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You’ll Want to Hear Where He Takes You

 
In February 2021, Oregon Symphony announced David Danzmayr as its new Music Director. Danzmayr is widely regarded as one of the most talented and exciting conductors of his generation. He is a prize-winning conductor who has appeared with orchestras at some of the most prominent concert halls across Europe, North America, Australia, and the UK, and in major cities across the US, from Portland, San Diego, and Houston to Chicago, Indianapolis, and St. Louis. He first guested with the Oregon Symphony in 2018 and returned as guest conductor in 2019.
 

 
Danzmayr has won prizes at some of the world ́s most prestigious conducting competitions, including at the International Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition and the International Malko Conducting Competition. He was also awarded the Bernhard Paumgartner Medal by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, and was a finalist in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s First International Sir Georg Solti Conducting Competition, where he was judged by a panel including longtime Oregon Symphony Music Director James DePreist.

Danzmayr was strongly influenced by Pierre Boulez and Claudio Abbado in his time as conducting stipendiate of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and by Leif Segerstam during his additional studies at the Sibelius Academy. Subsequently, he gained significant experience as assistant to Oregon Symphony Music Director Laureate Carlos Kalmar, Neeme Järvi, Stéphane Denève, Sir Andrew Davies, and Pierre Boulez, who entrusted Danzmayr with the preparatory rehearsals for his own music.

Propelled by these early successes into a far-reaching international career, Danzmayr has quickly become a sought-after guest conductor for orchestras around the globe, having worked with orchestras in Bamberg, Detroit, Edinburgh, Hamburg, Iceland, Odense, Salzburg, Stuttgart, Vienna, and Wales. Due in part to his particular expertise in the music of Schubert, he has formed a special connection with the prestigious Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. He has also served as Assistant Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, which he conducted in more than 70 concerts.

Danzmayr’s past positions have also included Music Director of the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra in Chicago, where he was lauded regularly by both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Classical Review. Most recently, he has served as Music Director of the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra and Chief Conductor of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, where he was the first to hold this title in seven years. 

 

 

 

 

A Creative Alliance
That Lives Beyond the Stage

Danzmayr holds a strong belief that each composer’s musical expression is shaped by their personal environment, family heritage, and culture. This belief will guide his work at the Oregon Symphony, including the formation of a new Creative Alliance of cultural thought-leaders and musical innovators – each one bringing their unique perspective to the stage and to the Oregon and Southwest Washington community. Collectively, this continuing and evolving coalition of artists will inspire and challenge audiences with music that speaks to individual experiences and explores meaningful issues facing us all.

 

 

 

 

 

The Creative Alliance includes:

Jun Märkl
Principal Guest Conductor
Read BioJun Märkl conducts the world's leading orchestras, such as the Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Oslo Philarmonic and Tonhalle Orchester Zürich. He has long been a highly respected interpreter of the core Germanic repertoire from both the symphonic and operatic traditions, and more recently for his refined and idiomatic Debussy, Ravel and Messiaen.

Nathalie Joachim
Artistic Partner
Read BioNathalie Joachim is a Grammy-nominated flutist, composer, and vocalist. The Brooklyn born Haitian-American artist is hailed for being “a fresh and invigorating cross-cultural voice” (The Nation). She is co-founder of the critically acclaimed urban art pop duo, Flutronix, and comfortably navigates everything from classical to indie-rock, all while advocating for social change and cultural awareness. Her authenticity has gained her the reputation of being “powerful and unpretentious” (The New York Times).

Gabriela Lena Frank
Artistic Partner
Read BioCurrently serving as Composer-in-Residence with the storied Philadelphia Orchestra and included in the Washington Post’s list of the 35 most significant women composers in history (August 2017), identity has always been at the center of composer/pianist Gabriela Lena Frank’s music. Her music often reflects not only her own personal experience as a multi-racial Latina, but also refract her studies of Latin American cultures, incorporating poetry, mythology, and native musical styles into a western classical framework that is uniquely her own.

Gabriel Kahane
Creative Chair
Read BioA singer-songwriter, pianist, and composer, Kahane works at the blurred edges of journalism, ethnography, storytelling, and music. In 2019, he began a three-year term as the inaugural Creative Chair of the Oregon Symphony, which commissioned his 2018 oratorio, emergency shelter intake form. A commercial recording of this sprawling exploration of inequality through the lens of housing and homelessness, featuring the Oregon Symphony, was released in 2020.

Simone Lamsma
Artist-in-Residence
Read BioHailed for her “brilliant… polished, expressive and intense” (Cleveland Plain Dealer) and “absolutely stunning” (Chicago Tribune) playing, Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma is respected by critics, peers and audiences as one of classical music’s most striking and captivating musical personalities. Conductor Jaap van Zweden with whom Simone enjoys a regular collaboration, describes her as one of the leading violinists in the world.

Johannes Moser
Artist-in-Residence
Read Bio Hailed by Gramophone Magazine as “one of the finest among the astonishing gallery of young virtuoso cellists,” German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser has performed with the world’s leading orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, BBC Philharmonic at the Proms, London Symphony, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Tokyo NHK Symphony, Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras.