Chief Conductor
Martin Kerschbaum
Martin Kerschbaum’s career as a conductor has taken him to concert halls across the world in the past two decades. After completing his entire music studies in his hometown Vienna, Kerschbaum gained many years of experience as the solo timpanist of the Wiener Symphoniker and Concentus Musicus Wien under the baton of Georges Prêtre, Vladimir Fedoseyev and Nikolaus Harnoncourt, to name just a few outstanding conductors. These insights have informed his work to this day.
In 2003, Kerschbaum founded the Vienna Classical Players chamber orchestra and has served as ist principal conductor ever since. In addition to staging concert appearances in Austria, Kerschbaum and
his ensemble have toured Malta, Italy, Germany, France, Hungary, San Marino, Türkiye, Oman, and Japan. Guest conductorships with a variety of orchestras have taken him to Japan, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Poland, Slovenia, Malta, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Switzerland, Türkiye, and the USA.
With over 30 CD recordings to his name in recent years, Kerschbaum is also prominently represented in the market for recorded music. Every year since 2007, a CD recording has been produced in the precious music series in cooperation with the OeNB, featuring historical string instruments from the central bank’s collection on loan to outstanding musicians living in Austria free of charge.
Martin Kerschbaum has long been committed to promoting young talents and working with budding musicians. As an example, he conducted the University Orchestra Oberschützen of the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz for over ten years, and he cofounded Internationales Blasmusik Camp, an international wind music camp whose graduation concert has been a regular feature of the Bregenz Festival for more than ten years.