conductors
Franz Anton Krager*
Director of Orchestras, Moores School of Music; Music Director & Chief Conductor, Texas Music Festival; artistic director, Virtuosi of Houston; former music director, Brazos Valley Symphony & Sinfonietta; guest conductor, Houston Symphony, Russian State Symphony, Romanian & Kazan State Philharmonics, Grosseto Symphony Orchestra (Italy), Orchestra-of-the-Swan & Chetham's Symphony Orchestra (UK), Symphony Orchestra of Berlin, Akademisches Orchester Leipzig, Honolulu & Florida West Coast Symphonies, Riverside Philharmonic (CA); Lichfield & Aberystwyth International Arts Festivals (UK); Lunatica & Pianomaster Music Festivals (Italy); Interlochen (USA); recordings, Albany Records.
Christoph Campestrini
Conductor Christoph Campestrini was born in Linz, Austria and received his musical education in the United States. He studied in New York City at the Juilliard School while simultaneously majoring in philosophy and languages at Columbia University. In addition to German and English, he speaks Italian, French, Russian and Spanish.
Following his studies at Juilliard and Columbia, he was the only European chosen to be admitted to the founding class of the prestigious Yale University Affiliate Artists Conducting Program. While at Yale, he worked with prominent conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Kurt Sanderling.
After his return to Europe, he started an active international career, conducting more than 80 symphony orchestras on all five continents. Among them are the London Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Cologne Radio Symphony, Moscow Radio Symphony, Prague Radio Symphony, Vienna Radio Symphony, Orchestre Lamoureux - Paris, Philharmonia Hungarica, Xalapa Symphony - Mexico, and the Israel Sinfonietta, among others.
Campestrini has served as principal conductor at the prestigious Essen Aalto Musiktheater and the Essen Philharmonic Orchestra, where he conducted more than 100 performances of 15 different operas. Other opera credits include the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf/Duisburg, Zagreb National Opera and the Hong Kong Opera Academy.
Campestrini is frequently in North America, where he has been working repeatedly with orchestras such as the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), Calgary Philharmonic, Winnipeg Symphony, Monterey Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Oregon Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, Houston Symphony and Colorado Symphony.
The 2006/07 season brings him once again to the symphony orchestras of Omaha, Monterey and Honolulu. He is scheduled to make his subscription debut with the Houston Symphony in March 2008, a direct result of two enthusiastically received separate performances with that orchestra in 2006. His US opera debut took place in the Spring of 2006 at the Austin Lyric Opera in a new production of Don Giovanni. In 2007/08 season appearances include Philadelphia Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Texas Music Festival and Seoul Philharmonic. In Europe, he maintains a permanent relationship with the Czech State Philharmonic Bruno, which he conducts in several programs each season as well as on tour. In addition, he works with orchestras such as the Camerata Salzburg, Bruckner Orchestra Linz and the Slovak Philharmonic.
In Asia, Campestrini has undertaken several tours with the Hong Kong Academy to China, Thailand and Vietnam – in addition to serving with the orchestra in residence at the Carinthian Summer Festival. In Korea, his debut with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in November 2005 resulted in an immediate invitation for return performances.
Has worked with soloists such as Gidon Kremer, Julian Rachlin, Rudolf Buchbinder, Sharon Kam, Julia Fischer and Emmanuel Pahud.
Klauspeter Seibel
Currently Principal Guest Conductor of the Louisiana Philharmonic and a regular guest conductor at the opera houses in both Hamburg and Dresden, Klauspeter Seibel has been a major figure on the musical stages of both Europe and the United States. With an emphasis on late romantic and American repertoire, he conducts a vast number of contemporary works in addition to the standard 18th and 19th century operatic and orchestral literature. Previous music directorships include the Nuremberg Symphony, Freiburg Opera and Philharmonic, Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra, Kiel Opera and Philharmonic and the Louisiana Philharmonic.
In North America, Mr. Seibel's active guest conducting schedule includes the Charlotte Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Omaha Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Utah Symphony and the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, as well as the Chautauqua and Texas festivals. In Europe, he has appeared with the orchestras of Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Bratislava, Copenhagen, Dublin and Reykjavik, among others.
In addition to his permanent opera positions, Klauspeter Seibel has guest conducted the Deutsche Oper and Deutsche Staatsoper unter den Linden in Berlin, the Hamburg Opera, Vienna State Opera, Zurich Opera, New Orleans Opera, Opera Colorado and the Utah Opera. On tour with the Hamburg Opera, he conducted highly acclaimed performances of Romeo and Juliet in Israel and of Wozzeck and Samson and Dalilah in Moscow.
Mr. Seibel has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, RBM, Colosseum and CPO. Recordings include: Wings of Song with James Galway and the London Symphony Orchestra for Deutsche Grammophon, the world premiere recording of Der Ring des Polykrates (an opera by Erich Wolfgang Korngold) for CPO, and the first recording of orchestral works by Franz Lehár for CPO.
Born in Offenbach, Germany, Klauspeter Seibel studied piano, composition, conducting, flute and horn in Nuremberg and Munich. He made his conducting debut at the age of twenty-one at Munich's Theater am Gärtnerplatz. Mr. Seibel has been a recipient of the City of Munich Richard Strauss Award and a prizewinner at both the Malko Competition in Copenhagen and the Mitropoulos Competition in New York.
Marek Pijarowski
Artistic director, Lódz State Philharmonic of A. Rubenstein; permanent guest conductor, Pomeranian State Philharmonic (Bydgoszcz); former
head and artistic director, Wroclaw State Philharmonic; first prize winner, Polish Conducting Contest (Katowice); former artistic director,
International Chopin Festival (Duszniki); for nearly 30 years, has conducted all the major philharmonic and radio orchestras of Poland including
the Wroclaw State, Warsaw National Philharmonic, Great Symphonic Orchestra of Polish Radio, Cracow, and Sinfonia Varsovia orchestras; named
Professor of Music Art by President of Poland; appearances throughout most of Europe, Egypt, Canada, Cuba, South Korea, and the U.S. including
Eastern Music Festival (Greensboro, NC)
* University of Houston faculty member
