LENA-LISA Wüstendörfer
Music Director
« HEr Passion
is Infectious»
Her «crystal-clear gestures» shape the sound in a «captivating yet nuanced way.» Wherever Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer performs, she wins over audiences and critics alike with her inspiring, nuanced conducting.
Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer is the Music Director of the Swiss Orchestra. She is also the Intendant of ANDERMATT MUSIC and is thus responsible for concert planning in the Andermatt Concert Hall. With its nationwide presence and its focus on Swiss symphonic music, the Swiss Orchestra has a unique profile on today’s orchestral landscape. It regularly plays in Switzerland’s major concert halls, from the Victoria Hall in Geneva to the Zurich Tonhalle, the Bern Casino, the KKL in Lucerne and the LAC in Lugano. It also tours internationally as an ambassador for Swiss classical music. ANDERMATT MUSIC is responsible for organising concerts in the Andermatt Concert Hall, offering an all-year concert season in Switzerland’s highest-lying symphonic hall.
As a guest conductor, Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer is in demand internationally. Her engagements have taken her to renowned orchestras such as the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Graz Recreation Orchestra, Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra, Musikkollegium Winterthur, the Danish National Opera, the Sønderjylland Symphony Orchestra, the Basel Sinfonietta, Sinfonietta Cracovia, the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Odense Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra national de Metz Grand Est.
Born in Zurich in 1983, Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer studied the violin and conducting at the Basel Music Academy, and musicology and economics at the University of Basel, where she also took her doctorate in musicology. She furthered her conducting studies with Sylvia Caduff and Sir Roger Norrington, and also worked as an assistant conductor to Claudio Abbado.
In addition to her concert activities, Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer has also published in the field of musical interpretation and reception history. According to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), her volume Mahler Interpretation heute (edition text + critique 2015) is one of the most "fascinating" books today on recent Mahler performance practice. In June 2019, the same publisher brought out her monograph Klingender Zeitgeist on Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, which was acclaimed as a "trailblazing" book and as "highly inspiring, pioneering work" (Stifter Jahrbuch).