MICHAEL GIELEN

'Michael Andreas Gielen' (b. July 20, 1927) is an Austrian conductor and composer.
Gielen was bon in Dresden, Germany, to opera director Josef Gielen, and began his career as a pianist in Buenos Aires, where he studied with Erwin Leuchter and gave an early performance of Arnold Schoenberg's complete piano works in 1949. While serving as conductor and répétiteur at the Wiener Staatsoper (1950–60), he conducted much contemporary music outside the opera house. His next operatic appointment was as conductor of Royal Swedish Opera from 1960 to 1965, followed by posts at the Netherlands Opera and the Opern- und Schauspielhaus Frankfurt. He was principal conductor of the Belgian National Orchestra (1969–73), the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (1980–86) and of the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra (1986–99), which he has been closely associated with since.
He has demonstrated a mastery of the most complex contemporary scores, and he has given many premières, including Helmut Lachenmann's ''Fassade'' and ''Klangschatten – mein Saitenspiel'', György Ligeti's ''Requiem'', Karlheinz Stockhausen's ''Carré'' and Bernd Alois Zimmermann's ''Requiem für einen jungen Dichter''. He is also a noted conductor of the symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven, Anton Bruckner and Gustav Mahler. As a composer, he has elaborated on the tradition of the Second Viennese School and his small oeuvre includes settings of poems by Hans Arp, Paul Claudel, Stefan George, and Pablo Neruda.

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★ Michael Gielen profile at The Living Composers Project

★ Michael Gielen biography at the Bach Cantatas Website