Elias Grandy
Conductor
German-Japanese conductor Elias Grandy is increasingly recognized as a distinctive voice among today's conductors. He is admired for his passionate temperament, precise musicianship, and an effortless podium presence that brings even the most complex musical ideas to life with clarity, depth and emotional intensity. Grandy was most recently appointed chief conductor and artistic director designate of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. His tenure in Prague will begin in the 2026-27 season.
Grandy was appointed chief conductor of the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra in 2025, following on from eight successful seasons as music director of the Theater and Orchester Heidelberg in Germany, a position he held until 2023. He is equally at home in both symphonic and operatic repertoire.
In the 2025-26 season Grandy returns to the Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and Prague Radio Symphony, as well as to Oper Frankfurt with Puccini's Tosca, Opera Nikikai Tokyo with Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus, and the Semperoper Dresden with Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges. With the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra, he will perform Richard Strauss' Ein Heldenleben and Mahler's Symphony No. 3 with Gerhild Romberger, among other works. Debut performances this season take him to the RTV Slovenian Symphony Orchestra and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.
Highlights of recent seasons include highly successful guest conducting appearances with orchestras such as the Vienna Symphony, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, Orchestre du Capitol de Toulouse, Brussels Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Belgique, Antwerp Symphony, Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires at Teatro Colón, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, Kyoto Philharmonic, Utah Symphony and Minnesota Orchestra.
A passionate advocate of musical storytelling, Grandy has led critically acclaimed productions of Elektra and Carmen at Minnesota Opera, Werther and A Village Romeo and Juliet at Frankfurt Opera, Un ballo in maschera at Aalto-Theatre Essen, Carmen at Opera Nikikai Tokyo and Rusalka at Portland Opera.
Born in Munich, Grandy studied cello, music theory and chamber music in Basel and Munich before turning to conducting at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin. He launched his professional career as resident conductor at the Staatstheater Darmstadt and was a prize-winner at the Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition in 2015.
