Sebastian Lang-Lessing

Sebastian Lang-Lessing

Sebastian Lang-Lessing is Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra since 2004.

Awarded the Ferenc Fricsay Prize in Berlin at the age of 24, he subsequently took up a conducting post at the Hamburg State Opera, was appointed resident conductor at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and later Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy. Under his direction, the Opéra de Nancy was elevated to national status becoming the Opéra national de Lorraine.

His international career started at the Paris Opera, followed by engagements at Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera and the Opera houses in Oslo and Stockholm.

He conducted a highly regarded new production of Wagner's Rienzi at Deutsche Oper Berlin in January 2010 and will conduct a new production of Rosenkavalier at Cape Town Opera during the World Cup.

Concert engagements include performances with Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Tokyo Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, major German radio orchestras and major Australian orchestras. He inaugurated the TSO's annual Sydney season and led his orchestra on a tour of Japan.

His discography includes music by the French composer Guy Ropartz, and his CDs with the TSO include the recently released complete symphonies of Mendelssohn with DVD, the complete Schumann symphonies, Romantic Overtures, music of Brett Dean, Mozart Arias with Sara Macliver, and works by Saint-Saëns, Franck, Ravel. Forthcoming TSO recordings include Grieg's Peer Gynt Suites, Mozart symphonies, Mendelssohn and Ravel piano concertos with soloist Kirill Gerstein.

Sebastian Lang-Lessing is appointed Music Director of the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra.