Howard Griffiths
Biography Howard Griffiths
Howard Griffiths
was born in England and studied at the Royal College of Music in London. He has lived in Switzerland since 1981. Howard Griffiths was the Artistic Director of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra for ten years and has appeared as a guest conductor with many leading orchestras all over the world. These include the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London, the Orchestre National de France, Radio Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Basle Symphony Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, the Orquesta Nacional de España, various radio orchestras in Germany (NDR, SWR and WDR), the Polish Chamber Orchestra, as well as the English Chamber Orchestra and the Northern Sinfonia.
Howard Griffiths was Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra from 1996 to 2006, and successfully continued its long tradition of excellence in every respect. His work with the orchestra also involved extended tours of Europe, the United States and China, which were enthusiastically received by audiences and critics alike, both in Switzerland and abroad.
Since the season 2007/08 he is Artistic Director of the Brandenburg Staatsorchester. His first concert of the season met with critical acclaim, and Howard Griffiths immediately made it clear which journey he would be embarking on with the Staatsorchester: a journey to lightness, ease and transparency. […] Quite apart from all the emotional intensity and expressive simplicity, nuances and thematic developments that would otherwise have been submerged in the smooth sea of notes suddenly became audible. That makes us curious to hear more of Griffiths’ revelatory performances of the repertoire. (MOZ). He renewed the contract in 2013 until 2018.
Howard Griffiths is also committed to regular performances of contemporary music. Examples include his direction of the Collegium Novum Zurich at the Swiss première performance of Hans Werner Henze’s Requiem in the presence of the composer and his close collaboration with composers such as Sofia Gubaidulina, George Crumb, Arvo Pärt and Mauricio Kagel.
