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Pianista i dyrygent

Justus Frantz

JUSTUS FRANTZ Pianist and Conductor – A Life in Music

Justus Frantz is a name that one associates with outstanding orchestras and an absolute commitment to music. Professor Justus Frantz has been an internationally successful pianist and conductor for more than thirty years. He has served classical music countless times: by constantly discovering and nurturing young music talents. Therefore foreign tours of the Philharmonia of the Nations Auditions (Vorpiele) in many countries take a firm place in his schedule – for young musicians worldwide, it’s an excellent chance at the beginning of a musical career. He invited the violinist Midori, Maxim Vengerov, Vadim Repin and pianist Evgeny Kissin as young talents for the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and paved the way for them as a great career. In St. Petersburg he chose the unknown Anna Netrebko to sing in his production of The Marriage of Figaro, Susanna. He discovered the young violinist and composer Martin Panteleev and brought his compositions for the first time on stage.

A young talent is discovered

His extraordinary musical career began in 1967 when Justus Frantz won the ARD international music competition. The study in the master classes of Prof. Wilhelm Kempff contributed to his high-level training. When 23 years old, he was one of the youngest ever to receive a scholarship to the German National Academic Foundation.

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Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein – Forerunner of his great career in music –

He rose to number among the very top, international pianists in 1970 with the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Hebert von Karajan. Bernstein’s dream of a young, international, multi-cultural, and above all, professional orchestra inspired Justus Frantz to found the Philharmonia of Nations in 1995, and he has been its principal conductor and music director to the present day.

Many awards go to his outstanding work

Justus Frantz always manages to give an unconventional way to a broad audience access to classic music. In 1986 he initiated the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, whose directing manager he was for nine years, and that he made into one of the worlds greatest music festivals.

Furthermore, his ideas have been honored with several prestigious television awards. Since 1989, Justus Frantz became Special Envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and in the same year was awarded the Great Cross of Merit.

Justus Frantz is chief conductor of the Philharmonia of the Nations. He also works regularly with renowned orchestras all over the world, such as the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, the Great Moscow Symphony Orchestra, the China Philharmonic Orchestra, the KwaZulu-Natal, Durban Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sinfonia Varsovia and the Georgian Chamber Orchestra.