THOMAS KALB

In 1993 Thomas Kalb was appointed Music Director of the Heidelberg. Philharmonic Orchestra which made him the youngest ever Music Director of the Federal Republic of Germany. His extraordinary artistic and organisational abilities earned him two contract renewals in this position.

As a guest-conductor, Thomas Kalb has had regular engagements with Symphony Orchestras and Opera Companies in international capitals such as Antwerp, Bayreuth, Berlin (Komische Oper), Birmingham, Bregenz (Festival Theatre), Bremen, Florence, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Hanover, Luxembourg, Milan, Mexico City, Munich, Nuremberg, Schwetzingen, San Remo, Seoul and Tokyo. Furthermore, he also conducts numerous radio and television productions in Germany and abroad. Many premieres of both opera and concert strengthened his considerable reputation as a conductor of complicated and multi-layered scores.

Kalb’s broad scope of activities has earned him many prizes and awards including the Masefield Scholarship (1981/82), the Richard-Wagner-Scholarship (1986), the First Prize in the Conducting Competition of the German Council for Music (1987), the Prize of the German Music Publisher’s Association for “Best Season Program” (1994/95) and the Prize from the Opernwelt for Best Orchestra Performance in Ligeti’s ‘Grand Macabre’ (2001). He was also the music director of a production of Wagner’s ‘Tannhäuser’ which was awarded the annual Prize of the Götz-Friedrich-Foundation for “Best Opera Production” (2004).

After winning the Conducting Competition of the German Music Council in 1987, nobody less than Sergiu Celibidache was so impressed by his artistic abilities that he had invited him to conduct the Munich Philharmonic on the occasion of the 1989 celebrations of the 40th Anniversary of the German Basic Law at Beethovenhalle Bonn. This event was on air in a live-broadcast of the Second German Broadcasting Corporation (ZDF).

Thomas Kalb studied piano, bassoon, conducting, composition and music theory at the State College for Music and Performing Arts in Hamburg. Already at an early age he received performance and conducting engagements at the Hamburg State Opera, the Eutin Summer Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Theatre and the Ulm Theatre. Following his studies, he accepted the position of a Principal Conductor at the State Theatre in Munich (1990 – 1992) and the National Theatre in Mannheim (1992 – 1994).

In 1996 he created the music festival ‘Heidelberger Frühling’. Under his artistic direction, this annual festival developed into an internationally highly acclaimed cultural event within a very few years.

Beside his special affinity for contemporary music, Thomas Kalb has a strong preference for the works of Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, Ludwig van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Thomas Kalb will shortly appear again with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra. His debut at the helm of the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra last June 2010 was a brilliant success resulting in a re-invitation to conduct this particular orchestra again on the occasion of the inaugural concert at the newly built concert hall in Doha next December 2010. More recently he also conducted the Philharmonic Orchestra of Southwest Germany, the Württemberg Philharmonic, the Neubrandenburg Philharmonic, the Cottbus Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra at the Bregenz Festival Theatre (Festspielhaus Bregenz).

“This mixture of top-class craft and spirit of adventure became a very rare happening in Germany though it is absolutely necessary as never before, particularly if one thinks of how important it is to make our fine arts more accessible to younger generations. And exactly this seems to be one of the strong points of Kalb.”
HANS ZENDER

“The Theatre of Heidelberg opened the new season with a loudly praised production of Tannhäuser. What the soloists, choir and orchestra conjured under the direction of Thomas Kalb was sensational, yes: sensational!”
SÜDWESTRUNDFUNK

“Mahler’s 9th Symphony D-major is a great farewell to the world, a leave-taking from all earthly things, from all beauty and beings, and a farewell to the empty way of the world. The interpretation of GMD Thomas Kalb with the Heidelberg Philharmonic Orchestra made it abundantly clear that this piece is concerned with last things. Thomas Kalb let the extremes of dynamics and gestures swing wide. There were huge gaps between the extinguishing and the mighty climaxes. The increases in the music were approached with the greatest stringency; the conductor let mighty battles, passions dance, the music gained an exciting drive. A divine quiet was developed at the end – only a faint wisp of sound was left singing, until the music breathed its last breath.”
RHEIN-NECKAR-ZEITUNG

“After the intermission, a truly great moment occurred. Thomas Kalb made such music with the Philharmonic Orchestra and Beethoven’s 7th symphony, that it took the audiences’ breath away… The way he made the orchestra produce such a sound; how all his ideas seemed to develop out of that very sound; how the groups of instruments listening to each other and passing the music back and forth was made tangible in a sensual way, was a rare and joyful experience. There was heartfelt and prolonged stamping and applause.”
LAUSITZER RUNDSCHAU

“Thomas Kalb conjured, with lovingly created tonal colours and nuances of effect, a literally fantastic atmosphere.”
THE LIMITED EDITION

“The score (György Ligeti: Le Grand Macabre) is one of the most spectacular challenges of new Musical Theatre…Heidelberg has dared to take it on, and one can only bow before the result. What GMD Thomas Kalb, the orchestra and the house ensemble have achieved deserves not just respect but admiration for the supreme performance abilities of the whole theatre.”
MANNHEIMER MORGEN

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