Christoph Koncz

Biography

Described by the press as ​‘simply brilliant’, Austrian conductor Christoph Koncz is already performing worldwide with orchestras such as Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal and Hong Kong Philharmonic.
During the upcoming season, Christoph Koncz will appear for the first time with London Symphony Orchestra and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra as well as at the National Theatre Prague and the Wiener Staatsoper. He will also return to the New World Center in Miami and the Opernhaus Zürich and make further debuts with Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, Aarhus Symfoniorkester and Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra.
Currently in his fourth season as Chief Conductor of the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss am Rhein, in September 2022 Christoph Koncz was appointed MD Designate of Orchestre symphonique de Mulhouse starting the post in September 2023. He also has a close relationship with the renowned French period instrument ensemble Les Musiciens du Louvre. His debut at the 2013 Salzburg Mozartwoche was followed by concerts at such prestigious venues as the Berlin, Cologne and Munich Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus, KKL Lucerne and Concertgebouw Amsterdam as well as at the Salzburg Festival.
Christoph Koncz is particularly noted for his interpretations of the works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His recording of the Complete Violin Concertos as soloist and conductor with Les Musiciens du Louvre was released by Sony Classical in October 2020 under the title Mozart’s Violin and caused an international sensation for being the first recording of these famous works on the composer’s original Baroque violin. The Strad magazine described Koncz’s performance as ​“a masterly demonstration of melodic playing”.
Born in 1987 in Konstanz into an Austrian-Hungarian family of musicians, Christoph Koncz received his first violin lessons at the age of four. Only two years later he entered the Vienna University of Music, where he also enrolled in the conducting class of Mark Stringer in 2005. Master classes with Daniel Barenboim, Daniel Harding and David Zinman further enriched his musical education. At the age of just nine, he received worldwide acclaim for starring as child prodigy Kaspar Weiss in the Canadian feature film The Red Violin, which won an Academy Award for Best Original Score.
Christoph Koncz made his North American debut as a violin soloist at age twelve with Montreal Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit, leading to collaborations with conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Gábor Takács-Nagy and Marc Minkowski. An avid chamber musician, his musical partners include Leonidas Kavakos, Joshua Bell, Vilde Frang, Renaud Capuçon, Antoine Tamestit, Kim Kashkashian, Gautier Capuçon, Nicolas Altstaedt, Andreas Ottensamer and Rudolf Buchbinder. His concert engagements have taken him to numerous countries across Europe and to the Middle East, Asia, Australia as well as North and South America.
In 2008, at the age of twenty, Christoph Koncz was appointed principal second violin of the Vienna Philharmonic, a position he has held ever since. He plays the 1707 ex Brüstlein violin by Antonio Stradivari on generous loan by the National Bank of Austria.

Photo: Andreas Hechenberger