Born in South Africa, Gérard Korsten began his career as a violinist after studying with Ivan Galamian at the Curtis Institute and with Sándor Végh in Salzburg.  Following his studies in the US and Europe he became Concertmaster and Assistant Music Director of the Camerata Salzburg and later Concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe from 1987-1996 when he left the COE to concentrate on conducting. Gérard Korsten is currently Music Director of the London Mozart Players and Principal Conductor of the Symphonieorchester Vorarlberg Bregenz.

He held positions of Principal Conductor of the State Theatre in Pretoria and the Uppsala Chamber Orchestra before he was appointed Music Director of the Orchestra del Teatro Lirico di Cagliari from 1999-2005. In Cagliari he conducted the first Italian performances of Richard Strauss’s Die ägyptische Helena, Weber’s Euryanthe, Delius’s A Village Romeo and Juliet and Schubert’s Alfonso und Estrella, as well as the productions of the core operatic repertoire including Die Zauberflöte, Don Giovanni, Lucia di Lammermoor, Carmen, Die Fledermaus, Tosca, Aïda, The Barber of Seville and Don Pasquale.

Gérard Korsten has appeared in the most notable opera houses and concert halls around Europe including Teatro La Scala Milan (Le nozze di Figaro), Maggio Musicale Florence (Così fan tutte), Teatro Reggio di Parma (La sonnambula), Teatro Lirico Verdi Trieste (Don Pasquale and La fille du régiment), Opéra de Lyon (Ariadne auf Naxos, Henze’s L’Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe, Siegfried and La Traviata), Royal Swedish Opera (Don Giovanni), Netherlands Opera (Così fan tutte), English National Opera (Aïda) and Glyndebourne Festival Opera (Albert Herring).

His past symphonic engagements have included concerts with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Orchestre National de Lyon, Salzburg Mozarteum, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai Turin, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Swedish Radio Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon and Melbourne Symphony orchestras.  CD recordings include Tchaikovsky’s Serenade and Souvenir de Florence with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe on Deutsche Grammophon. With Orchestra del Teatro Lirico di Cagliari he has recorded CDs of Die ägyptische Helena and Euryanthe and DVDs of Alfonso und Estrella and Don Pasquale.  His 2011 DVD of Le Nozze di Figaro (La Scala 2006) has been awarded a Diapason D’Or and was the Critic Choice in the Opera News in February 2012.

Last season Gérard Korsten toured with Irish Chamber Orchestra in the US and with the London Mozart Players in Spain. He returned to Opéra National de Lyon, conducting performances of Offenbach’s La Vie Parisienne and he conducted concerts with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Megaron Camerata and Camerata Salzburg in both Vienna and Salzburg. 

In the 2012/13 Gérard Korsten makes his debuts with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie in three concerts in Saabruecken, Kaiserlautern and Mainz and with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in Australia. He conducts a new production of Don Giovanni at Dijon Opera with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and returns to the BBC Scottish Symphony, Latvia National Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and SWR Sinfonieorchester Freiburg among others.

May 2013