SA Sym announces Music Director

The San Antonio Symphony has announced Sebastian Lang-Lessing (pictured right) as it's Music Director! Following a three year search, Lessing is the the eighth music director in 70 years.

Interview from 10/2009:

SA Sym: Sebastian Lang Lessing from Classical Spotlight on Vimeo.

Interview from 4/2009:

Maestro Sebastian Lang-Lessing from John Clare on Vimeo.

History of Music Directors for the San Antonio Symphony:
Max Reiter, 1939-1950
Victor Alessandro, 1950-1976
François Huybrechts, 1978-1980
Lawrence Leighton Smith, 1980-1985
Zdeněk Mácal, 1988-1990
Christopher Wilkins, 1992-2000
Larry Rachleff, 2004-2008
Sebastian Lang-Lessing, 2010-

Sebastian Lang-Lessing is Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (TSO). His performances have won praise from the international press: '[the] performance’s sophistication and sensuality comes from the pit’ (LA Times, 2007); ‘the orchestra sparkles and glows under the heated conducting of Sebastian Lang-Lessing. Viva Carmen!’ (Houston Press, 2006); ‘it was Lang-Lessing, in his company debut, who steered Tuesday’s opening to its greatest moments of success’ (San Francisco Times, 2005).
Awarded the Ferenc Fricsay Prize in Berlin at the age of 24, he subsequently took up a conducting post at the Hamburg State Opera, was appointed resident conductor at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and later Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy. Under his direction, the Opéra de Nancy was elevated o national status becoming the Opéra national de Lorraine.
His international career started at the Opéra Bastille de Paris, followed by engagements at Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Colorado Denver, Opéra de Bordeaux, Hamburg State Opera, and the Operahouses in Oslo, Stockholm and Capetown. Future guest engagements in 2010 include opera productions at the West Australian Opera, Opera Colorado in Denver and Capetown Opera.

The San Antonio Symphony's 71st season will begin October 2nd, 2010. KPAC will air Sebastian Lang-Lessing's performance of Schumann's 3rd Symphony "Rhenish" with the San Antonio Symphony on Friday, February 19th in the 10am hour, and will feature soloist Ewa Kupiec in Beethoven's Piano Concerto #5 "Emperor" with Lang-Lessing and the orchestra on Friday February 19th on KPAC & KTXI in the 2pm hour.