Following his superb debut in 2023 conducting Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten, Christoph Altstaedt returns to Vienna State Opera to conduct Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique Symphony. The staged performances will feature choreography by Martin Schläpfer, with whom Altstaedt has developed a strong partnership since they first worked together during his tenure as Kapellmeister at Deutsche Oper am Rhein. A much-liked guest of the Vienna Volksoper, Altstaedt also returns to that house throughout 2024/25 for The Moon Wears a White Shirt, having previously conducted their production of Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem. Plans further ahead include his debuts with Bregenz Festival and Vienna Symphony Orchestra.

2024/25 symphonic highlights include a Belgium tour with Antwerp Symphony, a special Respighi programme with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem with Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra, a recording project with Munich Radio Orchestra for Edel / Berlin Classics label, and a return Ulster Orchestra’s subscription season with Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ.

In recent seasons, Altstaedt conducted gala concerts with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, subscription concerts with George Enescu Philharmonic, Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, Dortmund Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra, a European tour with the Academy of Ancient Music and soprano Chen Reiss, and several special projects with the Gürzenich Orchester at the Cologne Philharmonie. Altstaedt has also enjoyed several collaborations with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, including subscription concerts, regional tours, and Handel’s Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall.

His extensive operatic experience includes conducting performances of Benjamin Lazar’s new production of Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer at Cologne Opera, as well as productions at Finnish National Opera (Così fan tutte), Glyndebourne on Tour (La Traviata, having debuted with David McVicar’s production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Opera North (Hansel and Gretel, Don Giovanni), Theater Basel (Die Zauberflöte), and Die Entführung aus dem Serail at Savonlinna Opera Festival and Opera Zürich.

Highly respected for his work with young musicians, Altstaedt enjoyed huge success with the Australian Youth Orchestra in 2024, touring a programme inspired by “the grotesque” featuring Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre and HK Gruber’s Frankenstein. His other significant projects include leading the National Youth Orchestra of Germany’s recording and tour, which included concerts at both Cologne and Berlin Philharmonie halls – the latter of which was recorded for Berlin Philharmonic’s Digital Concert Hall. Whereas with the Junge Norddeutsche Philharmonie, Altstaedt led ground-breaking experimental projects #sacrelektro and #etruschka which combined Stravinsky’s symphonic music with live sounds from electronic artists. The success of this innovative concert format resulted in a tour of #etruschka to the Berlin Konzerthaus and the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie.

Altstaedt’s unwavering commitment to bringing classical music to wider audiences has led him to explore new avenues alongside his conventional engagements. For Arte and the Ufa Filmnächte Berlin, he recorded film music for Carmen by Ernst Lubitsch. With Ensemble Resonanz, he has presented Faust by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau at the Salzburg Festival and, most recently, The Merry Widow by Erich von Stroheim at the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie which they will repeat in 2025 at the Vienna Konzerthaus.

Previously, Altstaedt founded and directed the Junges Klangforum Mitte Europa (2004-2011), an orchestra consisting of young musicians from Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany with whom he has won numerous prestigious awards such as the Praemium Imperiale for the arts, and the Marion Dönhoff Prize for International Reconciliation and Understanding.