Howard Griffiths (conductor)
Howard Laurence Griffiths ( born February 24, 1950 in Hastings, England ) is a British conductor.
Life and work
Howard Griffiths was born in England and studied at the Royal College of Music in London. Since 1981 he has lived in Switzerland. Since the 2007/ 08 season Howard Griffiths is general music director of the Brandenburg State Orchestra and has extended his contract in 2013 for the third time and until 2018.
From 1996 to 2006, Howard Griffiths Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, whose long and distinguished tradition, he has performed successfully in all respects on. This included extensive tours in Europe, the USA and China.
Howard Griffiths enters the world as a guest conductor with many leading orchestras. These include the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, the Orchestre National de France, the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, the Orquesta Nacional de España and the WDR Symphony Orchestra and various other radio orchestras in Germany.
Howard Griffiths can also inspire you again and again for special projects in addition to conducting engagements in the main repertoire. With various orchestras successful crossover projects created about with Giora Feidman, Roby Lakatos, Burhan Öçal or Abdullah Ibrahim; with great success, he conducted with the ZKO the original music for films by Charles Chaplin to live film projection on a large screen.
Also passionate about Howard Griffiths continues to set apart with the music development of children and young people; so in cooperation with the Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt emerged already several education projects. In 2012, the children's book " The Witch and the Maestro ", which was recorded by the critics in a big way and was nominated for several awards appeared. The English version appeared as " The Witch and the Maestro " a year later.
His tenure at the Orpheum Foundation, whose artistic director since 2000, as well as his regular work with young orchestras such as the National Youth Orchestra and the Swiss Youth Orchestra testify to his great commitment to support young musicians.
Around 100 recordings with various labels ( Warner, Universal, cpo, Sony, cooking, etc.) testify to Howard Griffiths ' broad artistic spectrum. They contain, for example, works by contemporary Swiss and Turkish composers and premieres of pieces recovered music from the 18th and 19th centuries. His recordings of all eight symphonies by Beethoven's pupil Ferdinand Ries have received worldwide critical praise.
Howard Griffiths played with many renowned artists, such as, among others, Maurice André, Kathleen Battle, Joshua Bell, Rudolf Buchbinder, Sir James Galway, Edita Gruberova, Mischa Maisky, Güher and Süher Pekinel, Mikhail Pletnev, Vadim Repin, Maria João Pires, Fazil Say and Thomas Zehetmair.
In the annual " New Year's Honours List ", the Queen Elizabeth II announces each New Year's Day, Howard Griffiths was appointed in 2006 for his services to the music life in Switzerland for "Member of the British Empire " ( MBE).