Alexander Liebreich

“With bravura” was the verdict in the Süddeutsche Zeitung in December 2009 when Alexander Liebreich made his debut with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, having stepped in at the last minute for an indisposed Riccardo Muti. The critic on that evening was particularly taken by Liebreich’s “musical agility, freshness and captivating feel for dynamic progressions”.

Last year Liebreich also made his conducting debut with the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden, the NDR Radiophilharmonie and the RSO Stuttgart. In the coming season he will embark on his first projects with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo; in autumn 2011 Liebreich will conduct Othmar Schoeck’s Penthesilea at Frankfurt Opera in the production by Hans Neuenfels; in 2012 he will return to the same company to conduct Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s Simplicius Simplicissimus directed by Christoph Nel.

A native of Regensburg, during his schooldays Alexander Liebreich already started to make his way as in the world of opera as a singer and pianist at the main theatre in Regensburg. He studied conducting with Michael Gielen at the Mozarteum in Salzburg; in 1996 he graduated from the Musikhochschule in Munich with distinction in both conducting and singing. Following master classes with Ilya Musin, Myung-Whun Chung (orchestral conducting) and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Lied) he won the Kirill Kondrashin Competition for Young Conductors in Hilversum, Holland, and was subsequently appointed assistant to Edo de Waart at the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest in Hilversum. Liebreich now started to appear as guest conductor with numerous leading orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin. And yet more invitations took him to the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the  Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra and elsewhere.

“Munich Celebrates Liebreich” was the title of a portrait of the conductor in Welt am Sonntag in autumn 2006 when he took over as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Munich Chamber Orchestra. Immediately after his inaugural concert the Süddeutsche Zeitung already greeted Liebreich as “probably Munich’s most exciting conductor”. Besides his talent for programming – drawing on a repertoire that ranges from Baroque to late Romantic symphonies to new music – he is also much admired for the “eloquence of the gestures that add yet another dimension to his performances” (Kölnische Rundschau). By now this innovative ensemble and its Chief Conductor are acclaimed not only at home but wherever they perform in the great musical centres of Europe, as guests at international festivals and on tour in Europe and Asia. Their first CD together, with two Haydn symphonies and the Chamber Symphony by Isang Yun, was released by ECM in 2008 as part of their New Series and received outstanding reviews from the international press. Their Bach recording released by Deutsche Grammophon in spring 2010, with Hilary Hahn, Christine Schäfer and Matthias Goerne, was presented on a highly successful European tour. “The orchestra stunned the audience with its supreme transparency, as though only original instruments were in use on the stage.” (Kölnische Rundschau)

In 2011 Alexander Liebreich will also take up the position of Artistic Director of the Tongyeong International Music Festival (TIMF) in South Korea, one of the largest and most important festivals in Asia. Besides presenting the core classical repertoire, the TIMF is also known for its special focus on Baroque music and on works by contemporary composers; its express mission is to set up channels of communication between Western Modernism and the contemporary music scene in Asia. In his role as Artistic Director, Alexander Liebreich will build on the reputation of the TIMF as a platform for international artists and as a test bed for new approaches to programme planning. In addition to this, 2012 will see the formation of the Tongyeong Festival Orchestra, made up of outstanding musicians from international orchestras and leading Korean musicians under the baton of renowned guest conductors and with Alexander Liebreich as its Artistic Director.

Liebreich has already played an active role in promoting cultural contacts between Germany and Korea, amongst other things in the form of memorable first performances of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony in North and South Korea with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and as guest professor in Pyongyang in 2005, supported by the German Academic Exchange Service and captured on film in the Dutch documentary Pyongyang Crescendo.

That Alexander Liebreich has an unusual ability to combine his artistic interests with the greater good of society is also evident from his work with the MKO. As part of their “Munich Project” he has instigated a number of model schemes involving children and young people. In addition to this, the MKO’s Aids Concert, which has now become an institution in its own right, also owes its existence to Liebreich’s initiative.

In December 2008 Alexander Liebreich was invited to become a Member of the Goethe Institute and as such participates in the General Meeting, which is the Institute’s most important organ after the Executive Committee. Members of the Goethe Institute are leading figures from the cultural and social life of the Federal Republic of Germany.