Franz Welser-Möst is in his sixth season as Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra. His long-term commitment to the Orchestra extends through the 2011-12 season.
Mr. Welser-Möst’s Cleveland Orchestra concerts during the 2007-08 season include major works central to the orchestral repertoire, among them symphonies by Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Dvorák, Mahler, and Tchaikovsky. His wide range of programming also features four United States premieres. Performances of Dvorák’s Rusalka conclude the 2007-08 Severance Hall season.
Highlights of Mr. Welser-Möst’s concerts with The Cleveland Orchestra during his first five seasons have included many works new to the Orchestra’s repertoire that span four centuries, including nine world premieres and as many United States premieres. In addition to numerous major works central to the orchestral repertoire, his expansive programming also has included works infrequently performed by the Orchestra. His programming has featured annual concert performances of opera, including Verdi’s Don Carlo and Falstaff, Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, and Richard Strauss’s Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier. In 2003, Mr. Welser-Möst made his first of regular appearances at the Blossom Festival.
In Cleveland, Mr. Welser-Möst participates in community concerts and educational programs. In addition to partnerships with area universities, he is involved with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra.
Under Franz Welser-Möst’s direction, the Orchestra has toured extensively, to critical acclaim, and has become one of the most sought-after performing ensembles in the world. This partnership has earned the Orchestra unprecedented residencies in the United States and Europe while it continues to perform regularly in the other music capitals of the world. In addition to biennial residencies at the Musikverein in Vienna, the first of their kind by an American orchestra, the Orchestra continues its previously annual residencies at the Lucerne Festival with biennial residencies featuring Roche Commission projects. Domestically, the Orchestra and Mr. Welser-Möst have toured from coast to coast, including frequent performances at Carnegie Hall. In January 2007, the Orchestra began its 10-year residency project in Miami, Florida, at the new Carnival Center for the Performing Arts.
Released in early October 2007 by Deutsche Grammophon is The Cleveland Orchestra’s first commercial CD with Franz Welser-Möst, of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, recorded live at Severance Hall. The first commercially available DVD featuring the Orchestra and Mr. Welser-Möst, of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 5, recorded live in Austria, was released worldwide by EuroArts in February 2007.
In June 2007, Mr. Welser-Möst was named General Music Director of the Vienna State Opera beginning in 2010. His long partnership with the company has included acclaimed performances of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. He will conduct a new production of Wagner’s Ring cycle at the Vienna State Opera during the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons.
As General Music Director of the Zurich Opera since 2005, and previously as its Principal Conductor (2002 to 2005) and Music Director (1995 to 2002), Mr. Welser-Möst has conducted many new productions and numerous revivals, including performances of Wagner’s complete Ring cycle. In 2006, Mr. Welser-Möst conducted the Zurich Opera Orchestra and Chorus in a Pontifical Mass at the Vatican celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI, marking the 500-year anniversary of the Swiss Guard.
Franz Welser-Möst regularly conducts leading European orchestras and opera companies, including those of Berlin and Vienna, and served as music director of the London Philharmonic from 1990 to 1996. After making his American debut in 1989, he returned frequently to the United States for appearances with major orchestras across the country.
Mr. Welser-Möst’s recordings, on both CD and DVD, have won a number of major awards. Recent releases for EMI include Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, a DVD filmed at the Zurich Opera that won the Diapason d'Or Award in May 2005, and Puccini’s La Bohème. Forthcoming DVD releases on EMI include Fierrabras, Don Giovanni, and Peter Grimes.
Among Mr. Welser-Möst’s honors are an “Outstanding Achievement Award” from the Western Law Center for Disability Rights in recognition of his support and advocacy on behalf of people with disabilities; honorary membership in the Vienna Singverein; the 2003 Conductor of the Year Award from Musical America; honorary doctorates from Case Western Reserve University, Oberlin College, and the Cleveland Institute of Music; and the Silver Medal of the Region of Upper Austria. In 2006, Franz Welser-Möst was named an Academician of the Yutse European Academy Foundation, joining an esteemed roster that has included the late Cardinal Franz König and Umberto Eco, among others. Mr. Welser-Möst is the co-author of Cadences: Observations and Conversations, which was published in a German edition in 2007.
Revised October 18, 2007
