"Graf conducts the Zemlinsky [Lyric Symphony] with deep, tangible sensuality, while the playing combines clarity with textures of breathtaking beauty."    The Guardian

Music Director of the Houston Symphony, Hans Graf is one of today’s most highly respected musicians and is recognised for creative programming and intensely musical interpretations of a wide range of repertoire. He made his Carnegie Hall debut with his orchestra in 2006, returning in January 2010 to present a new video project (Nasa images) of Holst’s “Planets”, which then toured the US and Europe.

Spanning an international career on both sides of the Atlantic, Hans Graf has held the positions of Music Director of the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, the Calgary Philharmonic and the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine. In 2002, he was awarded the “Légion d’Honneur” by the French government, and in 2007 the “Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold” by the Republic of Austria.

Hans Graf conducts the major orchestras of the USA including the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics, San Francisco Symphony, Detroit, Washington, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Baltimore Orchestras. He also has a long relationship with the Boston Symphony, appearing regularly in their main season and at the Tanglewood Music Festival.

Hans Graf also conducted the Wiener Philharmoniker, Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks München and Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, Budapest Festival Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Hallé Orchestra Manchester and Royal Scottish National Symphony Orchestra. He is regularly seen at renowned European festivals like Maggio Musicale Firenze, Aix-en-Provence and many times in Salzburg.

Upcoming engagements include concerts with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Danish Radio Symphony, Residentie Orkest, London Philharmonic, Dresdner Philharmonie, Wiener Symphoniker, Hong Kong and Seoul Philharmonic. He has developed a close relationship with the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest Hilversum as well as the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. In the US, he returns to the orchestras of Indianapolis, Detroit Washington, St. Louis Symphony and to the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Hans Graf has worked at the opera houses of Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Paris, Zurich and Rome. Recent productions include “Tristan und Isolde” (Opéra National de Bordeaux), “Parsifal” (Zurich Opera) and “Boris Godunov” (Opéra National du Rhin Strasbourg).

His extensive discography includes the complete symphonies of Mozart and Schubert, and the complete orchestral works of Henry Dutilleux with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine (BMG/Arte Nova).  He made the premiere recording of ZemlinskyŽs opera “Es war einmal”. Recent recordings with the Houston Symphony include Bartók’s „The Wooden Prince“ (Koch International), Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony (Naxos) and Mahler’s “The Song of the Earth” (Naxos). He has also recorded for EMI, Orfeo, Erato, Capriccio, JVC, and CBC.

Born near Linz, Hans Graf first studied violin and piano. After diplomas in piano and conducting (Graz), he continued his studies in Italy with Franco Ferrara and Sergiu Celibidache and in Russia with Arvid Jansons.

SEASON 2011/2012