Conducting and orchestra workshop with Christoph Altstaedt
At the end of the winter semester, Eisler students work for three days with the conductor and Eisler alumnus Christoph Altstaedt in a conducting and orchestra workshop on several works by Anton Webern. Planned several semesters ago and postponed due to the pandemic, the conducting students and instrumentalists will come together in a small orchestra from February 16th to 18th for a non-public master class.
Christoph Altstaedt completed his studies at the Eisler in 2005 with Prof. Hans-Dieter Baum. A central concern of the conductor is to inspire more people for opera and concerts with new concert formats and music theater that is open to experimentation. His programs range from baroque music on original instruments to contemporary electronic music and hip-hop.
After first positions as a répétiteur and conductor at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz Munich and at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, he made guest appearances at the Zurich Opera, the Basel Theater, the Komische Oper Berlin and at the Salzburg and Savonlinna Festivals. A continuous collaboration connects him with the Finnish National Opera Helsinki, Opera North and Glyndebourne on Tour. He has conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, the London Philharmonia, the Ulster Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the German Radio Philharmonic, the Ensemble Resonanz, the hr-Sinfonieorchester, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and the radio in recent seasons -Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, the Oslo Filharmonien, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Trondheim Symfoniorkester.
From 2004 to 2011 he directed the Junges Klangforum Mitte Europa, which he founded – an orchestra with music students from Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany. Under the patronage of Presidents von Weizsäcker, Havel and Wałęsa, the orchestra has given concerts at historically significant locations such as Theresienstadt/Terezín and Kreisau/Krzyżowa and has received several awards for its efforts to promote international understanding, including the "Praemium Imperiale" and the "Marion Dönhoff Prize".