Christoph Koncz, conductor

A highly versatile musician, Christoph Koncz enjoys a wide-ranging international career as a conductor, violin soloist, chamber musician and Principal Violinist of the Vienna Philharmonic.

Mr. Koncz has also established himself internationally as a conductor. His debut at the 2013 Salzburg Mozartwoche was followed by concerts at such prestigious venues as the Berlin, Cologne and Munich Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus and KKL Lucerne, as well as at the Salzburg Festival. In 2017 he made his U.S. conducting debut with the Memphis Symphony and conducted the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich in a master class with David Zinman. He made his subscription debut at the Cologne Philharmonie with Concerto Köln in June 2018 and took the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal on tour in March 2019. At the Cartagena Music Festival 2020 he appeared as Artist-in-Residence in six concerts with the Camerata of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. For two decades, he has enjoyed a very close relationship with the Verbier Festival, performing chamber music, leading the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra and conducting the VFCO on tours.

Highlights of Mr. Koncz’s 2020-21 season included performances with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (Khatia Buniatishvili), Hong Kong Philharmonic (Chiyan Wong, Zhang Zuo), Staatsoper Stuttgart and NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover. During the 2021-22 season , Mr. Koncz will appear for the first time with Orchestre Dijon Bourgogne, Danish Chamber Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, Tokyo Symphony (as soloist), Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa (as a conductor, having performed as soloist in 2019), Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse and Sinfonieorchester Aachen (as soloist).

Mr. Koncz is in his second season as Chief Conductor of the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss am Rhein and will perform with the orchestra at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam (Mendelssohn, Beethoven). He has recently been appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the renowned French period instrument ensemble Les Musiciens du Louvre, with whom he has recorded the complete Mozart Violin Concertos on the composer's own violin for the first time. The Strad magazine described his performance as “a masterly demonstration of melodic playing.”

Born 1987 in Konstanz into an Austrian-Hungarian family of musicians and raised in Vienna, Mr. Koncz received his first violin lesson at the age of four and entered the Vienna University of Music only two years later. At the age of just nine, he received worldwide acclaim for starring as child prodigy Kaspar Weiss in the Canadian feature film The Red Violin, which won an Academy Award for Best Original Score.

In addition to his violin studies, Mr. Koncz also enrolled in the conducting class of Mark Stringer in 2005. Master classes with Daniel Barenboim and Daniel Harding further enriched his musical education. Much in demand as a chamber musician, his musical partners include Leonidas Kavakos, Joshua Bell, Vilde Frang, Renaud Capuçon, Antoine Tamestit, Kim Kashkashian, Gautier Capuçon, Andreas Ottensamer and Rudolf Buchbinder.

In 2008, at the age of 20, Mr. Koncz was appointed Principal Second Violin of the Vienna Philharmonic, a position he has held since. He plays the 1707 ex Brüstlein violin by Antonio Stradivari on generous loan by the National Bank of Austria.

Jeanine De Bique, soprano

Trinidadian soprano Jeanine De Bique has in recent years gained international recognition for her “dramatic presence and versatility” (The Washington Post), and “sheer endless wealth of color and nuances […] a radiant, free-floating timbre” (Opernwelt).

Mirrors, her first solo-CD, with Concerto Köln, was released in 2021 by Berlin Classics. The album received much critical acclaim and garnered with the “Diapason D’or” découverte award for best debut album and Editor’s choice award from Gramophone.

Ms. De Bique’s 2021-22 season included role and house debuts as Poppea in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer, followed by the title role in Handel’s Alcina in Robert Carsen’s acclaimed production at l’Opera national de Paris, conducted by Thomas Hengelbrock. 

Since her breakthrough debut at the 2017 Salzburg Festival as Annio in Peter Sellar’s production of La Clemenza di Tito, Ms. De Bique has appeared as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro for San Francisco Opera, Helena in Ted Huffman’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Deutsche Oper Berlin, the title role of Handel’s Rodelinda at Opéra de Lille, as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni for Opéra National du Rhin and as Aida in the world premiere of Caruso a Cuba by Micha Hamel in a return to De Nationale Opera Amsterdam.

Ms. De Bique’s concert highlights include Brahms’ German Requiem with Raphaël Pichon at La Seine Musicale in Paris and with Lorin Maazel and the Munich Philharmonic; Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse; Handel arias and Mozart’s Requiem with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer at the Hollywood Bowl and New York’s Lincoln Center; Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in Milan, St. Petersburg, Munich and Budapest; return visits to the BBC Proms in works by Handel with the Chineke! Orchestra and with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Richard Egarr; the Messiah with the Atlanta Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Melbourne Symphony; Pärt’s Como cierva sedienta with Iván Fischer and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin; and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic, as well as the Chicago Symphony with Marin Alsop at the Ravinia Festival.

Ms. De Bique holds a master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music. Her awards include first prize at the Young Concert Artists, Inc Music Competition, Arleen Auger Prize at the Hertogenbosch International Vocal Competition and third prize in the Viotti International Music Competition. She was a prizewinner at the Gerda Lissner Vocal Competition (New York), a finalist and study grant award recipient of the 2011 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and received a study grant from the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation. She is a recipient of the Youth Ambassador for Peace, awarded by the National Commission of UNESCO, Trinidad and Tobago.