German conductor Kevin John Edusei is sought after the world over. He is praised repeatedly for the drama and tension that he brings to his music-making, for his attention to detail, sense of architecture, and the fluidity, warmth and insight he brings to his performances. He is deeply committed to the creative elements of performance, presenting classical music in new formats, cultivating audiences, introducing music by under-represented composers and conducting an eclectic range of repertoire.
In the 2023–24 season, Edusei debuts with the Seattle, Detroit and Antwerp symphony orchestras, conducting a range of repertoire including Beethoven, Widmann, Strauss, Mazzoli, Zemlinsky, Moussa, Ravel, and a world premiere by Arlene Sierra. He will also return to the Indianapolis Symphony for the opening concert of the season as well as the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony (where he holds the position of Principal Guest Conductor), City of Birmingham Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C. in a program that includes a world premiere by Adolphus Hailstork and John Adams’ Harmonielehre.
In recent seasons, Edusei has conducted many of the major orchestras across Europe and the U.S., including the Munich Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, London Symphony, BBC Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Baltimore Symphony and Minnesota Orchestra, among others. He has a long-standing relationship with the Chineke! Orchestra, with whom he has appeared several times at London’s Royal Festival Hall, and, in 2022, he conducted them on a major European summer festivals tour that included the closing concert of the Lucerne Festival, performances at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Snape Maltings, Helsinki Festival and a return to the BBC Proms for a televised performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Edusei is the former Chief Conductor of the Munich Symphony Orchestra and the Bern Opera House.
In the autumn of 2022, Edusei made his debut with the Royal Opera House conducting La bohème, which was streamed across cinemas worldwide, and he will return in 2023–24 for a production of Madama Butterfly. Previously, he has conducted at the Semperoper Dresden, English National Opera, Hamburg State Opera, Volksoper Wien and Komische Oper Berlin. During his time as Chief Conductor of Bern Opera House, he led many highly acclaimed new productions, including Peter Grimes, Ariadne auf Naxos, Salome, Bluebeard’s Castle, Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde, Kátya Kábanová and a cycle of the Mozart–Da Ponte operas.
Photo Credit: Marco Borggreve