Christoph Koncz - NOSPR

Music Director: Orchestre symphonique de Mulhouse

Chief Conductor: Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss am Rhein

Principal Guest Conductor: Les Musiciens du Louvre

The Austrian conductor Christoph Koncz has already strongly established himself on the international conducting circuit, performing with orchestras such as London Symphony Orchestra, Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre Metropolitain de Montreal and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

During the upcoming season, Christoph Koncz will appear for the first time with Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestre de Paris, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo. He will also conduct performance series of Don Giovanni at the National Theatre Prague and Rigoletto at the Teatro Real Madrid. He will return to hr‐​Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, Aarhus Symphony and Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa and make further debuts with Deutsches Symphonie‐​Orchester Berlin, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and Orquestra Simfònica de les Illes Balears und at the Tsinandali Festival. 

In September 2023 Christoph Koncz is starting his tenure as Music Director of Orchestre symphonique de Mulhouse. Currently in his fifth season as Chief Conductor of Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss am Rhein, Christoph Koncz has also 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, Hamburg and Munich Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein and 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 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 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 Orchestre symphonique de Montréal 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 Wiener Philharmoniker, 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.