Philipp Bach

Conductor Philippe Bach has a versatile career as both an operatic and a symphonic conductor, in several musically diverse countries. He has held leadership positions in two of Germany's venerable opera theaters. Bach was born in Saanen, Switzerland, near Bern, in 1974. His first musical field of study was the French horn, which he studied in Bern and Geneva. Then he switched to conducting, working with Johannes Schlaefli at the Zurich University of the Arts, and the Royal Northern College of Music with Mark Elder. He also took a variety of master classes in conducting, including those with Sir Colin Davis, Peter Eötvös, and David Zinman. A first prize at the Lopez Cobos International Opera Conductors Competition in Madrid spread Bach's reputation in Spain, and in 2006, he landed a post as the assistant conductor at the Teatro Real in Madrid. He made his debut as conductor with Madama Butterfly in 2007. In 2008, Bach was a guest conductor of the Humperdinck opera Hansel and Gretel at the Hamburg State Opera, and that opened up new opportunities in northern Germany. From 2008 to 2010, he served as Kapellmeister and deputy general music director at the Theater Lübeck, where he conducted a variety of German and Russian operas, including Wagner's Das Rheingold. For the 2010-2011 season, Bach became the music director of the Meininger Theater and the Meininger Hofkapelle in southern Germany, and he has remained there, also taking on instrumental conducting appearances at the Bern Chamber Orchestra and the Graubünden Chamber Philharmonic. As a guest conductor, Bach has appeared with many top European orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, the BBC Philharmonic, and the Helsinki Philharmonic. In 2020, he led the Bern Chamber Orchestra in a performance of Philip Glass' Violin Concerto No. 2 ("The American Four Seasons"), with violinist Piotr Plawner.
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