Michael Sanderling has been Chief Conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra since 2021. The appointment comes after many years of successful collaboration and with the common goal of further developing the orchestra in the direction of late Romantic repertoire such as Bruckner, Mahler and Strauss.
Since the beginning of his tenure as chief conductor, several highly acclaimed CD productions have been realized, including the Brahms cycle with the four symphonies and his “Fifth”, the piano quartet orchestrated by Arnold Schoenberg, released by Warner Classics in 2023, as well as a recording of the piano concertos by Schumann and Grieg with Elisabeth Leonskaja.
Under the direction of Michael Sanderling, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra has made guest appearances in Asia, South America and Germany. The performance of Shostakovich's 10th Symphony at the Konzerthaus Vienna, accompanied by William Kentridge's animated film “Oh to Believe in Another World”, attracted particular attention. The world premiere of this work previously took place at the KKL Lucerne and at the Pompeii Theatrum Mundi festival.
As a guest conductor, Michael Sanderling leads renowned orchestras worldwide, including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Philharmonia Orchestra London, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
From 2011 to 2019, Michael Sanderling shaped the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra as its chief conductor and turned it into one of Germany's leading orchestras. Joint concert formats in Dresden and numerous international tours were documented by the recordings of all symphonies by Beethoven and Shostakovich for Sony Classical. This position was preceded by the artistic direction of the Kammerakademie Potsdam as chief conductor from 2006 to 2011.
Michael Sanderling's extensive discography includes recordings of major works by Dvořák, Schumann, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky in addition to those mentioned above, including recordings of compositions for cello and orchestra by Bloch, Korngold, Bruch and Ravel with Edgar Moreau and the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra.
In 2011, he conducted the new production of Sergei Prokofiev's “War and Peace” at the Cologne Opera, for which he was voted Conductor of the Year by the magazine “Opernwelt”.
Michael Sanderling is passionately committed to promoting young musicians. In addition to teaching at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts, he regularly works with the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra. From 2003 to 2013, he was chief conductor of the Deutsche Streicherphilharmonie youth orchestra.