Christoph König has made a name for himself far and wide for the clear, sensitive and richly-detailed interpretations of the music he conducts. He is the designated Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the RTVE Spanish Radio Symphony Orchestra as of 2022/23, and has been Music Director of the Solistes Européens, Luxembourg since 2011. From 2003 to 2006 he was Chief Conductor of the Malmö SymfoniOrkester and between 2009 and 2014, Chief Conductor of the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música. From 2003 to 2006 he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquesta Filarmonica de Gran Canaria and from 2010 to 2015 held the same position with the Real Filharmonia de Galicia.
Regular engagements with orchestras such as the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Pittsburgh and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, as well as the Warsaw Philharmonic (Filharmonia Narodowa) form an integral part of his annual programme. König is in demand as Guest Conductor all over Europe, America and Asia (Australia). Previous engagements include debuts with the City of Birmingham, Detroit and Seattle Symphony Orchestras, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Orchestre de Paris, the Danish and Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestras, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the Dresden Philharmonic. On numerous occasions he has conducted the German Radio Philharmonic, Saarbrücken, the Beethovenhalle Orchestra, Bonn, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, the Basque National Orchestra Euskadi, the Melbourne Symphony, New Zealand Symphony, Adelaide Symphony, West Australian Symphony and the Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra. He accompanied the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra on a highly successful tour through China. His US debut in 2010 with the New Jersey and Indianapolis orchestras quickly led to further invitations and repeated, sometimes frequent engagements with the orchestras of Los Angeles, Toronto, Oregon, Vancouver, Houston, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Seattle, Detroit and Rochester. Future appearances include debuts with the Minnesota Orchestra and the Florida Symphony Orchestra, as well as further invitations to Birmingham (CBSO), Warsaw, New Jersey and Rochester.
König quickly gained a reputation as a conductor of opera when he replaced Franz Welser-Möst at the Zurich Opera House, conducting a highly successful first performance of Die Entführung aus dem Serail. He had already made his debut in Zurich and gone on to conduct a number of performances. He conducted further productions in Madrid’s Teatro Real, in the German Opera in Berlin and the State Opera, Stuttgart. Following a lengthy period of concentration on the symphonic repertory, Christoph König returned to opera with Richard Strauss’ Rosenkavalier and Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre in the Chemnitz Opera House, as well as Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus in the Teatro Colón in Bueno Aires.
Christoph König and the Solistes Européens, Luxembourg recently began working together with the British record label RUBICON and with NAXOS. On the programme are works by Méhul, Beethoven, Berio, Schubert, Dvořák and Ives (RUBICON), as well as the unjustly neglected French composer Louise Farrenc (complete recording with NAXOS). The 2020 recording of Beethoven’s complete symphonies in particular gained international recognition. Further recordings are planned, including works by Albert Diderich.
Christoph König grew up in Dresden and was a member of the Dresden Kreuzchor. He went on to study orchestral conducting, piano and singing at the city’s Conservatoire. His classic conductor’s career – no longer fashionable in today’s world, especially in the field of symphonic music – led him first as solo répétiteur to Saxony’s State Opera/Staatskapelle Dresden, then as Principal Conductor to the Wuppertal Opera House in 1997 and in 2001, to the Bonn Opera/ Beethovenhalle Orchestra.
Christoph König is a laureate of the German Music Council’s Herbert von Karajan Foundation.