in Cleveland, re-establishing the Orchestra as an important operatic ensemble. Following six seasons of opera-in-concert presentations, he brought fully staged opera back to Severance Hall with a three-season cycle of Zurich Opera productions of the MozartDa Ponte operas. He led concert performances of Strauss’s Salome at Severance Hall and at Carnegie Hall in May 2012. Franz Welser-Möst became general music director of the Vienna State Opera in 2010. His long partnership with the company has included acclaimed performances of Tristan and Isolde, a new production of Wagner’s Ring cycle with stage director SvenEric Bechtolf, and critically praised new productions of Hindemith’s Cardillac and Janáček’s Katya Kabanova and From the House of the Dead. During the 2012-13 season, his Vienna performances include Wagner’s Parsifal, Strauss’s Arabella and Ariadne auf Naxos, Puccini’s La Bohème, and Berg’s Wozzeck. Mr. Welser-Möst also maintains an ongoing relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic. Recent performances with the Philharmonic include appearances at the Lucerne Festival and Salzburg Festival, in Tokyo, and in concert at La Scala Milan, as well as leading the Philharmonic’s 2011 New Year’s Day concert, viewed by telecast in seventy countries worldwide; he conducted the New Year’s Day concert again at the start of 2013 and also leads the Philharmonic in a series of concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall in March 2013. Across a decade-long tenure with the Zurich Opera, culminating in three seasons as general music director (2005-08), Mr. Welser-Möst led the company in more than 40 new productions and numerous revivals. Franz Welser-Möst’s recordings and videos have won major awards, including the Gramophone Award, Diapason d’Or, Japanese Record Academy Award, and two Grammy nominations. With The Cleveland Orchestra, he has created DVD recordings of live performances of Bruckner symphonies, presented in three accoustically distinctive venues (the Abbey of St. Florian in Austria, Vienna’s Musikverein, and Severance Hall). With Cleveland, he has also released a recording of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony as well as an all-Wagner album featuring soprano Measha Brueggergosman. DVD releases on the EMI label have included Mr. Welser-Möst leading Zurich Opera productions of The Marriage of Figaro, Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni, Der Rosenkavalier, Fierrabras, and Peter Grimes. For his talents and dedication, Mr. Welser-Möst has received honors that include recognition from the Western Law Center for Disability Rights, honorary membership in the Vienna Singverein, appointment as an Academician of the European Academy of Yuste, a Gold Medal from the Upper Austrian government for his work as a cultural ambassador, a Decoration of Honor from the Republic of Austria for his artistic achievements, and the Kilenyi Medal from the Bruckner Society of America. He is the co-author of Cadences: Observations and Conversations, published in a German edition in 2007.
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Music Director
The Cleveland Orchestra