MEET THE CONDUCTOR: Christian Reif

Christian Reif conducts RIDE OF THE VALKYRIES!
November 20 at 6:30PM & November 21 at 7:30PM

Background: GRAMMY® award-winning conductor Christian Reif is Music Director Designate of Wuppertal Opera & Symphony Orchestra, where he leads his inaugural season as Music Director in 2027/28. Reif holds the title of Chief Conductor of the Gävle Symphony Orchestra in Sweden, where his term has been extended for 2 years through the 2027/28 season, and has established a reputation for his natural musicality, innovative programming and technical command.
              

Since 2022, Reif has served as Music Director of the Lakes Area Music Festival, a month-long summer festival in Minnesota featuring the nation’s top classical performers in programming that ranges from opera and chamber music to symphonic performances along with commissioned new works. LAMF believes that high-quality arts experiences should be accessible to all and operates on a name-your-price ticket model.
              

Highlights of Reif's 2026/27 season include performances with the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra in his role as Music Director Designate, and his collaboration with star soloists such as Anastasia Kobekina and Nicolas Altstaedt in his role as Chief Conductor with the Gävle Symphony Orchestra. For their last concert of the season, he brings Gävle Symphony Orchestra to Stockholm. Reif makes his debut with the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic, Sarasota Orchestra, and leads an opera production at Rice University in Houston. He also returns to the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra.
              

In 2023, Reif won a GRAMMY® for the Nonesuch Records album Walking in the Dark, the debut solo album of classical singer Julia Bullock, on which he accompanied her on piano and led London’s Philharmonia Orchestra. Gramophone Magazine praised the album as “illuminating” and described Reif as providing “excellent support” for Bullock. In 2020 during the pandemic, Reif and Bullock recorded a series of at-home virtual “Songs of Comfort”, ranging from Carole King’s classic “Up on the Roof” to Schubert’s Wanderers Nachtlied. NPR Music featured the duo in a “Tiny Desk Concert” for their special quarantine edition of the series, and The New York Times highlighted them on their “Best Classical Music of 2020” list.
              

From 2016 to 2019, Reif was Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, after Conducting Fellowships at the New World Symphony (2014–2016) and Tanglewood Music Center (2015–2016). He studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and The Juilliard School in New York and resides in Munich with his wife Julia Bullock and their son.

More information on Christian Reif can be found at www.christianreif.eu
                     Management for Christian Reif: Primo Artists, New York, NY www.primoartists.com

Tickets start at $25! Click HERE or call 401-248-7000 to purchase today!