Simon Gaudenz extends contract in Jena
The contract of Swiss conductor Simon Gaudenz as General Music Director of the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra has been extended until the 2028/29 season.
Gaudenz has been General Music Director of the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra, Thuringia's largest concert orchestra, since the 2018/19 season. After his first positions as Principal Conductor of the Collegium Musicum Basel and previously as a founding member and Artistic Director of the camerata variabile basel, he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Odense Symphony Orchestra in 2010. This was followed in 2012 by his appointment as Principal Conductor of the long-established chamber orchestra Hamburger Camerata.
Founded in 1934 as the Jena Municipal Symphony Orchestra, the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra was given its current name in 1969. Under the then chief conductor Günter Blumhagen, who worked in Jena from 1967 to 1980, the orchestra was also increased to its current size. Blumhagen's successors as General Music Director were Christian Ehwald (1981-1988), Andreas S. Weiser (1990-1998), Andrey Boreyko (1998-2004), Nicholas Milton (2004-2011) and Marc Tardue (2011-2017), before Simon Gaudenz took over the direction of the orchestra in the 2018/19 season.
