Chuang Tung-chieh
Conductor

Since the 2021/2022 season, Chuang Tung-chieh has been General Music Director of the Bochumer Symphoniker and Director of the Anneliese Brost Musikforum Ruhr.

In his 2023/2024 season at the Bochumer Symphoniker, Chuang continued the successful concert series “From the Heart” and presented works of great orchestral literature that are particularly close to him, such as Mahler’s Symphony No 5, Debussy’s La Mer, Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker and Bruckner’s Symphony No 9, with renowned soloists such as Frank Peter Zimmermann, Bruce Liu, Alexander Gavrylyuk and Yubeen Kim. Exploring new sonic realms, he conducted a concert featuring the Chinese Guzheng virtuoso Xu Fengxia, who performed Tan Dun’s Concerto for String Orchestra and Zheng. A special highlight of the season was a tour to Taiwan in September 2023, during which works by Liszt, Rachmaninov and Mahler were performed in Taipei, Hsinchu and Kaohsiung.

Away from Bochum, Chuang has recently received invitations to conduct the hr-Sinfonieorchester, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester and Bremer Philharmoniker. Previous engagements have taken him to the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, SWR Symphonieorchester, NDR Radiophilharmonie, MDR-Sinfonieorchester, Dresdner Philharmonie, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Tonkünstler-Orchester, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Taiwan Philharmonic, National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra in Beijing, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Lapland Chamber Orchestra, Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkesters, Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and Oviedo Filarmonía.

Chuang laid the foundation for his international career in 2015 by winning the Malko Competition in Copenhagen. Before that, he had already won prizes at the Sir Georg Solti International Conductors’ Competition in Frankfurt, Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in Bamberg and Jeunesses Musicales International Conducting Competition in Bucharest.

In 2010, Chuang received the Edwin B Garrigues Fellowship at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. A year later, he initiated the Curtis Japan Benefit Concert, donating all proceeds to the victims of the March 2011 earthquake via the Japanese Red Cross. In 2012, he launched the first orchestral flashmob in Taiwan in his role as Principal Conductor of the National Taiwan University Symphony Orchestra.

Born into a family of professional musicians, Chuang learned to play the horn and the piano from an early age, giving his first public concert at the age of 11. He continued his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music and Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar. His mentors include Mark Gibson, Gustav Meier, Otto-Werner Mueller and Nicolás Pasquet. He currently resides with his family in Bochum.