Christoph Von Dohnanyi Tickets

Christoph Von Dohnanyi
He has made numerous guest appearances with many major orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, and Pittsburgh Symphony and recorded widely with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic.

His conducting commitments always included opera performance. With the Philharmonia Orchestra a residence at Theatre du Chatelet in Paris was maintained (Die Frau ohne Schatten, Moses und Aron, Oedipus Rex, H?nsel und Gretel, Die Schweigsame Frau, Arabella), at the Salzburg Festival Rosenkavalier.

The Bassarids, Baal, Salome, Cosi fan tutte, Erwartung/Bluebeard's Castle, Die Zauberfl?te, Ariadne auf Naxos) and at ROH (Meistersinger, Fidelio, Der Fliegende Holl?nder, Salome, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Arabella), Opernhaus Zurich (Frau ohne Schatten, Bluebeard's Castle/Oedipus Rex, Die Schweigsame Frau, Un ballo in maschera, Idomeneo, Der Fliegende Holl?nder, Elektra, Ariadne auf Naxos) and Opera Paris (Frau ohne Schatten, Wozzeck, Elektra) and many more.

Still wondering whom we are talking about? Well heres another clue - Cleveland Orchestra seems incomplete without this name. The two names have been linked together for the past two decades.

How come? Well, he made his conducting debut with the orchestra in December 1981, and his appointment to serve as music director (commencing with the start of the 1984-85 season) was announced the following year.Ladies and Gentlemen, Behold! Christoph von Dohn?nyi!

Christoph von Dohn?nyi is a conductor of Hungarian and German ancestry. He was born September 8, 1929, in Berlin, Germany to father, Hans von Dohnanyi, who was a jurist, and mother, Christine Bonhoeffer. His maternal uncle Dietrich Bonheoffer was a pastor and philosopher. His grandfather was the pianist and composer Erno Dohn?nyi.

His father, uncle and other family members participated in the German Resistance movement against Nazism and were arrested and detained in several concentration camps before being executed in 1945. Christoph was 15 years old at the time. Dohn?nyi's older brother is Klaus von Dohnanyi, a German politician and former mayor of Hamburg.

Dohn?nyi has been married three times. His first wife was the German actress Renate Zillessen, who bore him two children, Katja and Justus. His second wife was the German soprano / mezzo-soprano Anja Silja, with whom he had three children, Julia, Benedikt and Olga. His third wife is Barbara Koller.

Initially, after the German War, Dohn?nyi studied law in Munich, but in 1948 he transferred to the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater Munchen due tohis increase interest in composition, piano and conducting. At the opera in Munich, he was a stage extra, coached singers, and was a house pianist. He later went to Florida State University to study with his grandfather, Ernst von Dohn?nyi. He received the Richard Strauss Prize from the city of Munich before he went to Florida State University.

His first employment was at the Frankfurt Opera, as assistant to Georg Solti, where he also served as a ballet and opera coach. Between the years 1957-1963, he served as general musical director of the Lubeck Opera and then Germany's youngest GMD. He also served as chief conductor of the Staatsorchester Kassel as well as of the Westdeutsche Rundfunk Sinfonie Orchester.

In 1968, he succeeded Solti as general music director and later 'director' at the Frankfurt opera and served in both capacities until 1977 when he subsequently served as an intendant and chief conductor with the Hamburg Staatsoper and relinquished those posts in 1984.

His team at the Frankfurt Opera included the greats of that time and shone with such names as Gerard Mortier (Director of Theatre de la Monnaie, Brussels, Salzburg Festival, Opera de Paris), Peter Mario Katona (Director of Casting at ROH Covent Garden) and Klaus Schultz (Director of Mannheim, Aachen, G?rtnerplatztheater in Munic).

With this outstanding team and his own efforts, he was able to maintain a balance in programming of traditional opera performance and innovative Musiktheater, as well as promoting the idea of Regietheater. As a result, Frankfurt opera was established as one of the leading opera houses at that time. He continued this concept in Hamburg.

Dohn?nyi's claim to fame turned out to be the long lasting relationship with the Cleveland Orchestra that spanned two decades. He made his conducting debut with the orchestra in December 1981, succeeding George Szell, and was later appointed as music director (commencing with the start of the 1984-85 season) the following year.

Dohn?nyi served the Cleveland Orchestra under the famously despotic George Szell, who had forged the orchestra into a world-class ensemble by the time of his death in 1970.Gearge Szell was known not only for his commitment to the Orchestra but also his expertise and his sound but highly rigid policies. Expectations were high from Dohn?nyi because of his kinship with Szell both in terms of musical training and micro-managerial conducting style.

Dohn?nyi's 18 year tenure with the Cleveland Orchestra turned out to be highly fruitful for the Orchestra was consistently ballyhooed as the finest orchestra in the United States and among the finest in the world. Numerous tours and recordings were organized in Dohn?nyi's 18 year tenure.

In spite of it all, Dohn?nyi was keenly aware of and mystified by the fact that their achievements were frequently overlooked: We give a great concert. . .and George Szell gets a great review. In 1994, Dohn?nyi became the principal guest conductor of the Philharmonia orchestra in London, UK, and in 1997 their Principal Conductor.

He relinquished this position in 2008 to Esa-Pekka Salonen and now has the title 'Honorary Conductor for Life' of the Philharmonia.

In April 2007, Dohn?nyi was one of eight conductors of British orchestras to endorse the 10-year classical music outreach manifesto, Building on Excellence: Orchestras for the 21st Century, to increase the presence of classical music in the UK, including giving free entry to all British schoolchildren to a classical music concert.

Dohn?nyi was named the first ever Music Director Laureate of the Cleveland Orchestra upon his retirement in 2002.In 2004, Dohn?nyi returned to Hamburg, Germany where he maintained a residence for many years to become chief conductor of the NDR Symphony Orchestra.