Albrecht, Gerd
Albrecht, Gerd
Albrecht, Gerd, German conductor, son of Hans Albrecht; b. Essen, July 19, 1935. He studied conducting with Brückner-Rüggeberg at the Hamburg Hochschule für Musik and musicology at the univs. of Kiel and Hamburg. After winning the Besançon (1957) and Hilversum (1958) conducting competitions, he conducted at the Württemberg State Theater in Stuttgart (1958–61). He was 1st conductor in Mainz (1961–63), and then Generalmusikdirektor in Lübeck (1963–66) and Kassel (1966–72). From 1972 to 1979 he was chief conductor of the Deutsche Oper in West Berlin and of the Tonhalle Orch. in Zürich from 1975 to 1980. From 1976 he was a guest conductor at the Vienna State Opera. In 1981 he made his U.S. debut conducting the U.S. premiere of Reimann’s Lear at the San Francisco Opera. In 1986 he made his first appearance as a sym. conductor in the U.S. when he led a guest engagement with the Houston Sym. Orch. He served as chief conductor of the Hamburg State Opera and the Phil. State Orch. from 1988 to 1997. From 1994 to 1996 he was chief conductor of the Czech Phil, in Prague. He was chief conductor of the Yomiuri Nippon Sym. Orch. in Tokyo from 1998 and of the Danish National Radio Sym. Orch. in Copenhagen from 2000.
Writings
Wie eine Opemaufführung zustande kommt (Zürich, 1988).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire