He is a music director and conductor born in Marchtrenk, Austria, who studied the piano and violin as a child and then entered the Graz Musikhichschule in 1967.
From 1975 to1976 he was the music director of the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra and he followed this in 1977 by becoming a coach for the Vienna State Opera. After winning the first prize at the Karl Bohm Competition in 1979 and being given the post of Director of the Mozarteum Orchester in Salzburg in 1984, where he stayed for 10 years, he gained international acclaim and saw much success in his career.
He has worked with many orchestras throughout the world in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, and was the music director of the Orchestra National Bordeaux Aquitaine from 1998 to 2004. He took the Music Director for the Houston Symphony and continued with them through the 2012/3 season when he took the title of Conductor Laureate, Following completion of his eight-year tenure with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra he was given the honorary title of Music Director Laureate.
In 2002 the French government honoured him by presenting him with the Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Region d’Honneur for “championing French music around the world.”
In the field of musical education he has been the artist-in-residence at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.
Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra recordings
Spanish Rhapsody (Isaac Albeniz)
CBC 5195 (CD: Nights in the Garden of Spain)
Conductor – Hans Graf
Piano – Angela Cheng, piano
Here he is conducting the NHK Symphony Orchestra in a movement from Brahms’ Symphony No. 4….
Sources:
- http://www.cmartists.com/artists/hans-graf.htm
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Graf
- http://www.allmusic.com/artist/hans-graf-mn0001843109/biography
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/859212-Hans-Graf