Simon
Gaudenz first attracted international attention in 2006 when he
won the "International Conducting Competition Gennady Rozhdestvensky"
in Sofia. He began his conducting career in 2000 when he became
Artistic Director of the Basel-based ensemble Camerata Variabile,
with whom he performed at various European festivals such as the
Berliner Festspiele and the European Music Month 2001.
Since
2004, Simon Gaudenz is Music Director of the prestigious Collegium
Musicum in Basel, only the second conductor to be given this position
in the Swiss Orchestra’s 50 year history.
Simon
made his opera début in 2003 with Honegger’s "Les
Aventures du Roi Pausole". Subsequently, he was engaged to
conduct a new production of Strauss’ "Night in Venice"
in Switzerland, and in 2006 Verdi’s ”La Traviata”
at the Altenburg-Gera Opera House in Germany. He made his French
debut in the summer of 2005 at the Festival de Gensac near Bordeaux,
France.
Known
for his extensive classical, romantic and contemporary repertoire,
Simon Gaudenz is frequently invited to guest conduct leading European
orchestras, and has worked to date with the Orchestre National
de France, the Tonhalle-Orchestra Zürich, the Düsseldorf
Symphony Orchestra, the Musikkollegium Winterthur, the St. Petersburg
State Hermitage Orchestra, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, the Bremen
Philharmonic, the Württemberg Philharmonic as well as the
Neubrandenburg Philharmonic, the Mainz State Philharmonic, the
Zürich New Music Ensemble, the Nürnberg Symphony Orchestra
and the Orchestra of the Mozarteum Salzburg.
In
2005 he was awarded a stipend from the “Akademie Musiktheater
Heute” sponsored by the Deutsche Bank and in 2004 he has
been accepted into the highly-competitive conductor training program
sponsored by the German National Music Council (Dirigentenforum
Deutsche Musikrat). Simon Gaudenz is the recipient of the Aargauer
Kuratorium Artist Award in Switzerland.
Simon
Gaudenz was born in Basel, Switzerland. He first studied the clarinet
and graduated with a soloist diploma in clarinet performance.
In addition, he also studied composition with Peter Benary and
Dieter Ammann.
His conducting training he received in Germany at the Staatliche
Musikhochschule Freiburg and at the Mozarteum Salzburg, where
he studied with Dennis Russell Davies, Jorge Rotter and Scott
Sandmeier. During the course of his studies he was selected on
numerous occasions to participate in master classes and to perform
with orchestras in Stuttgart, Mannheim, Pforzheim and Reutlingen.
He completed his studies in masterclasses with Kurt Masur, Reinhard
Goebel and Wolf-Dieter Hauschild.
To
further his studies outside of Germany, Simon Gaudenz has participated
in the Pierre Monteux School in Maine (USA), and was invited by
David Zinman to participate in the American Academy of Conducting
at the Aspen Music Festival where he also worked with David Robertson,
Julius Rudel, Michael Stern, Sergiu Comissiona, Arnold Östman
and pianist Leon Fleisher.
In addition, he was Mario Venzago’s assistant with the Malmö
Symphony Orchestra (Sweden), and Eliahu Inbal's assistant with
the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo.
As
a soloist and chamber musician he performed in the major music
centers of Europe, held the positions of Principal Clarinetist
with various Orchestras and appeared with the Basel Symphony Orchestra.
He participated in broadcasts and recordings with Radio France,
the Bavarian Radio (Bayerische Rundfunk), Westdeutscher Rundfunk
and Swiss Radio DRS.
Simon
Gaudenz currently lives in Munich.