Stefan Vladar

The distinguished Austrian pianist and conductor STEFAN VLADAR was born in Vienna in 1965. His great success when he won First Prize at the 7^th International Beethoven Piano Competition in 1985, opened the way for his worldwide career. He has played in some of the world's greatest music halls under the batons of Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnányi, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Daniel Hardink, Christopher Hogood, Louis Langre, Sir Neville Marriner, Yehudi Menuhin, Seiji Ozawa, Horst Stein, Christian Thielemann, Simon Rattle, Sandor Vegh with orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Camerata Salzburg, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian State Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, Chicago, Houston and Quebec Symphony Orchestras, Lincoln Center Festival Orchestra, etc. Stefan Vladar has appeared as conductor with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, the Salzburg Chamber Orchestra, the Bruckner Orchestra in Linz and the Philharmonie in the Hague, Stuttgart and Essen, the Budapest and Danish Radio Symphony Orchestras, the Haydn Orchestra in Bolzano and Trento, as well as chamber orchestras in Prague, Cologne, Zurich, Basel and Ireland. From 2002 to 2006 he was principal conductor of the Recreation-Grosses-Orchester in Graz. Since 2008 he has been Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra for eleven years, succeeding Heinrich Schiff, and as soloist and conductor he has toured extensively and performed two cycles at the Vienna Konzerthaus. During this time he served as guest conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra-in-Residence at the Hague, the Moscow Philharmonic, and others. The 2015-2016 season marked his conducting debut in the United States with the Portland Symphony Orchestra. Since 2019 he has been General Music Director, currently also Opera Director of the Lübeck Theatre. Stefan Vladar has been a frequent guest at prestigious festivals - in Salzburg, Edinburgh, Osaka, Hong Kong, Rheingau, Schleswig-Holstein, Ruhr, Bremen, Schwarzenberg. In 2010, as Artist-in-Residence at the Bodensee Festival in Germany, he appeared as both pianist and conductor, including the opening performance with the Bamberger Symphony Orchestra. He has performed along Heinrich Schiff, Julian Rachlin, Janine Janssen and others. His recordings as pianist and conductor have been released on more than 40 CDs on the Harmonia Mundi, Naxos, Sony Classical and Preiser labels. Stefan Vladar has been the artistic director of the Neuberg Culture Days for more than 30 years. Since 1999 he has been Professor of Piano at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. He is a recipient of the Golden Order of Honour for services to the Republic of Austria.