Swiss conductor to take baton at Vienna Opera

Jordan conducting a production of Busoni's Doktor Faust in 2006. Keystone

Swiss conductor Philippe Jordan, 42, has been announced as the next musical director of the prestigious Vienna State Opera. He will take over the baton in 2020.

Currently dual-jobbing at the head of both the Paris State Opera and the Vienna Symphony, Jordan will join the State Opera for a period of five years, according to an official statement.

There, he will join forces with the Opera’s General Director, the Austrian Bogdan Roscic, with the goal of creating a more modern “State Opera 4.0”.

Jordan, the son of the late Swiss maestro Armin Jordan, was born in Zurich in 1974 and has said in an interview with the New York Times that he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps since the age of nine.

Following an education in Zurich and Paris he quickly established himself as one of the most sought-after names in classical conducting, and has held various prestigious roles since his first position with the Ulm Stadttheater in Germany.

After working under renowned pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim in Berlin, Jordan held the position of Chief Conductor of the Graz Opera and Philharmonic from 2001-2004. From 2006 to 2010 he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Berlin State Opera.

Considered a specialist of Verdi and Wagner – he led a production of the Ring cycle in Paris in 2012 and 2013 – Jordan will be joining an Opera in Vienna which is also counted as one of the world’s most prestigious.

Previous conductors of the VSO have included Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, and Herbert von Karajan.

swissinfo.ch and agencies/dos