Artist

Artistic Roster

Mischa Santora

associate conductor

Mischa Santora assumed the position of associate conductor with the Minnesota Orchestra at the beginning of the 2004-05 season, after serving for one year as the Orchestra’s assistant conductor. In this post, Santora leads Minnesota Orchestra subscription concerts, family concerts and pops presentations. In April 2009 he will lead the Orchestra and violinist Leila Josefowicz in performances of Bruch’s First Violin Concerto. Santora is entering his eighth season as the music director of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, where he has initiated innovative collaborations with other local performing arts organizations, establishing a track record of highly creative programming.

He made his subscription debut with the Minnesota Orchestra in January 2005, leading the ensemble in performances of Lowell Liebermann’s Violin Concerto with soloist Chantal Juillet. He has since led subscription performances of symphonies by Dvorák and Shostakovich as well as concertos featuring soloists Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Burt Hara and Andrew Staupe. He made his Hollywood Bowl debut in the fall of 2006, stepping in on short notice to lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

In recent years, Santora’s guest conducting commitments have taken him to many of the major musical centers in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. His North American engagements include performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, National Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Kitchener Waterloo Symphony, Eugene Symphony Orchestra and Boca Raton Philharmonic Symphonia. In Europe he has conducted such ensembles as the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the Lucerne Symphony and the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra. Santora has worked with the Budapest Matav Orchestra, the Miskolc Symphony Orchestra and the Hungarian National Symphony Orchestra’s Chorus, and debuted with the Georgisches Kammerorchester in Germany in March 2008. He recently made his debut with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and in October 2007 he returned to New Zealand for concerts with the Auckland Philharmonia. He has also conducted in Mexico, Peru and Chile.

In addition to his symphonic engagements, Santora is active in the operatic world, having recently completed a multi-year tenure as music director of the International Opera Festival Miskolc (Hungary). In the United States, in his role as co-founder of Boston’s Melopoeia Opera, he has mounted productions as diverse as Dido and Aeneas, Riders to the Sea (Vaughan Williams) and La serva padrona in untraditional performance settings. He also conceived a highly original production of Cosi fan tutte for the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra’s 2006 Mozart Festival.

From 1997 to 2002, Santora held the post of music director of the New York Youth Symphony, as well as the Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra, leading performances at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. In addition, his work with the Australian Youth Orchestra and the Orchestre de Jeunesses Musicales Switzerland underscores his enthusiasm for performing with young musicians.

Born to Hungarian parents, Santora moved with his family to Switzerland, where he began violin studies under his father, a member of the Lucerne Symphony. Santora went on to obtain teaching and conducting degrees from the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. A recipient of the 1998 Aspen Conducting Prize, he has received conducting honors from such prestigious institutions as the Presser, Kiefer-Hablitzel and Kurt-Dienemann Foundations.

September 2008