Distinctive, vibrant, and versatile – three words that perfectly capture Simon Gaudenz’s unmistakable musical signature.

Since 2018, he has served as General Music Director of the Jena Philharmonic, shaping the city’s musical life with fresh ideas and innovative projects. Together with his orchestra, he inspires audiences through imaginative formats and visionary concepts – among them the internationally acclaimed Mahler–Scartazzini Cycle, with which the ensemble tours regularly.

An internationally sought-after guest conductor, Simon Gaudenz has worked with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Orchestre National de France, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the Russian National Philharmonic, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Bamberg Symphony, the WDR Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Radiophilharmonie, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, as well as the radio orchestras of Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart, and Saarbrücken, the Philharmonic Orchestras of Monte Carlo, Lyon, and Luxembourg, and the Bavarian State Orchestra.

He is also a regular guest at major international festivals, including the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Berliner Festwochen, the Thuringia Bach Festival, the South Tyrol Festival, the Carl Nielsen Festival, and the Schwetzingen Festival.

Close artistic partnership connect him with distinguished soloists such as Anne Sofie von Otter, Igor Levit, Michael Barenboim, Daniel Ottensamer, Veronika Eberle, Renaud Capuçon, Arabella Steinbacher, Benjamin Appl, Sabine Meyer, Lise de la Salle, Lilya Zilberstein, Maximilian Hornung, and many others.

After early positions as Chief Conductor of the Collegium Musicum Basel and as founding member and Artistic Director of the camerata variabile basel, Simon Gaudenz was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Odense Symphony Orchestra in 2010. Two years later, he became Chief Conductor of the Hamburger Camerata, with which he presented numerous concerts at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.

His extensive discography includes, among others, the highly acclaimed complete recording of Schumann’s symphonies and the Opus Klassik 2020 award-winning album featuring symphonies by Haydn’s contemporary François-Joseph Gossec (for the cpo label). His recent recordings with the NDR Radiophilharmonie and the Jena Philharmonic – featuring works by Louis Spohr, Carl Loewe, Hugo Wolf, and Karl Weigl – have likewise received great critical and public acclaim. The ongoing Mahler–Scartazzini Cycle, of which Symphonies Nos. 2–9 have now been released, is already regarded as an artistic milestone for its unique pairing of Mahler’s symphonies with works by Swiss composer Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini.