Jakob Lehmann
Conductor
a leader who knows opera and voices like the back of his hand, knows everything about bel canto performance practice, and is capable of guiding an orchestra in instantaneous response to what is happening on the stage."
– Will Crutchfield
Jakob Lehmann is a conductor for whom stylistic awareness and historically informed performance are the pillars of emotionally sincere and energetic interpretations. His dual aims of fidelity to the composer’s intentions with their direct conveyance to his modern audiences guide his diverse musical activities. The music of Gioachino Rossini and the Bel Canto period is a field in which Lehmann is particularly active, both as a performer as well as in his research. His conducting of Rossini’s music has been described by the press as “a revelation,” “extraordinary,” and “one of the most moving Rossini performances that New York has experienced in recent times.” He is the Artistic Director of Eroica Berlin and Associate Artistic Director of New York-based bel canto festival Teatro Nuovo. Read the full biography, below.
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JAKOB LEHMANN // SCHUBERT "TRAGIC" SYMPHONY // ORCHESTRA OF THE 18TH CENTURY & ROYAL CONSERVATORY
Biography
Jakob Lehmann is a conductor for whom stylistic awareness and historically informed performance are the pillars of emotionally sincere and energetic interpretations. His dual aims of fidelity to the composer’s intentions with their direct conveyance to his modern audiences guide his diverse musical activities. He regards as one of his main objectives the collaborative convergence of historically informed performance styles with more traditional approaches. He is the Artistic Director of Eroica Berlin, a chamber orchestra he founded in 2015 which consists of young musicians from Berlin and focuses on translating the impulses and inspirations from period performance to modern instruments.
The music of Gioachino Rossini and the Bel Canto period is a field in which Jakob Lehmann is particularly active, both as a performer as well as in his research. His conducting of Rossini’s music has been described by the press as “a revelation,” “extraordinary,” and “one of the most moving Rossini performances that New York has experienced in recent times.” His contract as Associate Artistic Director of New York-based bel canto festival Teatro Nuovo, first signed in 2019, has been recently renewed until 2025.
Jakob Lehmann works both with orchestras such as Wiener Symphoniker, Tonkünstler Orchester, Bochumer Symphoniker, Brandenburger Symphoniker, and Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Lorraine, as well as period instrument groups such as Concerto Köln, Orchestra of the 18th Century, {OH!} - Orkiestra Historyczna, La Banda Storica Bern, and the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra.
In addition to further projects with Eroica Berlin, Concerto Köln, La Banda Storica Bern and the Orchestra of the 18th Century, this season Jakob Lehmann makes his debut with Beethoven Orchester Bonn. As an opera conductor, he conducts Mozart’s Idomeneo at the Opéra National de Lorraine in a production by Lorenzo Ponte as well as Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia in a production by Francesca Zambello for North Carolina Opera. The season ends in summer 2024 with a new production of Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi with Teatro Nuovo.
As a presenter, lecturer, and coach for the topics of Romantic performance practice and the bel canto style, he is working with institutions such as The Juilliard School New York, the Hochschule der Künste Bern, and the Conservatorio Guido Cantelli in Novara. In 2023, he was elected as the President of the German Rossini Society and further is a member of the American Rossini Society.