Michael Sanderling

Michael Sanderling has been chief conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra since the 2021/2022 season. The appointment follows many years of successful collaboration and with the common aim of further developing the orchestra in the direction of late Romantic repertoire such as Bruckner, Mahler and Strauss.

His third season on the podium with the orchestra offers highlights such as tours in Europe and South America. A Brahms cycle with the four symphonies and his “Fifth”, the piano quartet orchestrated by Arnold Schoenberg, released by Warner Classics in 2023, documents impressively the successful cooperation.

Sanderling shares the stage with soloists such as Christian Tetzlaff, Steven Isserlis, Chen Reiss, Renaud Capuçon, Edgar Moreau, Vadim Gluzman, Yoav Levanon und Elisabeth Leonskaya. Guest engagements take Michael Sanderling to leading orchestras worldwide. In recent seasons he has appeared with the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Tonhalle-Orchestra Zurich and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He enjoys a particularly close and regular collaboration with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and the Radio Symphony Orchestra of SWR.

In the 2023/2024 season, in addition to his commitments in Lucerne, Michael Sanderling will make his debut with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Furthermore, he returns to the Dresdner Philharmonie, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Michael Sanderling held his first principal position with the Kammerakademie Potsdam, holding the title of Artistic Director from 2006 to 2011. From 2011 to 2019, Michael Sanderling was Chief Conductor of the Dresdner Philharmonie. During his tenure he distinguished the orchestra as one of Germany’s leading ensembles, leading the musicians in a wide variety of concert formats in Dresden and on numerous international tours. Together with the orchestra he recorded the complete symphonies of Beethoven and Shostakovich for Sony Classical to document this special collaboration.

His extensive discography includes recordings of important works by Dvořák, Schumann, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, and the complete symphonies of Beethoven and Shostakovich. It also includes a recording of works for cello and orchestra by Bloch, Korngold, Bruch and Ravel with Edgar Moreau and the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the latter was recently released by Warner Classics.

In the opera pit, Michael Sanderling’s previous appearances include a new production of Sergei Prokofiev’s War and Peace at Oper Köln for which he was voted Conductor of the Year by the magazine "Opernwelt".

Sanderling is a passionate supporter of the next generation of young musicians. He teaches at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt am Main, and regularly works with the Bundesjugendorchester, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra. From 2003 until 2013 he has been Chief Conductor of the Deutsche Streicherphilharmonie.