Conductor - Puskas International

ANNA DUCZMAL-MRÓZ

peter-admin — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 14:02:46 +0000

TAKI-ALSOP FELLOW 2022

Polish Conductor Anna Duczmal-Mroz is the current Taki-Alsop Fellow, previous fellows including among others Karina Canellakis and Mei-Ann Chen. In summer 2022, Anna Duczmal-Mroz conducted her US debuts with the National Orchestra Institute the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Upcoming projects include debuts with Staatsorchester Mainz, Staatskapelle Weimar and with the Orchestre National de Bretagne, alongside her regular concerts with the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio.

Anna Duczmal-Mróz has been principal conductor of the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of the Polish Radio since 2009. This extraordinary ensemble was originally founded by her mother, ground-breaking conductor Agnieszka Duczmal, in 1968.

Anna has performed in Germany, Italy, Belgium, Austria, France, Spain, Mexico, Japan, and South America and has collaborated with numerous orchestras in Poland including the National Philharmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia, and the NOSPR. She has performed at important festivals in Poland, Germany, France, Spain, Mexico, and South America, and worked with soloists such as Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Avi Avital, Daniel Hope, Ingolf Wunder, and Kirill Troussov.

Anna premiered as a music director of Mendelssohn’s ballet “Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk and M.Małecki’s “Argue in Recco” in Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

Anna Duczmal-Mróz has produced many critically acclaimed and award winning recordings for the DUX label with the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra PR and is a champion of Polish repertoire which she regularly programs in concerts in Poland and abroad.

Anna has been a jurist in international conducting competitions including the Antal Dorati Conducting Competition and has served as conductor of the Toruń Symphony Orchestra during piano masterclasses held the Paderewski Piano Academy in Poland which featured world-renown pianists.

Anna served as assistant conductor to Maestro Antoni Wit at the Warsaw National Philharmonic in 2006-07 and assisted Maestro Eiji Oue at the NDR Radiophilharmonie in 2004-05. She made her conducting debut in Poland in 2003 with the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of the Polish Radio.

Anna started her music education as a violinist. During violin studies with Prof. Krzysztof Węgrzyn at the Hohchshule fur Musik und Theater in Hanover, Germany, her conducting talent was discovered by Maestro Eiji Oue, who mentored her from 2001-2005. In 2000 Anna founded and conducted the Benjamin Britten Kammerorchester, a student orchestra in Hanover, Germany. She graduated with honors, conducting her diploma concert with the NDR-Radiophilharmonie in Hanover. Anna is a multiple scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of Poland.

annaduczmalmroz.com

The post ANNA DUCZMAL-MRÓZ first appeared on Puskas International.

Rémy Ballot

peter-admin — Sat, 07 Feb 2015 08:32:33 +0000

Chief Conductor Klangkollektiv Wien
Conductor in residence Richard Strauss Tage Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Founder Rémy Ballot Ensemble

“Something mystical… almost beyond words.” – Wiener Zeitung 

“Both deeply rooted in tradition and radically innovative.” – Süddeutsche Zeitung

“Unrivaled as a Bruckner conductor.” – DiapasonRémy Ballot has left a profound mark on the music world with his visionary Bruckner interpretations. His live recordings from the St. Florian Brucknertage have become new reference points—hailed with the highest accolades and officially recognized in 2024 as part of the Bruckner anniversary exhibition at the Austrian National Library. A monumental conclusion to this era.

His spectacular last-minute substitution for Dan Ettinger with the Stuttgart Philharmonic in spring 2024—including the opening of the Bergamo-Brescia Festival with Bruckner’s 4th Symphony—proved his extraordinary artistic authority. International orchestras have taken notice of Ballot’s exceptional work: in 2025, he will debut with the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Bratislava Philharmonic, and the Olomouc Philharmonic, while long-term collaborations continue to expand.

“Richard Strauss with breathtaking intensity and intricate detail.” – Simply Classic
As Conductor in Residence at the 2024 Richard Strauss Days, Ballot opens a new chapter, working closely with the Richard Strauss Institute to explore the composer’s oeuvre. The first CD in the new Strauss Days Edition, set for release in March 2025, has already received outstanding pre-release reviews.

“Astonishing plasticity – Ballot reinvents Mozart and Haydn.” – Süddeutsche Zeitung
With Klangkollektiv Wien, the ensemble he founded, Ballot sets new standards in interpreting the First Viennese School. An internationally acclaimed CD series continues in 2025 with a Schubert cycle. Following celebrated debuts at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and Munich’s Prinzregententheater, next season brings an invitation to the Vienna Musikverein.

Ballot is also a highly sought-after orchestral educator. His Oxford debut in 2024 with the prestigious university orchestra was met with great enthusiasm and marked the beginning of a long-term residency, including conducting engagements, chamber music projects, and lectures. He co-founded the FYMO (Filasteen Young Musicians Orchestra) of the Barenboim-Said Foundation and toured Palestine with the ensemble.

Alongside his conducting career, Ballot continues his work as a violinist. His recording of Bruckner’s String Quartet and String Quintet was hailed as a benchmark performance, earning the Supersonic Award and an ICMA nomination. In 2025, he will release recordings of the Trout Quintet and Hummel’s Piano Quintet, performed with members of the Vienna Philharmonic.

Rémy Ballot was the last student of Sergiu Celibidache. Following Celibidache’s passing, he founded his own orchestra in Paris, leading it for five years. He studied violin under Gérard Poulet at the Paris Conservatoire, received artistic guidance from Ivry Gitlis, and performed regularly with the first violins of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra/Vienna Philharmonic for over a decade from 2005 onward.

www.remyballot.com

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Johannes Kalitzke

peter-admin — Sat, 07 Feb 2015 07:30:05 +0000

Johannes Kalitzke, born in 1959 in Cologne, studied church music there from 1974 until 1976. After passing his school-leaving examinations, he studied piano with Aloys Kontarsky, conducting with Wolfgang von der Nahmer and composition with York Höller at the Cologne Music Academy. A stipend of the Study Foundation of the German People made it possible for him to study at IRCAM in Paris, where he was a pupil of Vinko Globokar, and simultaneously in Cologne with Hans Ulrich Humpert (electronic music).

His first engagement as a conductor was in 1984, at the Gelsenkirchen Music Theatre in the Revier, where he was principal conductor from 1988 to 1990. In 1991 he became artistic director and conductor of the Ensemble MusikFabrik, of which he was a co-founder.

Since then he has been a regular guest conductor with ensembles (Klangforum Wien, Collegium Novum Zürich, Ensemble Modern) and with numerous symphony orchestras (including the NDR Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BR Symphony Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic). There have also been opera productions (including the State Opera Unter den Linden Berlin, the Stuttgart Opera, the Vienna Festival, the Munich Biennial and the Salzburg Festival).

He has toured Russia, Japan and the USA. Numerous CD recordings complete his activities as an interpreter of classical and contemporary music.

As a composer he has received several commissions for the Donaueschinger Musiktage and Ultraschall Berlin, among others. Orchestral pieces were written for the Festival Eclat in Stuttgart, the RSO Vienna and the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra. His first musical theatre piece, “Bericht vom Tod des Musikers Jack Tiergarten” was premiered at the 1996 Munich Biennale, his second opera “Molière oder die Henker des Komödianten”, a commissioned work for the State of Schleswig-Holstein, as well as his third opera, “Inferno” after Peter Weiss, were premiered at the Bremen Opera. An opera based on the novel “The Obsessed” by W. Gombrowicz was commissioned by Theater an der Wien for 2010. The Augsburg Philharmonic commissioned a silent film orchestra music for the film “Die Weber” (1927) in 2011, followed by the opera “Pym” after E.A.Poe for the Theater Heidelberg. Currently, he continues to focus on orchestral music for Expressionist silent film, among others as commission for the Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik and the Carinthian Summer 2019.

His teaching activities include ensemble seminars at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen and at the Hannover Academy, the directorship of the ensemble forum at the Darmstadt Summer Courses, the directorship of the conducting forum for ensemble music of the German Music Council as well as conducting courses at the Salzburg Summer Academy. Since 2015 he is professor for conducting at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg and taught as a guest at the Reina Sophia Music School Madrid and the Zurich Conservatory of Music.

Johannes Kalitzke has received numerous awards including the Bernd Alois Zimmermann Prize of the City of Cologne and a stipend for the Villa Massimo in Rome (2003). He has been a member of the Berlin Academy of the Arts since 2009 and since 2015 he is a member of the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste, München.

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