Eugene Tzigane

Conductor Eugene Tzigane has made a major impact on orchestral scenes in Germany and the U.S., both adopted countries for him. Tzigane was born December 17, 1981, in Tokyo. His mother was Japanese, his father American. Tzigane studied conducting at the Juilliard School in New York with the school's director of conducting, James DePreist, graduating with a master's degree in 2007 and going on for further work with at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm with Jorma Panula. After a silver medal at the Solti Competition, he attracted guest-conducting invitations from the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony. In October of 2009 Tzigane filled a guest conducting slot at the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Herford, Germany, and two months later he was unanimously recommended for the post of principal conductor. He remained there until 2014, also taking the post of guest conductor with the Pomeranian Philharmonic in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Tzigane has appeared widely around Northern and Northwestern Europe and the British Isles, with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Tapiola Sinfonietta, the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, the Norrköping Symphony, the Copenhagen Philharmonic, the Tapiola Sinfonietta, the Norrköping Symphony, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, among others, and he has made repeat appearances with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Lahti Symphony, Tampere Philharmonic, and Helsingborg Symphony. Beyond Europe, Tzigane has conducted the Indianapolis Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, and the symphony orchestras of Columbus, Fort Worth, and the states of North Carolina, Oregon, and New Jersey. Tzigane has mounted tours of Japan and Australia, appearing with with the Yomiuri Nippon and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestras, as well as with the Adelaide Symphony and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. In 2018 he made his debut as part of Hyperion's popular Romantic Piano Concerto series, leading the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and pianist Emmanuel Despax in concertos by Anton Urspruch and Hans von Bronsart. ~ James Manheim