Thomas Sanderling |

Thomas Sanderling

Thomas Sanderling is one of the most influential musicians of his generation. He was born in 1942 in Novosibirsk and grew up in Leningrad, where his father, the conductor Kurt Sanderling, led the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra.

After graduating from the Special Music School at the Leningrad Conservatory, Thomas Sanderling received a conductor’s education at the East Berlin Music Academy. As a conductor, he made his debut in 1962, in 1964 he was appointed to the position of chief conductor at Reicheinbach, and two years later, at the age of 24, he became the musical director of the Halle Opera – the youngest chief conductor among all opera and symphony conductors in East Germany.

In those years, T. Sanderling worked intensively with other leading orchestras of the country, including the Dresden State Chapel and the orchestra of the Leipzig Gewandhaus. The conductor won particular success at the Berlin Comic Opera – for his brilliant performances he was awarded the Berlin Critics’ Prize. Dmitry Shostakovich entrusted Sanderling with the German premieres of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Symphonies, and also invited him to participate in the recording of a suite on verses by Michelangelo (world premiere) together with L. Bernstein and G. von Karajan.

Thomas Sanderling has collaborated with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Symphony Orchestra, the National Orchestra of America, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the orchestras of the Bavarian and Berlin Radio, Oslo and Helsinki and many others. Since 1992, T. Zanderling has been the principal conductor of the Osaka Symphony Orchestra (Japan). Twice won the Grand Prix of the Osaka Critics’ Competition.

T. Zanderling actively cooperates with Russian orchestras, including the Honored Collective of the Russian Federation Academic Symphony Orchestra of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Tchaikovsky Grand Symphony Orchestra and the Russian National Orchestra.

T. Sanderling works a lot in the opera. From 1978 to 1983 he was a permanent guest conductor at the Berlin Staatsoper, where he staged operas by Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, Wagner, Verdi, Smetana, Dvorak, Puccini, Tchaikovsky, R. Strauss and others. Success accompanied his production of The Magic Flute at the Vienna Opera, “Marriage of Figaro” in the theaters of Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg, “Don Giovanni” at the Royal Danish Opera and the Finnish National Opera (produced by P.-D. Ponnel). T. Zanderling staged Wagner’s Lohengrin at the Mariinsky Theatre, Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District and Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Bolshoi.

Thomas Sanderling owns several dozen recordings on labels such as Deutsche Grammophon, Audite, Naxos, BIS, Chandos, many of which have been highly acclaimed by international critics. Sanderling’s recording of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony with the ZKR St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, which won the Cannes Classical Award, was a great success. In 2006 and 2007 Maestro Sanderling’s Deutsche Grammophon recordings were awarded the Editor’s Choice of the American guide Classicstoday.com (New York).

Since 2002, Thomas Sanderling has been a guest conductor of the Novosibirsk Academic Symphony Orchestra. In February 2006, he took part in the tour of the orchestra in Europe (France, Switzerland), and in September 2007 he was appointed chief guest conductor of the orchestra. In 2005-2008, the Thomas Sanderling Orchestra recorded S. Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony and P. I. Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture for Audite and S. Taneyev’s Symphonies in E Minor and D Minor for Naxos.

Source: Moscow Philharmonic website