Gudni A. Emilsson

Honorary Founding Chief Conductor

Gudni A. Emilsson was born in Reykjavik, Iceland. At the age of 4 he started music lessons with his father. As a Master Degree candidate at the State University of Music Trossingen in Germany, he studied piano with Wolfgang Wagenhauser and conducting with Walter Hugler. Gudni has also taken Master Classes, Workshops and assisted conductors including: Walter Hugler, Sergiu Celibidache, Kirk Trevor,Lutz Koehler, Rudolf Barshai, Ilya Musin, Myung Wung Chung, Helmut
Rilling, John Eliot Gardiner and Bernard Haitink.
Gudni A. Emilsson has won numerous national and international prizes for conducting.Among the rewards he has received:

Herbert von Karajan Award in Salzburg – Austria
Richard Wagner Award in Bayreuth – Germany
LIND Artist Award in Reykjavik – Iceland
Masaryk Artist Award of the Masaryk University of Brno Czech Republic

Emilsson has made guest appearances throughout the world with major orchestras such as the Stuttgart Philharmonic, the Symphony Orchestra of Nurnberg, the Symphony Orchestra of Goettingen, the Mannheim Chamber Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of the University of Leipzig and the North West Germany Philharmonic. He has further served as a guest conductor for other orchestras and choirs like the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Bankja Chamber Orchestra of Sofia, the Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra in Bulgaria, the Kotor Art- Festival Orchestra in Montenegro, the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra in Greece, the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic in Czech Republic, the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra in Prague, Symphony Orchestra of the National Theatre in Prague, Radio Symphony Orchestra in Prague, the Radio Choir of Prague, the Bucharest Radio Choir, the South Bohemian Chamber Orchestra in Czech Republic, the Poland Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tonkunstler Orchestra of Vienna in Austria. Outside of Europe he was been well received as a guest conductor of the Arctic Chamber Orchestra (USA), the Orchestra “Sesi” Porto Alegre (Brazil), the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra USA and the Vietnamese National Symphony Orchestra.

Further invitations followed by Festivals like: Haydn Festival Vienna in Austria, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in Germany, the Avignon Symphony Orchestra in France, the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra in Czech Republic, the Philharmonic of Poland, the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra of Plzen in Czech Republic, the Hradec Kralove Philharmonic Orchestra in Czech Republic, the North Bohemian Philharmonic Teplicein Czech Republic, the Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic Lodz in Poland, the Belgrade Philharmonic in Serbia, the Philharmonic of Udine in Italy, the Orchestra del Teatro Verdi di Trieste in Italy and the Orchestra dell` Arena di Verona in Italy.

Gudni A. Emilsson has further performed in several important musical centres such as: Bohuslav Martinu Festival Prague, Gewandhaus Leipzig Germany, Luxembourg, Rio de Janeiro Sala Cecilia Mireles in Brasil, Alba Music Festival Italy, Mozart Festival Dortmund Germany and the Prague Spring Festival in Rudolfinum Hall.

He has had the pleasure of working with soloists such as:
Emmanuel Pahud, Katona Twins, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Perca Du, Lambis Vassiliadis, Josef Suk, Pavel Sporcel, Pieter Wispelwey, Ara Malikian, Hasmik Papian, Boris Brovtsyn, Reinhold Friedrich, Lucia Aliberti, Stefan Schilli, Alina Pogostkina, Dimitri Ashkenazy, Uto Ughi, Shlomo Mintz, Sergei Nakariakov and Mischa Maisky.

Gudni has toured all of Europe, East and West Africa, Near and Middle Eastern Countries, Japan, South Korea, South East Asia, China, North and South America.
During the Season 2012 to 2014 he will conduct at:

Festival “Czech Touches” at Smetana Hall Prague – Czech Republic
Music Festival Teplice with the North Bohemian Philharmonic
Czech Republic
Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra – Serbia.
Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra – Czech Republic
Kazakh State Chamber Orchestra – Kazakhstan
Prague Symphony Chamber Orchestra at the Rudolfinum Hall Prague – Czech Republic
Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic Orchestra Lodz – Poland
Mannheim Chamber Orchestra – Germany
Symphony Orchestra of the National Theatre Prague – Czech Republic
Orchestra dell´ Arena di Verona – Italy
Rheinische Philharmonie Koblenz – Germany

From 2000 to 2004 Emilsson was the Chief Conductor of the Suk Chamber Orchestra in Prague, Czech Republic.

In 2005 he started as the Chief Conductor of the Orchestra Camerata Bohemica Prague.

Since 2002 he has been serving as the Artistic Director and Cultural Attaché of the Classical Music Festival of the University City of Tubingen in Germany.

Since 1999 he has been the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Tubingen Chamber Orchestra touring in over 40 countries all over the world supported by the German Council of Music, the German Government and the Goethe Institute.

2005 Emilsson took over the new role as the Chief Conductor of the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, which is under the patronage of the Royal Thai Government and Mahidol University College of Music in Bangkok.

Radio, Television and CD productions are available in Europe, USA and Thailand.