Alexander Liebreich
Alexander Liebreich has been hailed by the press as Munich’s most exciting conductor and a pioneer in a new generation of conductors, for whom the borderline between large symphony orchestras and smaller, more flexible ensembles comes just as naturally as their synthesis of artistic mastery and social responsibility.
Having won the Kondraschin Conducting Competition in 1996, he was appointed assistant to Edo de Waart at the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest-Holland. Following this, Alexander Liebreich was invited to appear as guest conductor with many prestigious orchestras including the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Belgique, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia, the Radio Sinfonieorchester Berlin and the Munich Philharmonic. He has performed with distinguished soloists such as Lisa Batiashvili, Claron McFadden, Frank Peter Zimmermann and Maxim Vengerov. In recent years, has also conducted the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, NDR Radio-Philharmonic, RSO Stuttgart, Dresden Philharmonic and Osaka Philharmonic..
Alexander Liebreich was appointed Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Munich Chamber Orchestra (MKO) in October 2006. Since that time, as well as receiving several awards for its unique sound and innovative programming, the ensemble has become widely celebrated not only in Munich but also throughout Europe and overseas, performing with Liebreich at major international festivals and concert halls. Their first collaborative CD, featuring works by Joseph Haydn and Isang Yun, was released internationally to great critical acclaim by the label ECM in January 2008, and was followed in 2009 by the launch of a Bach CD with Hilary Hahn, Christine Schäfer and Matthias Goerne, by Deutsche Grammophon.
Aside from his concerts and opera productions, Alexander Liebreich has established a reputation for himself through his extraordinary initiative in pursuing unusual projects. In 2002 he visited North and South Korea together with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie where they gave the first Korean performances of Bruckner Symphony No. 8. He has since returned to North Korea five times as Guest Professor in collaboration with the Goethe Institute and the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service). The unique documentary film “Pyongyang Crescendo”, released on DVD in 2005, captures his teaching experiences there.
Continuing along the lines of his core repertoire of large symphonic works, in which he began to specialise during his studies in Munich and Salzburg, further influenced later by his work with Claudio Abbado and Michael Gielen, the 42-year-old conductor from Regensburg will give several debuts in the coming year. These include appearances with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, as well as at the Frankfurt Opera where he will conduct a Hans Neuenfels production of Schoeck’s Penthesilea.
In December 2008, Alexander Liebreich was named member of the General Meeting of the Goethe Institute, a guiding body of selected figures from the cultural life of Germany advising the institute’s Board of Trustees.
From 2011, Liebreich will also take on the role of Artistic Director of the Tongyeong International Music Festival (TIMF) in South Korea, one of the largest and most prominent festivals in Asia.