«Kevin Griffiths made ​​for a historically informed performance. This Beethoven had no oppressive gloom in its luggage, but excelled by brightness and transparency»

                                                                                               - Mindener Tageblatt

London-born Swiss conductor Kevin Griffiths belongs to the third generation of conductors in the family.

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He is a regular guest at the Menuhin Festival Gstaad and the Vaduz Classic Festival in Liechtenstein. Since last summer he has also been a guest at the “Rheingau Music Festival” with “The Planets” by Gustav Holst, as well as at the “Klosters Music” Festival, from which he was subsequently invited again for the current season. Furthermore, he conducted a production with the Schauspielhaus Zürich and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra at the “Holland Festival” in Amsterdam and the “Venice Biennale”.

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Kevin Griffiths has performed with well-known orchestras such as the hr-Symphony Orchestra Frankfurt a. M., the Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Belgrade Philharmonic, the Slovak Philharmonic, the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra Ankara, the Orchestra National de Lille, the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra , the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the Musikkollegium Winterthur, the Basel, Zurich and Geneva Chamber Orchestras, and the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn. From 2011 to 2018 he was artistic director and chief conductor of the Collegium Musicum Basel.

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Due to his interest in historical performance practice, Griffiths enjoys devoting himself to early music and has worked with orchestras specialising in this repertoire such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in London and the Ensemble Musica Aeterna in Bratislava. The “Mindener Tageblatt” wrote about his concert with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie; “Kevin Griffiths ensured a sound image that approximated historically informed performance practice: a sensational rendition of Schumann’s 4th Symphony, which was on par with the exemplary recordings by Gardiner and Harnoncourt.”

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The soloists he has worked with include Sir James Galway, Pierre-Laurant Aimard, Kian Soltani, Reinhold Friedrich, Vesselina Kasarova, Fazil Say, Isabelle van Keulen, Giuliano Carmignola, Bomsori Kim, Paul Meyer, Sergei Nakariakov, Paul Lewis, Dejan Lazic, Michel Camilo, Dmitry Sitkovetskzy and Lebo M. Well-known composers he personally met and worked with include Steve Reich, John Powell, Enjott Schneider, Lera Auerbach, John Psathas, Elena Firsova, Rodolphe Schacher, Daniel Schnyder, Oliver Waespi and Steven Mackey.

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His artistic activities are manifold; his CD recordings for Warner Classics, Sony, CPO and Prospero Classical bear witness to this diversity. These include new musical discoveries and first recordings by Mozart and Beethoven contemporaries such as Andreas Romberg, Johann Evangelist Brandl and Johann Stamitz, but also Swiss romantics such as Paul Juon and Hans Huber. “...the listener is always captivated by original ideas and rhythmic verve. The transparent sound makes an excellent impression.” (Klassikheute)

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Kevin Griffiths also became involved in contemporary music early on and gained international recognition as co-founder and conductor of the London Steve Reich Ensemble. His debut CD with the ensemble was awarded the prestigious Diapason D'Or prize, and the September Edition 2022 of the BBC Music Magazine celebrated its 30th anniversary with "30 MUST HAVE RECORDINGS OF OUR LIFETIME", and chose the ensemble's second recording from 2011 as one of the “MUST HAVE” recordings.

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Kevin Griffiths is very interested in education-projects and supporting young artists. He strives to give young artists a performance platform and has conducted and hosted many children's concerts over the years. With the “Music School Conservatory Zurich” he conducted an orchestra consisting of 300 children in the Tonhalle Zurich. He worked with the orchestra of the “Conservatoire De Musique De Genève”, was a jury member for the final exams of the conducting class of the “Haute École De Musique Genève”, and conducted their orchestra in concert. As artistic director of the Academy and Philharmonic Orchestra of the “Animato Foundation” for the promotion of young talents, he conducted their European tour in autumn 2018 and 2021 with concerts in the Smetana Hall Prague, the Liszt Academy Budapest, the Konzerthaus Vienna and the twelfth century Abbey in Melk.

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Kevin Griffiths has directed opera productions including “Don Pasquale” by Donizetti at the Chemnitz Opera House, in Great Britain “L'Heure espagnole” and “L'Enfant et les Sortileges” by Ravel, and “Die Fledermaus” by Johann Strauss. With the Brandenburg State Symphony Orchestra Frankfurt he conducted excerpts from “Hansel & Gretel” by Humperdinck, and with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment “Don Giovanni” by Mozart.

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At the beginning of 2020, Kevin Griffiths initiated and co-organised a charity concert series in Zurich under the name “Artists For A Better Planet”, for which he founded a new orchestra. With their first two concerts they supported the victims of the bush fires in Australia and the victims of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. Kevin Griffiths was able to attract world-class artists such as Kian Soltani, Maurice Steger, Aeneas Humm and Sandra Studer. The next planned charity concert will take place on March 3rd, 2024 in Zurich.

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In the realm of film music, “Disney Studios” in Hollywood accredited Kevin Griffiths so that he is licensed to synchronise the original film scores “live” to the motion picture with an orchestra. Since the City Light Symphony Orchestra was founded in 2018, he has been a permanent guest conductor for their concerts, most performances taking place at the KKL-Luzern. They recorded two CD recordings together. The first film music recording “Spotlight on John Williams” was released in 2021, was nominated for the “German Record Critics’ Prize” and has received almost 1.5 million streams on Spotify alone to date. The second “Adventures” recording will be released at the end of this year.

 

Kevin Griffiths studied conducting at the Royal Academy of Music London and the Royal Northern College of Music Manchester. Under David Zinman he received a scholarship to the Aspen Music Festival and School in America in 2004 and 2005. In 2010 Kevin Griffiths won second prize at the International Sir Georg Solti Conducting Competition in Frankfurt am Main, and in 2010/11 he received a scholarship for the Melgaard Young Conductors Scheme with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment London, where he assisted Vladimir Jurowski, Trevor Pinnock and Sir Simon Rattle, among others.