Conductor
Three-time Grammy-nominated conductor Hugh Wolff is a musical firebrand, with “an effortlessly polished sound, shaping his interpretations with impeccable taste” (The New York Times). His compelling performances have earned great critical acclaim across the world, including: “Hugh Wolff stays always at the heart of the music – by the end he held the whole auditorium in suspended silence” (The Washington Post).
Wolff is much in demand in Europe, where he has conducted the London Symphony, the Philharmonia, the City of Birmingham Symphony, the Orchestre National de France, Czech Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Munich Philharmonic, and the Bavarian and Berlin Radio Orchestras. A regular guest conductor with orchestras in Europe, Japan, Korea, Canada and Australia, he is also a frequent conductor at summer festivals. Currently Laureate Conductor of the Belgian National Orchestra, Wolff was principal conductor of the hr-Sinfonie Orchester (formerly Frankfurt Radio Orchestra) from 1997 to 2006 and maintains a close relationship with that ensemble. He led it on tours of Europe, Japan and China, and at the Salzburg Festival. Wolff was principal conductor and music director of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (1988–2000), with which he recorded twenty discs and toured the United States, Europe, and Japan. Wolff was music director of the New Jersey Symphony (1986–1993) and Principal Conductor of Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival (1994–1997). He began his professional career as associate conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra under Mstislav Rostropovich.
A graduate of Harvard College, Wolff studied piano with Leon Fleisher and Leonard Shure, composition with George Crumb, Leon Kirchner and Olivier Messiaen, and conducting with Charles Bruck. In 1985, Wolff was awarded one of the first Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conducting Prizes. In addition to his performance career, Hugh Wolff is passionate about passing knowledge on to the next generation. As such, he holds the Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood Director of Orchestras Chair at the New England Conservatory in Boston. He and his wife, harpist and writer Judith Kogan, have three sons.
