OTTO TAUSK
CONDUCTOR
CLASSICAL
North American Agent: Adam Tilley
Territory: North America
ABOUT
Dutch conductor Otto Tausk is the Music Director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, now in his second season. Until spring 2018, Tausk was Music Director of the Opera Theatre and T onhalle Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen. He appears as a guest with such orchestras as Concertgebouworkest, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, the orchestras of Perth, Tasmania, Auckland, BBC Scottish Symphony and BBC National Orchestra of Wales, with whom he made his BBC Proms debut last season. He is a hugely respected musical personality in his native Holland, working with all its major orchestras and composers.
In the 2019/2020 season, Tausk continues guesting relationships with Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Or9uesta Sinf6nica de Galicia, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, and makes debut appearances with Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Orchestre Symphoni9ue de Quebec and Orchestre Philharmoni9ue de Monte Carlo. In Vancouver, programming highlights include celebrating Beethoven's 250th birthday with BeethovenFest in spring 2020, and soloists such as Susan Graham, Alina lbragimova, Gidon Kremer, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Dan iii Trifonov and Dawn Upshaw.
“The Royol Concertgebouw Orchestro conjured up clouds of fluid, silky sounds of oil dynamic ranges. All these extreme contrasts were brought together with great precision, masterly framed by Otto Tausk.”
In the opera pit in St. Gallen, Tausk conducted the world premiere of 'Annas Maske', by Swiss composer David Philip Hefti, the Swiss premiere of George Benjamin's 'Written on Skin', Korngold's 'Die Tote Stadt' and other titles including 'Don Giovanni', 'Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail', 'Eugene Onegin', 'West Side Story', 'Lohengrin' and 'Ariadne auf Naxos'. Tausk will conduct Michel van der Aa's new opera in the 20/21 season, with the world premiere at Dutch National Opera, plus further appearances with the other co-commissioning parties.
Tausk has recorded with the Concertgebouworkest (Luc Brewaeys, and an animated version of Prokofiev's 'Peter and the Wolf), T onhalle Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen (Korngold and Diepenbrock), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (Mendelssohn) and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (Gavin Bryars) amongst others. For the cpo label in 2011 Hans Pfitzner's enchanting Orchesterlieder garnered international praise, not least the Classica France's 'Choe du mois'. His Prokofiev disc with Rosanne Philippens also received BBC Music Magazine Concerto Disc of the Month (2018).
Born in Utrecht, Otto Tausk initially studied violin and then conducting with Jonas Aleksa. Between 2004 and 2006, Tausk was assistant conductor to Valery Gergiev with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, a period of study that had a profound impact on him. In 2011 Tausk was presented with the 'De Olifant' prize by the City of Haarlem. He received this prestigious award for his contribution to the Arts in the Netherlands, in particular his extensive work with Holland Symfonia serving as Music Director 2007 to 2012. In reflecting on their work together in The Netherlands, Valery Gergiev paid particular tribute to Tausk on this occasion.
Updated April 2020 – please discard earlier versions.