Teodor Currentzis
Chef d’orchestre
Teodor Currentzis, a trained violinist and conductor, ensemble founder and music ambassador, is one of the most distinctive personalities in classical music. He made his stunning debut conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker with Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at the end of 2019.
Teodor Currentzis began his musical training in his home town of Athens and moved to the conservatory in St Petersburg in 1994 to study conducting under the legendary Ilya Musin. He founded the musicAeterna Orchestra and the musicAeterna Choir in 2004 at the beginning of his tenure as chief conductor of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre before moving to the Perm State Opera and Ballet Theatre, where both ensembles followed him. At the start of the 2018/19 season, Currentzis took up the post as principal conductor of the SWR Symphonieorchester, with whom – as with musicAeterna – he visits the leading music centres as part of international tours. As an opera conductor, he has appeared at top houses in Russia and Europe, including the Opéra national de Paris, Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Zurich Opera House, the Teatro Real in Madrid and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Currentzis is a regular guest at the Salzburg Festival, where he made his debut in 2017. He has also accepted invitations to the Ruhrtriennale, the Lucerne Festival and the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Since 2012, Currentzis has been curator of the International Diaghilev Festival in Perm. He has been awarded several prestigious prizes for his artistic work, including the Alfred Toepfer Foundation’s KAIROS Prize and the Musikfest Bremen Prize.
