Johannes Klumpp

“It needs a conductor who is able to bridge the gap between genres and eras: Johannes Klumpp (...) eschews historical clichés. In this way, Grieg, Skalkottas, Bartók and Mozart (...) gain a new temperament in their directness, in their terrifically enchanting sound.” (WESTDEUTSCHE ALLGEMEINE)

Orchestral conductor, musical mediator, festival director – since his early competition successes as a rising star on the podium, Johannes Klumpp has made a name for himself in several roles. The conductor, who was born in Stuttgart in 1980 and studied the viola while learning his trade under Prof. Nicolás Pasquet and Prof. Gunter Kahlert in Weimar, first attracted international attention when he won second prize in the International Conducting Competition in Besançon in 2007. This was followed by further successes at the German conservatoire competition “in memoriam Herbert von Karajan”, in which he won not only the first prize but also the special award, and at the German Conducting Competition in 2011. Masterclasses with renowned conductors such as Kurt Masur, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Michail Jurowski rounded off his artistic training, during which he was a scholarship-holder of the German Music Council’s conductors’ development programme “Maestros of Tomorrow”.    

Since then, Johannes Klumpp has cultivated a busy calendar of performances with prominent orchestras including the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Düsseldorf Symphony, Dresdner Philharmonie, WDR Funkhausorchester Köln, Staatsorchester Stuttgart, the Munich, Stuttgart and Nuremberg Symphonies, Russian Philharmonic Orchestra and Kammerakademie Potsdam. His latest release with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and the bassoonist Matthias Rácz with works by Françaix, Tomasi, Jolivet and Villa-Lobos was critically acclaimed.

Johannes Klumpp has worked with the young musicians of the Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen as its chief conductor and artistic director since the 2013/14 season. In this time, he has raised the orchestra’s profile and placed a special focus on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, to whom a whole concert series is dedicated. Klumpp has also developed innovative programme formats through the “ExtraKlang” series – now held at the UNESCO World Heritage Site Zeche Zollverein – collaborating with such well-known German cultural figures as, among others, the publicist Roger Willemsen, the actor Rufus Beck and, this season, the composer and pianist Hauschka.         

Johannes Klumpp also regularly appears in the dual role of conductor and presenter to encourage audiences’ connection with the music. He is convinced that “in this day and age we have to show the way to what we love so much – cross over the threshold.” He also implements this philosophy at the Schloss Hundisburg Summer Music Academy Festival in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, where he was appointed artistic director in 2013. Here, the conductor and his team create outstanding musical experiences in a rural setting, far from cultural centres.

The conductor’s current season is focused on two Mozart operas: Le nozze di Figaro at the Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck and Cosi fan tutte at the Gärtnerplatztheater Munich. He will also make his debuts with the Sinfonieorchester Aachen, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada and Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as returning to conduct the Düsseldorf Symphony.

2016/17 season
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