Artistes

Thomas Sanderling grew up in St. Petersburg, where his father, the celebrated conductor Kurt Sanderling, was permanent conductor of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra. He graduated from the Music School of the Leningrad Conservatory and went on to study conducting at the Hochschule für Musik in East Berlin, becoming Music Director of the Halle Opera at 24 years old. By his mid-twenties he was conducting in all East Germany's principal orchestras and opera houses, including the Dresden Staatskapelle and the Leipzig Gewandhaus and won the Berlin Critic's Prize for his opera performances at the Komische Oper Berlin. His CD of Shostakovich's Michelangelo Suite (premiere recording) directly lead to his becoming assistant to both Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein. In the early 1980s he became permanent guest conductor of the Deutsche Staatsoper Unter Den Linden, which led to his successful debut at the Wiener Staatsoper, conducting Die Zauberflöte. Immediately afterwards the Wiener Staatsoper invited him to conduct Le Nozze di Figaro - the first performance after the death of the great Karl Böhm. He has won many prizes and a competition and is particularly renowned for the German, Russian and French orchestral repertory.

Having attended Sanderling's Moscow debut, Shostakovitch asked the conductor to conduct the German first performance of his symphonies No. 13 and 14. Sanderling's premiere CD recordings of Shostakovitch's Song Cycles for Orchestra on Deutsche Grammophon was selected as The Editor's Choice by the renowned British music magazine Gramophone. In May 2013 Thomas Sanderling conducted the world premiere of the last opera by Russian composer Mieczysław Weinberg, The Idiot after the novel by Dostoyevsky, at Nationaltheater Mannheim.

Among the orchestras he has conducted are: BBC Scottish, Baltimore Symphony, Bayerische Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, Dresden Staatskapelle, Dresden Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, Halle Orchestra UK, Helsinki Philharmonic, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, London Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony, NDR Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Pittsburg Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Radio Philharmonic Hilversum, Royal Stockholm. St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Tchaikovsky Radio Symphony Moscow, Vancouver Symphony, WDR Symphony Cologne, Sydney Symphony, Novosibirsk Philharmonic.

He is Music Director Laureate of Osaka Symphony, which awarded him the title of Music Director Laureate for his Lifetime. With this Orchestra he won the Grand Prix of the Osaka Critics twice in three years.

Thomas Sanderling's recent activities and future plans include: concerts with Staatskapelle Dresden, the National State Philharmonic in Budapest, with the Slovak Philharmonic in Bratislava, Tokyo Kosei and with the Radio Philharmonish at the Concertgebouw, as well as concerts in Russia: with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and the Mariinsky Orchestra. Thomas Sanderling has also conducted the revival of Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, as well as Wagner’s Der Fliegende Hollaender at the Tchaikovski Opera. CD released with London Philharmonic Orchestra and violinist Linus Roth received ECHO Klassik Award 2017. On the way are concerts with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra in Moscow, and a concert with the Chia National Philharmonic and a special program of post war musical highlights with Gidon Kremer at Brucknerhaus Linz, including the Genesis Suite (Stravisky, Schoenberg, Milhaud etc). In August 2017 Thomas Sanderling became an Artistic Director and Chief Conductor at the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra.