Hans Graf

Music Director of the Houston Symphony, the distinguished Austrian conductor Hans Graf is one of today's most highly respected musicians and is recognised for his intensely musical interpretations of a wide range of repertoire and his creative programming.

Hans Graf is a much sought-after guest conductor in the United States, regularly leading the orchestras of Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Washington, as well as the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics. Over the past decade, his relationship with the Boston Symphony has specially developed and he appears regularly with it both during the season and at the Tanglewood Music Festival.

As Chief Conductor, he led the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg for ten years. In 2003 he completed eight seasons as Music Director of the Calgary Philharmonic as well as his Music Directorship of the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine. In June 2002, Hans Graf was awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre de la Légion d'Honneur by the French government for championing French music around the world - his recording of the complete orchestral works of Henry Dutilleux with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine for BMG/Arte Nova pays testament to this accolade.

Hans Graf is also guest conductor of Europe's major orchestras, including the Wiener Philharmoniker, the Wiener Symphoniker, the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the St. Petersburg and Czech Philharmonics, and the London Symphony Orchestra, and he participates at the major European festivals of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Bregenz, Aix-en-Provence and, for many years, the Salzburg Festival.

Future seasons see him guest conducting the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, as well as the Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra. He also continues his cooperation with the Cleveland Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Washington National Symphony Orchestra.

As an opera conductor, H. Graf first conducted the Wiener Staatsoper in 1981 and has since led productions in the opera houses of Berlin, Munich, Paris and Rome. Most recently, Hans Graf conducted Tristan und Isolde at the Opéra National de Bordeaux, Parsifal in Zurich and Boris Godunov at the Opéra de Strasbourg.

Born near Linz, Hans Graf's musical studies began with violin and piano. He entered the Musikhochschule in Graz in 1967 and continued his conducting studies with Franco Ferrara in Siena, Sergiu Celibidache in Bologna and Arvid Jansons in Weimar and Leningrad. In 1975-1976, Mr. Graf was the Music Director of the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra in Baghdad and he began coaching at the Wiener Staatsoper in 1977. His international career was launched in 1979 when he was awarded first prize at the Karl Böhm Competition.

Hans Graf's discography includes the complete symphonies of W. A. Mozart and F. Schubert, and the premiere recording of A. von Zemlinsky's opera Es war einmal. He has also recorded for EMI, Orfeo, Erato, Capriccio, JVC and, more recently, the aforementioned Dutilleux recording.