Get to know the World Youth Choir conductors for the concert tour with Bundesjugendorchester this summer.
Conductors
Tan Dun
Conductor of the 2024 World Youth Choir Session and composer of the commissioned piece "Nine - Ode to Compassion"
The world-renowned artist and UNESCO Global Goodwill Ambassador Tan Dun has made an indelible mark on the world’s music scene with a creative repertoire that spans the boundaries of classical music, multimedia performance, and Eastern and Western traditions. A winner of today’s most prestigious honours including the Grammy Award, Oscar/Academy Award, Grawemeyer Award, Bach Prize, Shostakovich Award, Italy’s Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement, and most recently Istanbul Music Festival’s Lifetime achievement award. Tan Dun’s music has been played throughout the world by leading orchestras, opera houses, international festivals, and on radio and television. In 2019, Tan Dun was named as Dean of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. As dean, Tan Dun further demonstrates music’s extraordinary ability to transform lives and guide the Conservatory in fulfilling its mission of understanding music’s connection to history, art, culture, and society.
As a conductor of innovative programmes around the world, his current season includes appearances with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Tan Dun is an Artistic Ambassador of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and serves as the Honorary Artistic director of the China National Symphony, Principal Guest conductor at Shenzhen Symphony, and Honorary Artistic Director and Chief Guest conductor of the Xi´an Symphony Orchestra. Tan Dun has also led the world’s most esteemed orchestras, including London Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, among others.
%20(c)%20Decca%20Classics.jpg)
Tan Dun’s individual voice has been heard widely by international audiences. His first Internet Symphony, which was commissioned by Google/YouTube, has reached over 23 million people online. His Organic Music Trilogy of Water, Paper and Ceramic has frequented major concert halls and festivals. Paper Concerto was premiered with Los Angeles Philharmonic at the opening of the Walt Disney Hall. His multimedia work, The Map, premiered by YoYo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, has toured more than 30 countries worldwide. Its manuscript has been collected by the Carnegie Hall Composers Gallery. His Orchestral Theatre IV: The Gate was premiered by Japan’s NHK Symphony Orchestra and crosses the cultural boundaries of Peking Opera, Western Opera and puppet theatre traditions. Most recently, Tan Dun conducted the premiere of his new oratorio epic Buddha Passion at the Dresden Festival with Münchner Philharmoniker, the piece was co-commissioned by New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Dresden Festival and has since had premieres worldwide and will continue with upcoming premieres in London, Hamburg, and Amsterdam.
Tan Dun records for Sony Classical, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Opus Arte, BIS and Naxos. His recordings have garnered many accolades, including a Grammy Award (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and nomination (The First Emperor; Marco Polo; Pipa Concerto), Japan’s Recording Academy Awards for Best Contemporary Music CD (Water Passion after St. Matthew) and the BBC’s Best Orchestral Album (Death and Fire). Tan Dun’s music is published by G. Schirmer, Inc. and represented worldwide by the Music Sales Group of Classical Companies.
Jörn Andresen
Conductor of the 2024 World Youth Choir Session
The choir director, conductor and harpsichordist Jörn Andresen has been a university professor of choral conducting at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and choral director of the Wiener Staatsopernchor at the Salzburg Festival since 2019. He is also a regular guest with major radio and opera choirs such as the MDR Choir, NDR Choir, BR Choir, Danish Radio Choir, Choeur de Radio France, Choir of the Bayrischen Staatsoper, Choir of the Royal Opera House in Copenhagen and at the Salzburg Easter Festival.
As a conductor, Jörn Andresen has specialised in baroque works in addition to his many years of experience as a conductor at various opera houses and can look back on a broad repertoire of operas and (sacred) concert programmes. He specialises in baroque operas from Purcell to Händel at the opera houses in Koblenz, Munich (Gärtnerplatz), Regensburg, Bad Lauchstätt and oratorios, vespers and masses from Monteverdi to Bach. He currently works regularly with the Capella dell'halla. Together with the Mozarteum vocalEnsemble, he is gradually opening up the work of Salzburg's 17th century cathedral conductors from Bernardi to Biber, which is underrepresented in the city's musical life. Jörn Andresen also works regularly with the Salzburg Bach Society as a conductor and harpsichordist. He conducts the Klangverwaltung choir, with whom he has made several guest appearances at the Tyrolean Festival in Erl, including the St Matthew Passion, which was broadcast on ORF. Numerous other concerts have taken the choir under his direction, including to the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and to Blaibach for a memorable Bach Mass in B minor with the Konzerthausorchester Blaibach.
Jörn Andresen has given masterclasses and courses at the MDR Choir Leipzig, the German Forum Dirigieren, the Geneva University of Music and the Salzburg and Berlin Choral Associations. He is also active as a juror at various competitions, including the German Choral Conducting Prize 2022
and the Worldpeace Choral Festival in Vienna.
Born in Schleswig Holstein, he studied conducting, choral conducting, piano and harpsichord in Dresden and Amsterdam. After working as a choir director and conductor in Zwickau, Koblenz and at Munich's Gärtnerplatztheater, Jörn Andresen moved to the Semperoper Dresden in 2015, where
he took over the direction of the Sächsischen Staatsopernchor for five years. With this (his declared favourite) opera choir, he was nominated for his production of Moses and Aron for the International Opera Award in 2018.
With the professorship for choral conducting, he also took over the direction of the various choirs at the Mozarteum University in 2019. With the KammerChor, the UniChor and especially the mozarteum vocalEnsemble, great works are regularly on the programme. The requiems by Brahms, Mozart, Fauré and Biber, Bach cantatas, Orff's Carmina Burana, Paulus by Mendelssohn, Sea Symphony by Vaugh Williams and many other unknown works from all eras open up a broad vocal spectrum.
The World Youth Choir 2024 session is organised by:
With the support of:
