ARTISTS

Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège
Principal Guest Conductor of the Hiroshima Symphony

Christian Arming is one of Austria’s most sought after conductors, highly successful in both the symphonic and operatic fields.  Since 2011/12 season he has held the position of Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, prior to which he was Music Director of the New Japan Philharmonic in Tokyo. In 2017, he was named Principal Guest Conductor of the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra.

He was born in Vienna and studied conducting under Leopold Hager at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.  Seiji Ozawa has also been a mentor and strong supporter of his career, introducing him to Boston and Tokyo.  At the age of 24, Arming was appointed Chief Conductor of the Janáček Philharmonic in Ostrava, Czech Republic, a position he held from 1996 for six years before being named Music Director of the Lucerne Theatre and Symphony Orchestra from 2002 – 2004.

Since conducting the Czech Philharmonic at the opening concert of the Prague Spring Festival in May 2003, Christian Arming’s career has flourished and he has subsequently conducted many of the top European orchestras including the Deutsches Sinfonieorchester, Radio Symphony Orchestra Frankfurt, Staatskapelle Weimar, Staatskapelle Dresden, Salzburg Mozarteum, Vienna Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica de Barcelona, Orchestra Verdi Milan, Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and RAI Turin.  In May 2008 Arming replaced Georges Prêtre at the Academia Santa Cecilia in Rome conducting Mahler Symphony No 5 gaining much critical acclaim and are-invitation to conduct the orchestra in Mahler Symphony No 3 two years later.

In North America, he has conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra as well as the Cincinnati, Houston, Colorado, Utah, New Jersey and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras.  He is annually invited to both Aspen and Round Top Festivals in the US and in the 2017/18 season will make important debuts with the Saint Louis and Atlanta symphony orchestras.

Recent highlights include debut performances with the Taiwan Philharmonic as well as re-invitations to the NHK Symphony, Shanghai Symphony Orchestras, National Polish Radio Orchestra, to which he returns in November 2017 for a programme of Hungarian music. Other important concerts in 2017-2018 include a performance of The Spectre’s Bride with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Prague Spring Festival, a gala concert around the music of Charles Ives with the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra as well as a special return to the Janáček Philharmonic to take part in the Janáček Festival in Ostrava.

Arming’s work has also won many supporters in the operatic world since 1997, when he conducted at the opening of the Salzburg Festival gaining two immediate re-invitations: Britten’s The Turn of the Screw in Cincinnati and a new production of Rosenkavalier in Triest.  Next followed new productions of La Bohème in Lucerne (2001), Salome (2002), Elektra (2003) in Verona and Prince Igor in Strasbourg.  Since 2004 he has enjoyed a close collaboration with Frankfurt Opera:  conducting productions of Der Fliegender Holländer, Don Giovanni, Jenufa, Les contes d’Hoffmann and, in 2015, Rusalka.  He regularly conducts opera in Tokyo, including, in recent years Pelléas et Mélisande, Leonore, Poulenc Les Mamelles de Tiresias, Gianni Schicchi, Salome, Zemlinsky Eine florentinische Tragodie, Lohengrin and Die Fledermaus. In June 2013 he conducted a new production of Der Zwerg by Zemlinsky and began 2014 by conducting The Magic Flute at the Teatro Regio Torino and Price Igor at the Hamburg Staatsoper.

Christian Arming has an extensive discography including works by Janáček and Schubert with the Janáček Philharmonic; Brahms Symphony No 1 and Mahler Symphonies Nos. 3 and 5, Bruckner 7, the Verdi Requiem and Franz Schmidt’s Das Buch mit den sieben Siegeln with the New Japan Philharmonic. His recordings with the Orchestre Philharmonique  Royal de Liège - Franck’s Symphony in D minor, for which he received the Diapason d’Or, and Wagner Opera arias with baritone/bass Evgeny Nikitin - have both received extremely positive reviews in the international music press.