Matthias Pintscher

Matthias Pintscher sees his two main spheres of activity - composing and conducting - as entirely complementary. He has created significant works for the world’s leading orchestras, and his intrinsic understanding of the score from the composer’s perspective informs his ability to communicate on the podium. He regularly conducts throughout Europe, the U.S. and Australia. In June 2012, he was named by the Ensemble Intercontemporain as its next music director, beginning in the 2013-14 season.

Now entering into his third season as Artist-in-Association with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Pintscher continues his partnership with the BBC SSO with concerts in both its regular subscription and contemporary series, covering the entire repertoire of music from the Baroque period to contemporary.

In the 2012-13 season, Mr. Pintscher will make debuts with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony in Miami, Colorado Symphony, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and will take the BBC Scottish Symphony to the London Proms and the Huddersfield Festival. He conducts an all-Beethoven program at the Beethoven Festival in Chicago, including a choreographed production of The Creatures of Prometheus. He returns to the New York Philharmonic, Curtis Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Grand Tetons Music Festival, the Scharoun Ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic for the 25th anniversary celebration of the chamber hall at the Berlin Philharmonie, and to the Slovenian Philharmonic, where he simultaneously curates the Slowind Festival in Ljubljana. In addition, he appears in the Leading European Composer series at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Pintscher is the 2012 recipient of the Roche Commission. His new work, Chute d’Etoiles: Hommage a Anselm Kiefer for two trumpets and orchestra, premiered at the Luzern Festival in August 2012 by the Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Franz Welser-Most, with performances to follow at Severance Hall in Cleveland and at Carnegie Hall in New York in November 2012.

Highlights of the last season included performances with the New York Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Mariinsky Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Frankfurt and Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestras, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne; concerts in Paris, Madrid, Frankfurt and Darmstadt, and a return to Australia conducting the Melbourne and Sydney Symphonies.

He works regularly with contemporary music ensembles such as the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble contrechamps, , Avanti (Helsinki), remix (Porto) and the Scharoun Ensemble. Since 2011, he has curated the musical segment of the Impuls Romantik Festival in Frankfurt. He has also served as the artistic director of the Heidleberg Atelier of the Heidelberg Spring Festival since 2007, which has now transformed into the Heidelberg Young Composer’s Academy.

Past conducting engagements have included the Staatskapelle Berlin, DSO Berlin, RSO Berlin, NDR Hamburg, MDR Leipzig, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI (Torino), Orchestre Philharmonique de France, Orchestre National de Strasbourg, Orchestre National de Belgique, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and Danish Radio Orchestra, among others.

Mr. Pintscher began his musical training in conducting, studying with Peter Eotvos, but composing took a more prominent role in his life while he was in his early twenties. Soon after, he divided his time equally between the two disciplines of conducting and composing. Naturally noted for his interpretations of contemporary music, he developed an affinity for repertoire of the late 19th and the 20th centuries - Bruckner, the French romantic masters, Beethoven, Berlioz, Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky and for the Second Viennese School - along with a rich variety of contemporary scores.

Mr. Pintscher’s compositions are noted for the delicate sound world they inhabit, the intricacy of their construction and their precision of expression. Among his most celebrated achievements are his first opera, Thomas Chatterton, commissioned by Dresden Semperoper; Funf Orchesterstucke for the Philharmonia Orchestra and Kent Nagano; Herodiade Fragmente for Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic; his first violin concerto en sourdine for Frank Peter Zimmermann and the Berlin Philharmonic, which has received more than forty performances since its premiere in 2003; his second opera l’espace dernier which premiered at Paris National Opera (Bastille) in 2004; and his cello concerto for Truls Mork, Reflections on Narcissus, which was premiered in Paris in 2006 with Christophe Eschenbach and the Orchestre de Paris. That year also included the premiere of a piece for Emmanuel Pahud (flute) and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, performed at the Lucerne Festival, where Pintscher was Artist-in-Residence in 2006. Osiris, a large-scale composition, was co-commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and Carnegie Hall, and received its premiere conducted by Pierre Boulez in 2008. In spring 2010, his work towards Osiris received its U.S. premiere with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Eschenbach. Also that spring, the New York Philharmonic debuted a piece co-commissioned with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, songs from Solomon’s garden for baritone and chamber orchestra. Pintscher recently completed a three-part work, Sonic Eclipse: Celestial Object 1, 2 and 3 for ensembles around the world. He also wrote a new violin concerto, mar’eh, premiered in autumn 2011 by Julia Fischer and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In April 2013 his music will be championed at the Musikverein with the Vienna Philharmonic.

Matthias Pintscher makes his home in New York and Paris.His works are published exclusively by Barenreiter-Verlag. He works and records with Kairos, EMI, ECM, Teldec, Wergo, and Winter & Winter.