Thomas Zehetmair, a highly regarded Austrian violinist and conductor, will become an artistic partner of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in the 2010-11 season.
Zehetmair, 48, has served as music director of England's Northern Sinfonia since 2002 and has conducted the London and Rotterdam Philharmonics, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and the Ensemble Orchestral Paris. As a soloist he has recorded a large part of the violin concerto repertoire. He is first violinist in the Zehetmair Quartet, which won a Gramophone Award for Record of the Year for its 2003 recording on the ECM label of string quartets of Schumann.
SPCO president Sarah Lutman said the organization worked with Zehetmair in 1999 and 2003 and found him "an exceptional violinist and an accomplished conductor." "Our musicians instantly agreed that a multi-year Artistic Partnership with him would be rewarding," she said in a statement.
Before his partnership begins, Zehetmair will be in the Twin Cities next April, conducting the SPCO and playing Beethoven's Concerto in D for Violin and Orchestra. It is one of only two stops Zehetmair will make in the United States this season, the other being at Avery Fisher Hall in New York. The SPCO's current artistic partners are Roberto Abbado, Dawn Upshaw and Christian Zacharias. It was previously announced that Edo de Waart would join the group next season.
GRAYDON ROYCE
