In September 2010 the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra appointed Arild Remmereit as its eleventh Music Director, beginning in the 2011-12 season for a four-year term.  Mr. Remmereit’s predecessors include illustrious conductors such as Eugene Goosens, Erich Lesindorf and David Zinman.  

In September 2010 the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra appointed Arild Remmereit as its eleventh Music Director, beginning in the 2011-12 season for a four-year term.  Mr. Remmereit’s predecessors include illustrious conductors such as Eugene Goosens, Erich Lesindorf and David Zinman.  

Over a five-month period in 2005, conductor Arild Remmereit made five dramatic debuts with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, Milan’s Filarmonica della Scala, the Munich Philharmonic and the Vienna Symphony, quickly establishing himself as a major talent on the international scene.  The New York Times wrote of his Pittsburgh debut:

“…he showed utter self-assurance, using clear and wide-ranging gestures, particularly in a breathtakingly dynamic reading of the Schumann [Symphony No. 4]… The only thing listeners seemed to want to talk about afterward was Mr. Remmereit.  "Sensational" was the word heard most frequently.”

The prestigious Wiener Zeitung hailed his performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 with the Vienna Symphony as “the sensation of the evening…The orchestra played with unequaled precision.”

Mr. Remmereit  was immediately re-engaged in Pittsburgh, Vienna, Milan and Baltimore, and since then has conducted a number of other prominent orchestras around the world, including the Detroit Symphony, where he appears frequently, England’s Hallé Orchestra, the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale in Florence, the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), the Dallas Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Bamberg Symphoniker, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic, and the Seoul Philharmonic, among many others.  In 2005 he made an acclaimed debut at the Teatro alla Scala conducting Tchaikovsky’s opera Cherevicki.

Last season included performances of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at the Teatro Comunale di Firenze, return engagements with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (both in subscription and at the Mann Center in Philadelphia), the Detroit Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, and a debut with the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, among other engagements.  In 2011-12 and beyond, he makes his debut with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, returns to the Pittsburgh Symphony, where he appears regularly, and the NACO (Ottawa), both in subscription and on tour, and conducts the Naples Philharmonic.

Born in Norway, Remmereit began piano lessons at the age of six, studied trumpet and performed as a boy soprano.  In 1986 he graduated from the Norwegian Conservatory of Music, earning master degrees in voice, piano (jazz and classical), and composition.  It was at a conducting seminar in 1985 at the Aspen Music Festival that he was inspired to change his focus.  From 1987 to 1992 he studied conducting in Vienna under the direction of Prof. Karl Österreicher at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, where he also participated in a master class with Zubin Mehta.  Remmereit studied with Leonard Bernstein at the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and assisted him in several recordings in Vienna between 1987 and 1990.

Last updated October 2011. Contact Opus 3 Artists for the most up-to-date version.