From 2015-2023 German conductor Elias Grandy has been music director of Heidelberg’s Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra where he significantly raised the caliber of both, providing thoughtful, innovative programming, and burnishing the city’s fast-growing reputation as a vital musical hub. At the same time his international profile is rapidly rising by conducting first-class orchestras mainly in Europe, America and Asia.

He has been praised for his “passionate, spirited” interpretations of operatic and orchestral repertoire, ability to grasp “psychological subtleties” that enrich his music-making, and his extraordinary “precision and musical depth”.

In 22/23 Elias Grandy engagements as guest conductor include performances of Werther at Frankfurt Opera, Un ballo in maschera in Essen, Lohengrin in Chemnitz and Rusalka at Portland Opera. In Japan Elias Grandy will conduct Brahms Symphony No. 1 with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, Mahler Symphony No. 1 with the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra and Debussy’s La Mer with the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra. In his last season as music director in Heidelberg he will conduct new productions of The Tales of Hoffmann and Love for Three Oranges, as well as a series of orchestral programs focusing on works by female composers.

Future performances include projects with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, National Youth Orchestra of Germany, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra,  Orquesta Filarmonica de Buenos Aires, as well as the Semperoper Dresden.

Born in Munich, Elias Grandy studied cello and conducting in Munich, Basel, and Berlin. He worked as a cellist in orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Komische Oper Berlin. In 2012 he started as a conductor in Darmstadt and was invited to become music director in Heidelberg in 2015, the same year he won the prestigious Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition.