17 June 2010
Chichon is appointed Chief of major German Radio Orchestra.
Local conductor Karel Mark Chichon has been appointed Chief Conductor of the SWR Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern. His contract will start by covering three seasons, running until July 2014 with an option of further renewal after the first year. He will conduct a maximum of 12 weeks with the orchestra every year.
The SWR Deutsche Radio Philhamonie (DRP) is one of Germany’s leading radio symphony orchestras. It’s previous Chief Conductors have included some of the greatest names in conducting, such as Myung-Whun Chung, Marcello Viotti and Gunther Herbig.
“Signing on a young, promising and passionate Principal Conductor like Karel Mark Chichon, who sets high creative standards and has great international experience, marks an excellent development for the DRP. The orchestra has also taken on a new challenge with this Chief Conductor,” according to Dr. Hans-Günther Brüske, the Programme Director for Saarländischer Rundfunk (Saarland Broadcasting) and Dr. Simone Sanftenberg, Regional Director of SWR in Rhineland Palatinate.
During the press conference held in Mainz last Friday 11 June, which was attended by more than thirty members of the German regional and national media, the press department of the orchestra stated that Karel is hailed by the international press as a “conducting prodigy” and as a “conductor of genius” and that his conducting was distinguished by “his spirit, passion and musicality”.
Following two extremely successful concert engagements with the orchestra in the past one and a half years, Karel is now looking forward to a more in-depth and lasting collaboration. During the press conference Karel commented “I feel very honoured and proud to have been asked to become the new Chief Conductor of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie and I accept this invitation with great pleasure and responsibility. The DRP is an orchestra with a great musical tradition and artistic excellence and I look forward to upholding this tradition and making it stronger. I have every confidence that together with Benedikt Fohr and the wonderful musicians for the DRP we can continue to uphold the DRP’s reputation as one of the leading orchestras of Germany where, above all, all those people who come to our concerts will feel part of an unforgettable musical experience. I want this region to have more than just an orchestra – I want our orchestra to become the regions’ most important ambassador throughout the world.”
The musicians of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie also relish the prospect of working with Karel Mark Chichon: “One of the most outstanding projects undertaken recently by our orchestra was the 2008 New Year’s Eve concert in the Baden-Baden Festpielhaus Hall under the baton of Karel Mark Chichon. Maestro Chichon knew in a moment how to prepare the orchestra, so that this evening, which would be broadcasted on television, would be a triumph for everyone. As a result of this success, the members of the DRP wanted to continue collaboration with Maestro Chichon. Barely a year later, he introduced himself to our audiences with a symphony programme ranging from Rossini (“William Tell Overture”), through Rodrigo, Dzenitis and Stravinsky (suite from “The Firebird”). Not only the audience and the critics at these concerts reacted with enthusiasm, the orchestra itself knew that it had gained a brilliant conductor with Maestro Chichon who could take this orchestra to new performance heights. It would therefore be only logical that the musicians of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie should wish to have him as the successor to Professor Christoph Poppen. We are all very pleased that Maestro Chichon will already be available to lead the orchestra for the 2011/2012 season. His musicality, his skills as a conductor, his versatility will all contribute to raising the level of our orchestra in the long term.”
Yesterday evening Karel personally commented “this appointment came at the right time and so I accepted it with great joy and satisfaction. As of 2011 I will be the Chief of both a major German Radio Orchestra and the best orchestra in the Baltic States (Latvian National Symphony) and I will be sharing my remaining time with guest conducting appearances at the Vienna State Opera, Berlin Deutsche Oper and Munich Bavarian State Opera where I shall be a guest until at least 2013 – this is stuff one dreams of. Of course the responsibility of heading two orchestras is enormous. Each orchestra gives some 75 concerts each in one season. I am essentially responsible for the choice of conductors and soloists for all the concerts of two orchestras whose collective budget is in excess of 6 million euro, let alone the administrative responsibilities that go with the job such as attending auditions for new orchestra members, the choice and programming of concert repertoire, rehearsal planning, recordings, touring, press relations, meetings with musicians unions and artistic boards, etc. But responsibility has never been a problem before and I cannot imagine that it will be now, when the oven is nice and warm!”.
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