcasts and audio portraits (D’Kultur, rbb, NDR, MDR, Ö1 Austria, Slovenian Broadcasting, Polish Radio, Radio bleu, TRT, Japanese Radio and TV, Korean Broadcast and the like).
Jürgen Bruns has a miscellaneous discography. Being a German conductor, however, he considers his recordings of works by composers who were once ostracized, of expressionism and of the classical modern era to be particularly heartfelt.
In addition, he puts a focus on working with young musical talents and on various education projects.
In recent years, Jürgen Bruns has conducted more than 80 world premieres. His interpretations of the classical and romantic repertoire are highly acclaimed. He became known for his performances and recordings of rediscovered works of classical modernism, expressionism and ostracized composers. Especially being a German conductor, these activities are close to his heart.
Jürgen Bruns received the Siemens Promotion Award several times, as well as the „Förderpreis Musik“ of the state of Brandenburg Rheinsberg Music Academy.
As a child, Jürgen Bruns learned several instruments. At the age of nine, he appeared for the first time as a soloist with orchestras.
Later, he studied violin at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin. In 1988, while still a student, he became a member of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. At the same time, Jürgen Bruns began to study conducting in Berlin with Rolf Reuter, additionally studying with Gilbert Verga in Florence and with Charles Bruck in Paris, as well as at the „Pierre-Monteux-School“ in Maine (USA) from 1991 to 1992.
Jürgen Bruns quit the Konzerthausorchester in 1991, in order to dedicate himself exclusively to conducting.
In 1991, Jürgen Bruns founded the Kammersymphonie Berlin, which has become one of the most renowned German chamber orchestras.
He often collaborated with renowned theater directors such as Peter Zadek, with whom he had a close cooperation, and actors such as Dieter Mann, Eberhard Esche, Martina Gedeck or Corinna Harfouch.
Jürgen Bruns is a regular guest with the Festival International de Musique Sion, the Kurt-Weill-Festival Dessau, the Usedom Music Festival, the Dresdener Musikfestspiele, the Kanazawa Spring-Festival, the Carinthian Summer Music Festival, the Turkcell Platinum Istanbul Night Flight and the Ravello Festival.