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DAVID AFKHAM, first winner of the „Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award“ 2010, will lead the Easter Tour 2012 of the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER, which is marking the 25th anniversary of the orchestra.
DAVID AFKHAM is rapidly establishing a reputation as one of the most sought after conductors of our times, and Bernard Haitink has been his mentor for a long time. After conducting renowned orchestras, such as the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the DSO Berlin, Orchestre National de France, Spanish National Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg or the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, highlights in the upcoming seasons include debuts at the Staatskapelle Dresden, Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam, Philharmonia Orchestra, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Munich Philharmonic, Stuttgart Radio Symphony, RTÉ National Symphony of Ireland, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, NHK Symphony Tokio as well as at the symphony orchestras in Seattle and Houston.
DAVID AFKHAM, who has already conducted the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER at concerts in Lisbon, Salzburg, Perugia, Interlaken and Bolzano, takes over from Ingo Metzmacher, who had to cancel his appearances with the GMJO on very short notice due to an injury of his shoulder.
„It is truly wonderful for the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER as well as for all presenters of the Easter Tour 2012 to have DAVID AFKHAM - with whom the orchestra has a long-standing relationship - taking over after Ingo Metzmacher´s cancellation on short notice due to his shoulder injury.“ (Alexander Meraviglia-Crivelli, Secretary General of the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER).
Recently appointed „Ambassador UNICEF Austria“, the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER will perform, in the Easter Tour 2012, twelve concerts with two exceptional programmes in seven European countries under the baton of DAVID AFKHAM and with Swedish soprano IRENE THEORIN.
Besides appearances in the orchestra’s founding cities Vienna, Graz, Prague, and Warsaw, the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER will perform, as every year, in some of the most important European concert halls: two concerts in the Vienna Musikverein, two concerts at the Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon, as well as one concert in the Laeiszhalle Hamburg and the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid prove the exceptional artistic reputation of the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER.
The Festival Interlaken Classics is the residential partner (as previously in 2008, 2009, and 2011) and will stage three concerts at the beginning of the Easter Tour 2012.