Teodor Currentzis

Founder of MusicAeterna, Greek-born conductor Teodor Currentzis has created a stir with lively and often ferociously driven performances and recordings. His wide-ranging repertoire, in which everything is thoroughly and refreshingly reconsidered, encompasses the 18th-century composers Rameau and Mozart as much as the 20th-century revolutionary Stravinsky. Born in Athens in 1972, he showed a talent for music at an early age, entering the National Conservatory in Athens, aged 12, to study violin. At the age of 15 he took up composition. He first studied conducting as a necessary skill but found he had an aptitude for it and chose to study under the legendary Russian conducting teacher Ilya Musin at the St. Petersburg Conservatory (1994-99). He became principal conductor of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre in 2004 and, in that same year, founded MusicAeterna Orchestra and Choir. He took both ensembles with him when he was appointed music director of the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre in 2011. In 2017, he was appointed chief conductor of the newly formed SWR Symphonieorchester. Very much a recording artist, Currentzis is actively involved in the post-production editing of his albums. He also insists that each recording of a classic—whether Beethoven’s Fifth or Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring—should be a discrete and unique product, uncluttered by companion works only included to add perceived value for money.