In the 2025/26 season, Manze returns to the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Munich Philharmonic, Finnish Radio, Minnesota Orchestra and Netherlands Radio, after high profile debuts with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal earlier this year. He also leads the WDR Symphonieorchester on a major European tour with Isabelle Faust, including performances at the Wiener Musikverein and Munich’s Isarphilharmonie.
Manze’s time as Chief Conductor in Hannover saw him lead the orchestra in highly successful tours to China in 2016 and 2019, as well as a return to Japan in 2022. Manze and the orchestra made a major series of award-winning recordings for Pentatone, focused on the works of Mendelssohn and Mozart. The first recording in the Mendelssohn series won the Preis der Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik. Manze has also recorded a cycle of the complete Vaughan Williams symphonies with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra for Onyx Classics to critical acclaim.
In great demand as a guest conductor across the globe, Manze has long-standing relationships with many leading orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouworkest, Munich Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Bamberg Symphoniker, Oslo Philharmonic, Finnish Radio, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, RSB Berlin, and the Dresden Philharmonic among others.
In North America, Manze has been a regular guest at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City, and in recent seasons has conducted the Boston Symphony, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics. In 2023, Manze made his operatic debut with the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, conducting performances of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas alongside Schoenberg’s Erwartung. Other highlights of recent seasons include debuts with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic and Swedish Radio Orchestras.
From 2006 to 2014, Manze was Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. During this time he made a number of recordings with them including Beethoven Eroica (Harmonia Mundi) and a cycle of Brahms symphonies (CPO). He was also Principal Guest Conductor of the Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra from 2008 to 2011 and held the title of Associate Guest Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra for four seasons.
After reading Classics at Cambridge University, Manze studied the violin and rapidly became a leading specialist in the world of historical performance practice. He became Associate Director of the Academy of Ancient Music in 1996, and then Artistic Director of the English Concert from 2003 to 2007. As a violinist, Manze released an astonishing variety of recordings, many of them award-winning.
Manze is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, Visiting Professor at the Oslo Academy, and has contributed to new editions of sonatas and concerti by Bach and Mozart, published by Bärenreiter, Breitkopf and Härtel. He also teaches, writes about, and edits music, as well as broadcasting regularly on radio and television. In November 2011 Andrew Manze received the prestigious ‘Rolf Schock Prize’ in Stockholm.
2025/26 season / 562 words. Not to be altered without permission.