Australian Conductor to Lead Stellar ASO Leadership Team

For the first time in almost 30 years, an Australian conductor is to lead a major Australian symphony orchestra.

The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (ASO) today announced 29-year-old Nicholas Carter as Principal Conductor - the first time an Australian has been appointed to such a post since Stuart Challender was named Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony in 1987.

In a coup for the orchestra, Mr Carter will head a new artistic leadership team that includes two outstanding international artists: the renowned British conductor, Jeffrey Tate, as Principal Guest Conductor and Artistic Adviser; and living musical legend - conductor, violinist, violist and teacher - Pinchas Zukerman, as Artist-in-Association.

ASO Managing Director, Vincent Ciccarello, said the appointment of the new artistic leadership team was a clear demonstration of the ASO's self-belief, confidence and optimism; and its ambition to gain greater recognition on the international stage.

"Today's announcement is an exciting moment in the life of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and in the cultural life of Australia," Mr Ciccarello said.

"The appointment of new artistic leadership team is a statement of our belief in the future of the ASO: a future of discovery and adventure that is grounded in and respectful of tradition and our history - appropriate given we celebrate our 80th anniversary next year," he said.

"We are thrilled to publicly declare our solid belief in Australian musical talent: Nicholas Carter's ability, musical personality and maturity belie his age. That he can be joined by two musical luminaries in Jeffrey Tate and Pinchas Zukerman is an extraordinary opportunity for the ASO and for music in Australia.

"The ASO has warm and rewarding relationships with all three of these artists and together they bring a wide range of complementary skills, repertoire and attributes to the orchestra."

Mr Carter said, "I am hugely honored and humbled to take this position with the ASO from 2016. "Working with the ASO was one of my very first professional conducting engagements. I've never felt more comfortable or at ease than I do working with this orchestra. I'm thrilled to see where the relationship will go next year and the years following and enjoy some intense music making."

"I think my appointment comes at a really interesting time in the musical and cultural landscape in Australia and throughout the world where orchestras and other cultural organisations are trying to redefine their relevance in the world in the 21st Century," Mr Carter said.

"I'm passionate about the merits of bringing classical music to as many people as possible and to engage not only the communities that already know about the ASO but also the communities that perhaps have had no experience or exposure to orchestral music so far."

Nicholas Carter's star has been on a rapid ascendency since he was appointed Associate Conductor of the Sydney Symphony, under Vladimir Ashkenazy. Melbourne-born, Berlin-based, Mr Carter is currently Kapellmeister of the prestigious Deutsche Oper Berlin, having served as musical assistant to Music Director Simone Young at the Hamburg State Opera. He has been the ASO's Associate Guest Conductor since 2014.

"Energetic and musically intelligent, Nicholas Carter presents compelling and stylish interpretations of the classical repertoire. His natural leadership and ability to be an inclusive musician and good collaborator make him a natural choice to confidently lead the ASO into a strong future," Mr Ciccarello said.

Jeffrey Tate and Pinchas Zukerman are both highly regarded by peers and audiences alike and are artists with whom the ASO has a special chemistry.

"The 1998 production of Wagner's Ring Cycle under Jeffrey Tate with State Opera of South Australia was a defining moment in the history of the ASO and in Australian musical history," Mr Ciccarello said.

"One of the great experiences of my musical life in the last 40 years was my time with the ASO when I did the complete Ring Cycle," Mr Tate said. "I was enormously pleased when I was asked about returning to Adelaide to continue this relationship. This will be the beginning of something very special for me and I am very excited about bringing new and young talent with me over the next two seasons. It's a rebirth of my relationship with Australia and particularly with Adelaide which I love."

Mr Ciccarello described Pinchas Zukerman as, "quite simply, music royalty."

"We are so excited that he will be with us to focus intensively not only on playing and conducting but also presenting chamber music and teaching. A special aspect of our relationship will be the opportunity for students around Australia and the region to take part in masterclasses with Mr Zukerman."

"I am delighted to be part of this announcement," Mr Zukerman said. "I'm looking forward with great anticipation to being with the orchestra making music in the wonderful city of Adelaide. I am tremendously excited about coming back and working on a regular basis both as a conductor and player, and as a teacher as well. I hope we can combine efforts and make it all worthwhile for the new generation that's coming up, as musicians and listeners."

The ASO's artistic leadership team has been appointed for a two-year term, commencing in 2016.

Mr Ciccarello paid tribute to outgoing Music Director Arvo Volmer's 10-year commitment to the ASO.

"We continue to reap the rewards of his artistic legacy," Mr Ciccarello said, "and we look forward to continuing our relationship with Arvo as a guest conductor into the future."

About the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Artistic Leadership Team

Nicholas CARTER: ASO Principal Conductor

Nicholas Carter is fast establishing a career as a conductor of exceptional versatility, equally at home in the concert hall and the opera house, and fluent in a diverse repertoire.

He is currently Kapellmeister of the Deutsche Oper Berlin where, in the 2014 - 2015 season his conducting engagements will include Carmen, The Marriage of Figaro, The Rape of Lucretia, The Magic Flute and The Elixir of Love.

From 2011 to mid-2014 he was Kapellmeister at the Hamburg State Opera, as well as serving as musical assistant to Music Director Simone Young.

This engagement followed a three-year association with the Sydney Symphony, first as Assistant Conductor, working closely with Vladimir Ashkenazy and a number of the orchestra's guest conductors, and subsequently as Associate Conductor. In 2014 Nicholas was appointed Associate Guest Conductor of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

In Hamburg, Nicholas conducted performances of Barbiere di Siviglia, Die Zauberflöte, Cosi fan tutte, Lucia di Lammermoor, Hänsel und Gretel, Cleopatra by Johan Mattheson and Orontea by Cesti.

Furthermore, as Musical Assistant to Simone Young, he was heavily involved in the preparation of a vast repertoire, including in the presentation of ten Wagner operas, from Rienzi to Parsifal, including the complete Ring Cycle, to celebrate the bicentenary in 2013 of the composer's birth.

As guest conductor, Nicholas has conducted the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Staatsorchester Braunschweig, the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Dalasinfoniettan Sweden and the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra in a Gala with Diana Damrau as soloist.

At the invitation of Donald Runnicles, Nicholas has served as Associate Conductor of the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming since 2010.

In Australia, Nicholas enjoys collaborating regularly with many of the country's finest orchestras and ensembles, such as the Sydney, West Australian, Melbourne, Adelaide and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, Orchestra Victoria, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) and the Australian Youth Orchestra. He has also appeared with the Malaysian, and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras. In 2011, Nicholas led a Gala concert with the Sydney Symphony and Anne Sofie von Otter.

In 2014 Nicholas Carter returned to both the Adelaide and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, and the Australian Youth Orchestra and made his debut for State Opera of South Australia conducting La Traviata.

2015 sees Nicholas returning to Australia to work with the Adelaide, Queensland, West Australian and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, as well as ANAM.

Jeffrey TATE - ASO Principal Guest Conductor and Artistic Adviser

Jeffrey Tate is one of today's most fascinating and inspiring conductors, whose artistic sensibility and ability to bring differentiated expressions and colours to his musical interpretations have made him one of Britain's outstanding artists.

The Hamburg Symphony Orchestra is Jeffrey Tate's creative home base in Germany. Having worked there for several years now, he confesses that his engagement with this orchestra was a real stroke of fortune: "I enjoy working with this orchestra that is so deeply rooted in the city of Hamburg. It is very flexible and eager to work; we can afford to do unusual programs and have developed a very interested audience."

Having originally studied medicine at Cambridge University, Dr Tate practiced for three years as an eye surgeon in London before he started his professional artistic career by joining the music staff at the Royal Opera Covent Garden in 1970.

He assisted Sir George Solti in London, Sir John Pritchard in Cologne, Pierre Boulez for the centenary Ring at the Bayreuth Festival, and Herbert von Karajan in Salzburg. After his conducting debut with Carmen at Gothenburg Opera in 1978, he rapidly rose to international fame.

Maestro Tate has since worked with most of the major orchestras in the world. He has made a vast number of landmark recordings, and maintains lasting musical partnerships with some of the finest musicians of our time.

He regularly conducts in the world's leading opera houses and festivals. He is without a doubt one of the world's pre-eminent conductors of the music of Wagner and Strauss, of core classical and romantic repertoire, of British music of the late 19th and 20th century and of classical modern and contemporary music.

Maestro Jeffrey Tate gave his conducting debut at the Royal Opera House. His first performance at the Met in New York was in 1979, and he made his debut with the English Chamber Orchestra in London in the season 1982/83. He was appointed Principal Conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra in 1985 and established during the following years this orchestra's international reputation as one of the finest chamber orchestras in the world. With the ECO, he produced critically acclaimed recordings of Haydn and Mozart Symphonies for EMI, as well as the complete Mozart piano concertos with Mitsuko Ushida as soloist. In 1985, he also conducted the world premiere of Henze's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse at the Salzburg Festival. Two years later he conducted the world premiere of Rolf Liebermann's Der Wald in Geneva.

In 1989 the Maestro was appointed both Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestre National de France. With this orchestra in 1994, he conducted the first complete staging of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen in Paris since 1945. The same production was restaged in 1998 in Adelaide with Maestro Tate conducting Australia's first complete staged Ring ever. His new production of the Ring in Cologne has also been internationally acclaimed.

In 1991, Jeffrey Tate was appointed first Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. He has also conducted numerous productions at the Bastille Opera and at the Châtelet in Paris and was given the honor of re-opening the Palais Garnier with Così fan tutte in 1996. He made his triumphant debut at La Scala in Milan in 2000 and has been regularly re-invited since.

Tate enjoys a close relationship with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Berlin Radio Symphony, the London Symphony, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Danish Radio, the Mozarteum Salzburg, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Orchestre de Paris, the Toronto Symphony, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the Sydney Symphony, and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony.

Since 2001, Maestro Tate has been Honorary Director of the National Italian Radio Orchestra. He was appointed Principal Conductor of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra in 2009.

In 2001, 2002, and 2010 Maestro Jeffrey Tate was awarded the Franco Abbiati Prize (the most prestigious music critics' prize in Italy) for his work with the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, for his work at the Teatro San Carlo in Napoli and for his production of Götterdämmerung at La Fenice in Venice. Jeffrey Tate has been named "Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur", "Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres", and "Commander of the British Empire".

Pinchas ZUKERMAN - ASO Artist-in-Association

Pinchas Zukerman has remained a phenomenon in the world of music for over four decades. His musical genius, prodigious technique and unwavering artistic standards are a marvel to audiences and critics.

Devoted to the next generation of musicians, he has inspired younger artists with his magnetism and passion. His enthusiasm for teaching has resulted in innovative programs in London, New York, China, Israel and Ottawa.

The name Pinchas Zukerman is equally respected as violinist, violist, conductor, pedagogue and chamber musician.

Pinchas Zukerman's 2014-2015 season includes over 100 worldwide performances, bringing him to multiple destinations in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. He completes his 16th and final season as Music Director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa, with whom he toured the United Kingdom in October 2014. In his sixth season as Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, he led the ensemble in concerts at home in the United Kingdom as well as on its January 2015 tour of Florida. Additional orchestral engagements include the Colorado, San Diego, Kansas City and Tucson Symphonies.

Overseas he visits the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Salzburg Camerata, Berlin Staatskapelle, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Korean Chamber Orchestra, Bamberger Symphoniker, Philharmoniker Hamburg, and returns to Australia for appearances with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Recital appearances in Berlin, Istanbul, Seattle, San Diego and Ottawa, and tours with the Zukerman ChamberPlayers to Italy, Spain, Australia, China, Japan and Korea round out the season.

Over the last decade, Pinchas Zukerman has become as equally regarded a conductor as he is an instrumentalist, leading many of the world's top ensembles in a wide variety of the orchestral repertoire's most demanding works.

A devoted and innovative pedagogue, Mr Zukerman chairs the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music, where he has pioneered the use of distance-learning technology in the arts. In Canada, he has established the NAC Institute for Orchestra Studies and the Summer Music Institute encompassing the Young Artists, Conductors and Composers Programs.

Born in Tel Aviv in 1948, Pinchas Zukerman came to America in 1962 where he studied at The Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian. He has been awarded the Medal of Arts, the Isaac Stern Award for Artistic Excellence and was appointed as the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative's first instrumentalist mentor in the music discipline. Pinchas Zukerman's extensive discography contains over 100 titles, and has earned him two Grammy awards and 21 nominations.

"Youth sticks with some people... Zukerman seems the forever-young virtuoso: expressively resourceful, infectiously musical, technically impeccable, effortless. As usual, it was a joy to be in his musical company." - The Los Angeles Times.

View the video of the announcement here.