Elena Schwarz

It was a conducting tour de force accomplished with visible precision and total command. The Sleeping Thousand, Festival d’Aix en Provence, Opera Today July 2019.

Swiss-Australian conductor, Elena Schwarz is forging a reputation across different continents for her intellect, musical vision, insightful interpretations and emotional intelligence and has impressed orchestras in Germany, Scandinavia, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Australia and the USA. Forthcoming highlights including the Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and the North Netherlands Orchestra, as well as the Melbourne Symphony, Queensland Symphony and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

Elena Schwarz has guest conducted orchestras including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, WDR Sinfonieorchester, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Gävle Symphony Orchestra, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, South Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra and the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música.

Widely admired for her advocacy of new music, she conducts world premiere performances by Peter Eötvös and George Aperghis this season as well as works by Thomas Adès and Tyshawn Sorey. She is a regular guest conductor of specialist contemporary ensembles such as Ensemble Modern, Ensemble InterContemporain, MusikFabrik, Collegium Novum Zurich and the Luzern Festival Contemporary Orchestra as well as various symphony orchestras in repertoire by George Benjamin, Xenakis, Neuwirth, Berio, Donatoni, Adam Maor, Lisa Streich, Elizbieta Sikora and Francesco Filidei.

Schwarz’s operatic experience includes Hansel & Gretel at Norwegian Opera, the world premiere performances of Adam Maor’s The Sleeping Thousand at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence as well as in Luxembourg and Lisbon (ENOA), and she will conduct a new production of Grieg’s Peer Gynt at Opéra de Lyon in June 2022.

Elena Schwarz was awarded 1st Prize at the Princess Astrid Competition (Trondheim 2014), 2nd Prize at the Jorma Panula Competition (Vaasa 2015) and was a former Dudamel Fellow (2018-19). She studied conducting at the Geneva Conservatoire and Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana whilst further studies brought her to Peter Eötvös and Matthias Pintscher, and masterclasses with Bernard Haitink and Neeme Järvi. She was assistant to Mikko Franck at the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Marko Letonja at the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Asher Fisch at the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.