Pannon Philharmonic

Born in Pretoria (South Africa), Gérard Korsten began his career as a violinist after studying with Ivan Galamian at the Curtis Institute and with Sándor Végh in Salzburg. Following his studies in the US and Europe he became Concertmaster and Assistant Music Director of the Camerata Salzburg and later Concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. In 1996 he left the COE to concentrate on conducting. Since 2005 Gérard Korsten is Principal Conductor of the Symphonieorchester Vorarlberg Bregenz (Austria). He held positions as Principal Conductor of the State Theatre in Pretoria and the Uppsala Chamber Orchestra (Sweden) before he was appointed Music Director of the Orchestra del Teatro Lirico di Cagliari (Italy) from 1999 to 2005. In Cagliari he conducted the first Italian performances of Richard Strauss’s Die ägyptische Helena, Weber’s Euryanthe, Delius’ A Village Romeo and Juliet and Schubert’s Alfonso und Estrella, as well as the productions of the core operatic repertoire including Die Zauberflöte, Don Giovanni, Lucia di Lammermoor, Carmen, Die Fledermaus, Tosca, Aïda, The Barber of Seville and Don Pasquale.

Recently Gérard Korsten has appeared in opera productions including Bregenz Festival (L’Hirondelle inattendue, Die Zauberflöte, Le Rossignol, Der Schauspieldirektor), Deutsche Oper Berlin (Traviata), English National Opera (Aïda), Glyndebourne Festival (Così fan tutte, Albert Herring), Hungarian State Opera (Don Pasquale), Maggio Musicale Florence (Così fan tutte), Netherlands Opera (Così fan tutte), New National Theatre in Tokyo (Tosca), Opéra National de Lyon (Ariadne auf Naxos, Idomeneo, La Traviata, Siegfried, The Merry Widow and Henze’s L'Upupa), Royal Opera Stockholm (Don Giovanni), Teatro La Scala Milan (Le Nozze di Figaro), Teatro Lirico Verdi Trieste (Don Pasquale and La fille du régiment) and Teatro Reggio di Parma (La sonnambula).

Regular symphonic engagements include concerts with the Adelaide Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Gavle Symphony Orchestra, Helsingborg Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Latvian National Symphony, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Orchestra Padova e Veneto, SWR Sinfonieorchester Freiburg and Yomiuri Nippon orchestras as well as with Camerata Salzburg, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Irish Chamber and Swedish Chamber orchestras.

CD recordings include Tchaikovsky’s Serenade and Souvenir de Florence with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe on Deutsche Grammophon. With Orchestra del Teatro Lirico di Cagliari he has recorded CDs of Die ägyptische Helena and Euryanthe and DVDs of Alfonso und Estrella and Don Pasquale. His 2011 DVD of Le Nozze di Figaro (La Scala 2006) has been awarded a ‘Diapason D’Or’ and was the Critic Choice in the Opera News in February 2012.

In the 2015/16 season Gérard Korsten makes his debuts with Orchestra della Svizzerra  Italiana  and RTE Symphony orchestras and returns to Cape Town Opera (Salome) and Teatro Lirico di Cagliari (Traviata).