conductor
biography
Franz Schottky is Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Munich Kammerphilharmonie dacapo, which he founded in 2000. The orchestra has established a substantial regular audience of over 1,000 attendees per concert through its own subscription series at the Herkulessaal in the Munich Residenz, thereby securing a firm place in the rich musical life of Bavaria's state capital. It has also developed into a soughtafter guest ensemble beyond regional borders, performing at the International Music Festival in Český Krumlov and at the Wiener Musikverein. For Austria’s largest label Gramola, Schottky has recorded two CDs with his orchestra, featuring violinist Thomas Albertus Irnberger: the first recording, featuring works by Haydn, was nominated for the German Record Critics' Award in 2024, while the second recording, featuring works by Chausson, is set to be released at the end of 2026.
Franz Schottky is regularly invited by renowned orchestras worldwide; he has guestconducted the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra dell'Arena di Verona, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Sanremo, the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, the Filarmonica Gioachino Rossini, the Orchestra Sinfonica Metropolitana di Bari, the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Olomouc, the Capella Cracoviensis, the Filarmonica Oltenia Craiova, the Kazakh State Chamber Orchestra "Academy of Soloists," and the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México OSEM. He has conducted at various prestigious venues including the Wiener Musikverein, the Smetana Hall in Prague, the Henry Crown Hall in Jerusalem, and the Munich Gasteig.
For many years, Schottky has devoted himself intensely to the symphonic works of Anton Bruckner. He has conducted several international premieres in cities like Astana, Kharkiv, and Chișinău. In Munich, he has already performed the 3rd and 4th symphonies with his orchestra; in 2024, he made his debut with the Orquesta Juvenil Universitaria Eduardo Mata of UNAM in Mexico City conducting the 6th Symphony. Additionally, he has a special interest in the rich repertoire of symphonic Romanticism, which he promotes through the ongoing rehearsal and performance of rarely played works.
Numerous internationally sought-after soloists such as Michael Korstick, Anna Tifu and Natalia Gutman appreciate Franz Schottky as a particularly flexible and sensitive collaborator. This is also related to his unique conducting technique that he learned from his teacher, Sergiu Celibidache. At the age of 20, he joined the class of the then Munich General Music Director in 1991 and was one of his last and closest students until Celibidache's death in 1996. Under him, Schottky also learned the foundations of his music philosophy, known as his Musical Phenomenology. Schottky shares this knowledge as a guest lecturer, most recently at Shanghai University and the Prague Conservatory.
In 2014, Schottky was first appointed to the jury of the Verona International Piano Competition, which he has continued to be part of since then. He made his US debut in 2019 in Alexandria, Louisiana, conducting Johannes Brahms's 2nd Symphony. In 2024, he returned to the podium of the Orchestra dell'Arena di Verona with a Brahms program. In 2026, he debuted with the Hanoi Philharmonic Orchestra in Vietnam conducting Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony, held a masterclass for conductors at the Vietnam National Academy of Music, and will be a jury member for the International Conducting Competition in Târgu Mureș.
www.franzschottky.de
