Now in his eighth year as Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra, Franz Welser-Möst has a long-term commitment extending to the Orchestra’s centennial in 2018. Under his direction, the Orchestra holds residencies in the United States and Europe, champions living composers, and has re-established itself as an important operatic ensemble. Concurrently with his post in Cleveland, Mr. Welser-Möst becomes General Music Director of the Vienna State Opera in September 2010.
In 2011, Mr. Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra launch a biennial residency at New York’s Lincoln Center, adding to their annual Miami Residency and their ongoing residencies at Vienna’s Musikverein and Switzerland’s Lucerne Festival. At Lincoln Center, the Orchestra will be featured the first season in concert and in future years in Vienna State Opera productions. In 2008, Mr. Welser-Möst led The Cleveland Orchestra in five sold-out performances of Dvořák’s Rusalka at the Salzburg Festival. During the 2010-11 season, their operatic work continues as they complete their series of Mozart/Da Ponte operas in Cleveland with a Zurich Opera production of Don Giovanni. This follows Severance Hall sold-out performances in Cleveland of Zurich productions of The marriage of Figaro (2008-09) and Così fan tutte (2009-10).
This summer, Franz Welser-Möst conducted the Vienna Philharmonic’s outdoor Sommernachts concert at Schönbrunn Palace and, in 2011, he conduct the orchestra’s world-renowned concerts celebrating the New Year. Recently, Mr. Welser-Möst has led a new production of Wagner’s Ring cycle with stage director Sven-Eric Bechtolf and conducted Wagner’s Tannhäuser and Parsifal at the Vienna State Opera, as well as leading the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival, Bbc Proms, Lucerne Festival, and in a special concert in Vienna to mark the 150^th anniversary of the Vienna Singverein.
Prior to his appointment in Cleveland, Franz Welser-Möst guest-conducted the orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia. Mr. Welser-Möst was music director of the London Philharmonic from 1990 to 1996. His decade-long tenure with the Zurich Opera culminated in three seasons as General Music Director (2005/08).
Mr. Welser-Möst’s recordings and videos have won the Gramophone Award, Diapason d’Or, Japanese Record Academy Award, and two Grammy nominations. His recording with The Cleveland Orchestra of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on Deutsche Grammophon was released in 2007. Mr. Welser-Möst has led The Cleveland Orchestra in live video recordings of the Bruckner Symphonies Nos. 5, 7, and 9. In August 2010, he and the Orchestra are making a video recording of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8.