Celebrating his twelfth and final year as Music Director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) during the 2008-09 season, Andreas Delfs continues to garner national and international accolades through the MSO national radio series and guest conducting appearances in the USA and abroad. Through innovative and progressive programming each season with the MSO, a well-established rapport with the audience, and an electric podium presence, Mr. Delfs has fashioned a model for the next-generation music director in America. ... read full bio

Celebrating his twelfth and final year as Music Director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) during the 2008-09 season, Andreas Delfs continues to garner national and international accolades through the MSO national radio series and guest conducting appearances in the USA and abroad. Through innovative and progressive programming each season with the MSO, a well-established rapport with the audience, and an electric podium presence, Mr. Delfs has fashioned a model for the next-generation music director in America.

In the past, Mr. Delfs has held chief artistic posts with several distinguished institutions both in North America and Europe. Most recently, he led the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra as music director (2001-2004), and artistic consultant (2004 -2006). In Europe, he served as General Music Director of Hannover, Germany (1995-2000), conducting that city’s symphony orchestra and opera company, where he led the European premiere of American composer John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles (commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera), in addition to premiering many works by Europe’s most distinguished composers. Prior to his time in Hannover, Mr. Delfs was Music Director of the Bern (Switzerland) Opera, resident conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony (during the tenure of Lorin Maazel as music director), and Music Director, at an early age, of the celebrated Orchestre Suisse des Jeunes.

Mr. Delfs’ continuing commitment to contemporary music is a distinguishing point in his career. Since his student days at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, he has established a deep connection with living composers, and counts among his profound musical inspirations musicians such as John Corigliano, Philip Glass, Roberto Sierra, Lowell Liebermann, György Ligeti, Luciano Berio, Aribert Reimann and Hans Werner Henze. Similarly, Mr. Delfs is in high demand as an esteemed collaborative conductor, and is the frequent partner to many of the world’s most renowned solo artists, in both vocal and instrumental fields. Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Yo Yo Ma, Midori, Itzhak Perlman, Maurizio Pollini, Mstislav Rostropovich, André Watts, Renee Fleming and Frederica von Stade all make music with Mr. Delfs, either at his Milwaukee Symphony home or elsewhere around the globe.

Mr. Delfs continues to make recordings, most recently Roberto Sierra’s Missa Latina with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra to be released on the Naxos label, and Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos. 1, 3, & 4 with the London Symphony Orchestra and pianist John O’Conor on the Telarc label. Other recording projects have included a collection of sacred songs with Renee Fleming and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for the Decca label, a production of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra released on the Avie label and the first ever digital recording of Hansel and Gretel in English, as well as a recording of Mozart’s Requiem, with the St. Olaf Choir and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra on the Avie label. In 2005, Delfs and the MSO became the first American orchestra to distribute their live recordings through online music store iTunes.

The Chicago Tribune noted, “the Milwaukee Symphony made a shrewd choice in tapping Andreas Delfs to guide its artistic fortunes.” With the MSO Mr. Delfs has been a leader in visionary performances and groundbreaking leadership. In 1999 Andreas Delfs took the MSO to Cuba, the first major American orchestra to perform there in 37 years. This historic tour was profiled in The New York Times, Associated Press, CNN, NPR and the major U.S. television networks. In recognition of this unique achievement, the Milwaukee Press Club presented Andreas Delfs with the 1999 “Headliner of the Year” award, stating “Andreas Delfs and the MSO were the most important news in Wisconsin in 1999.”

In addition, Mr. Delfs keeps an active guest conducting schedule while continuing to maintain and strengthen relationships with distinguished institutions both in North America and abroad. Last season marked the beginning of a new position for Mr. Delfs as Principal Conductor of the Honolulu Symphony. Other highlights from the 07/08 season included, appearances with the Louisville Orchestra and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.  He also conducted a Beethoven Piano Concerto cycle, with pianist John O’Conor and the Seoul Philharmonic  at the Seoul Arts Center, appeared with the Dusseldorfer Symphoniker at the Tonhalle, and opened the Barbican’s Mostly Mozart festival with cellist Claudio Bohórquez and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.  2008/09 includes performances with the Seattle Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra, the Monte Carlo Philharmonic, Ireland’s RTE National Symphony Orchestra and a production of Carmen at the Cincinnati Opera.

Mr. Delfs has appeared with many of North America’s major orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra (both in Philadelphia and at Carnegie Hall), the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic (both in subscription and at the Hollywood Bowl), and symphony orchestras of Houston, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Dallas, Minnesota, Washington (NSO) and Atlanta, to name a few. He has also been a regular guest conductor at the Aspen Music Festival since 1985.

In Europe, Mr. Delfs has led such distinguished ensembles as the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Tonhalle Orchestra of Zurich, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic, the Leipzig Radio Orchestra and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, with whom he has recorded an album for London’s Decca label. Additionally, Mr. Delfs led a tour of Spain and France with the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra and soloist Mstislav Rostropovich, who immediately invited Mr. Delfs to conduct the Moscow Conservatory Orchestra at the inauguration of the new concert hall at the Evian Festival in France. In April 1997 Mr. Delfs made his debut with the Sydney Symphony in Australia and in November 2000 he debuted with the NHK Symphony in Japan. In May of 2005, Mr. Delfs led the Taipei Symphony Orchestra in a concert that included new pieces by composers Fu Yuan Soong and Ma Shui Long.

Among Mr. Delfs’ most notable operatic achievements have been a highly praised debut with the New York City Opera conducting performances of Carmen during the 1995-96 season and a production of the uncut version of Hans Werner Henze’s monumental Koenig Hirsch for the Württemberg State Theatre in Stuttgart. He led four productions at the Aspen Music Festival and gave the Swiss premiere of György Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, which received special praise from the composer. 

Born in Flensburg, Germany, he began studying piano and music theory at age 5 and joined the roster of the Flensburg Stadttheater as conductor and composer by the age of 17. He studied with Christoph von Dohnányi and Aldo Ceccato at the Hamburg Conservatory and served as a staff conductor at the Luneburg Stadttheater. At 20 he became the Music Director of the Hamburg University Orchestra, the youngest person ever to hold this post, and Musical Assistant at the Hamburg State Opera. Guest conductor at the Bremen State Theatre in 1981, Mr. Delfs graduated from Hamburg Conservatory that same year. Enrolling at The Juilliard School upon the recommendation of von Dohnányi, he studied with Jorge Mester and Sixten Ehrling, and won the Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship on the way to receiving his master’s degree in 1984. He lives with his wife Amy, and their four children in Germany.