| Biography | As a boy growing up in Salzburg, Gustav Kuhn began his musical career by learning the violin and piano. He went on to study at the universities and academies of Salzburg and Vienna, where he graduated in Composition and Conducting in 1970 and was awarded a Doctorate in Philosophy and Psychopathology that same year. Hans Swarowsky, Bruno Maderna and Herbert von Karajan were among the teachers who enabled him to perfect his conducting skills.
Kuhn's conducting career began in Istanbul in 1970 and in the years following, he made guest appearances at countless opera houses throughout Europe, eventually becoming Musical Director of the Bernese Orchestra and Opera, General Music Director of the Beethovenhalle Orchestra and Opera House in Bonn and Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Opera in Naples and Rome.
Kuhn made his debut at the Vienna State Opera with a production of "Elektra" in 1977. Indeed, Richard Strauss was to become a recurrent theme for Kuhn, who in the course of his 30-year career has conducted all the composer's major works, to say nothing of several less well-known compositions as well.
In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Kuhn had engagements at countless theaters and opera houses of worldwide renown. His "Cosi fan tutte" at the Bavarian National Theater in Munich, his "Don Giovanni" in London, a production of "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" in Glyndebourne and "The Marriage of Figaro" and "Clemenza di Tito" at the Salzburg Festival all helped reinforce his reputation as a superb interpreter of Mozart. With "Fidelio" at the Lyric Opera in Chicago , "Tannhäuser" at the Scala and "Ermione" at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro he established his reputation as interpreter of classical music.
One focus of his career has been on Naples and the Italian Marches. He made his debut at the Teatro San Carlo in 1977 with a performance of "Rosenkavalier" and continuing in the Late Romantic vein, went on to conduct operas by both Strauss and Wagner, including "Lohengrin," "Tannhäuser," "Salomé," "Ariadne auf Naxos" and "Capriccio." His productions of "Parsifal" and "La Bohème" subsequently sealed his reputation as both a conductor and director. Kuhn has also been Artistic Director of the Filarmonica Marchigiana since 1997.
Among the other famous orchestras Kuhn has worked with are the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Czech Philharmonic, Tonhalle Zurich, Staatskapelle Dresden, Israel Philharmonic, Orchestra dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Rome), Filarmonica della Scala (Milan), Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Florence), innumerable radio orchestras throughout Europe and all Italy's state orchestras.
Kuhn made his debut as a director in 1986 with a production of "The Flying Dutchman" in Trieste. This was followed by "Parsifal" and "La Bohème" in Naples and a production of "Don Carlos" in both Italian and French to mark the 250th anniversary of the Teatro Reggio in Turin. He has also directed three Mozart operas, namely "Cosi fan tutte," "Don Giovanni" and "The Marriage of Figaro" for the Macerata Festival and defied the skeptics with his production of Strauss's supposedly unstageable opera "Guntram" for the Richard Strauss Festival 1998. His successes since then have included a "Ring" cycle, "Fledermaus", "Elektra", "Tristan and Isolde" as well as "Parsifal" for the Tyrolean Festival in Erl and a production of "Carmen" at the National Theater in Tokyo.
His musical compositions include "Sala 500," which was written in collaboration with Lucio Dalla and Beppe d'Onghia and was premiered in the "Sala Cinquecento" of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence in 1996. Another work by Kuhn and d'Onghia, the "Missa Intergalactica" was first played at the Tyrolean Festival in Erl three years later.
After founding the Tyrolean Festival in Erl in 1997, Kuhn took over as Artistic Director of his brainchild in 1998.
Since 2003 he has been Artistic Director of the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento. In 2004 Gustav Kuhn began working at the Opéra National de Paris conducting "Troubadour " in 2004, "Così fan tutte" in 2005, "La Clemenza di Tito and again "Così fan tutte in 2006. In early 2007, "Tagebuch eines Verschollenen" by Leo Janáceks, based on the orchestration by Gustav Kuhn, will be performed in Paris. |