Hans Graf

Hans Graf, the renowned Austrian conductor, has brought an innovative and inspired approach to music-making as the Chief Conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra since the 2020/21 season, and subsequently as Music Director from the 2022/23 season. Graf has previously held positions as Music Director with several orchestras, including the Houston Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Basque National Orchestra, and the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg. He is frequently invited to conduct major orchestras worldwide, including the orchestras of Boston, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia, as well as in Vienna, Dresden, Oslo, London, Melbourne, Sydney, Seoul and Hong Kong, and with orchestras including the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Royal Concertgebouw, Hallé Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, the Bavarian, Danish and Netherlands Radio Symphony orchestras, Budapest Festival, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Russian National and the Malaysian Philharmonic. Graf has also conducted operas in several prominent opera houses, such as the Vienna State Opera and in Munich, Berlin, Paris, Strasbourg, Rome and Zurich.

Graf’s extensive discography features all the symphonies of Mozart and Schubert, the complete orchestral works of Dutilleux, and the world premiere recording of Zemlinsky’s Es war einmal. He won both the GRAMMY and ECHO Klassik awards for best opera recording for his recording of Berg’s Wozzeck with the Houston Symphony. In 2014, he received the Österreichischer Musiktheaterpreis for Strauss’s Die Feuersnot at the Vienna Volksoper, where he later returned in 2021 to lead Der Rosenkavalier.

Born near Linz in 1949, Graf is currently Professor Emeritus for Orchestral Conducting at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. In recognition of his contributions to music, he was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur by the French government and the Grand Decoration of Honour of the Republic of Austria.