German-Japanese conductor Elias Grandy is increasingly recognized as a distinctive voice among today’s conductors. He is admired for his passionate temperament, precise musicianship, and an effortless podium presence that brings even the most complex musical ideas to life with clarity, depth, and emotional intensity. Grandy was most recently appointed Chief Conductor and Artistic Director Designate of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. Histenure in Prague will begin in 2026/27 season. 

Grandy was appointed Chief Conductor of the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra in 2025, following on  from eight successful seasons as Music Director of the Theater and Orchester Heidelberg in Germany,  a position he held until 2023. He is equally at home in both symphonic and operatic repertoire. 

In the 2025/26 season Grandy returns to the Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre  Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and the Prague Radio Symphony, as well as to Oper Frankfurt with  Puccini’s Tosca, Opera Nikikai Tokyo with Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, and the Semperoper  Dresden with Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges. With the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra, he will  perform Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben and Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with Gerhild Romberger,  amongst other works. Debut performances this season take him to the RTV Slovenian Symphony  Orchestra and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.  

Highlights of recent seasons include highly successful guest conducting appearances with orchestras  such as the Vienna Symphony, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra,  Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, Orchestre du Capitol de Toulouse, Brussels  Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Belgique, Antwerp Symphony, Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos  Aires at Teatro Colón, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, Kyoto Philharmonic, Utah Symphony, and  Minnesota Orchestra. 

A passionate advocate of musical storytelling, Grandy has led critically acclaimed productions  of Elektra and Carmen at Minnesota Opera, Werther and A Village Romeo and Juliet at Frankfurt  Opera, Un ballo in maschera at Aalto-Theatre Essen, Carmen at Opera Nikikai Tokyo, and Rusalka at  Portland Opera.  

Born in Munich, Grandy studied cello, music theory, and chamber music in Basel and Munich before  turning to conducting at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin. He launched his professional career  as Resident Conductor at the Staatstheater Darmstadt and was a prizewinner at the Sir Georg Solti  International Conducting Competition in 2015.