“Her enthusiasm is contagious, her crystal-clear gestures shape the sound in a gripping but finely differentiated way” – wherever she conducts, Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer enthuses audiences and reporters alike with her captivating, finely nuanced style.
Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer is Musical Director of the Swiss Orchestra. She stands for concert programmes that take you off the beaten track and make you want to hear more and discover new things. Her doctorate in musicology also predestines her to do pioneering work in the revival or development of forgotten or unknown repertoires.
As a guest conductor she is also in demand internationally. Engagements have taken her to renowned orchestras such as the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Filharmonia Pomorska, Camerata Switzerland, Basel Sinfonietta, Sinfonietta Berne, Sinfonietta de Lausanne, Sinfonietta Cracovia, Bern Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Corund Lucerne, Orchestre Symphonique du Jura, Orchestra of Europe, Capriccio Baroque Orchestra, Zakhar Bron Festival Orchestra, Copenhagen Philharmonic and the Odense Symphony Orchestra. She is also the intendant of Andermatt Music and thus responsible for concert planning in the Andermatt Concert Hall.
Born in Zurich in 1983, Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer studied violin and conducting as well as musicology and economics in Basel. She furthered her studies with Sylvia Caduff and Sir Roger Norrington, and was assistant conductor to Claudio Abbado.
In addition to her concert activities, this PhD musicologist publishes in the field of musical interpretation and reception history. According to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), her volume Mahler Interpretation Today (edition text + critique 2015) is one of the most fascinating so far on recent Mahler performance practice. In June 2019, she published the monograph Klingender Zeitgeist on Mahler’s Fourth Symphony (also edition text + kritik), which was acclaimed as a “trailblazing” book and as “highly inspiring, pioneering work” (“Stifter Jahrbuch”).
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