The 40-year-old conductor and pianist György Mészáros has been appointed director of the youth orchestras of Tonhalle Düsseldorf.
The selection committee, which included members of the Tonhalle management as well as members of the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra and the Youth Symphony Orchestra (JSO), voted unanimously in favour of Mészáros. The Hungarian-born conductor is currently Principal Conductor and Deputy General Music Director at the Detmold State Theatre. In the 2021/22 season, he held the provisional position of General Music Director there.
The promotion and training of young musicians is an essential part of his previous conducting activities. In addition to his teaching position for orchestral conducting at the Detmold University of Music, the father of three children leads many projects with children’s and youth orchestras. He is also the artistic director and conductor of the NRW Children’s Orchestra, where he is responsible for planning and organising family concerts. He regularly works as a guest conductor with the Junge Sinfoniker Bielefeld.
Mészáros will take up his new position on 1 July 2024.
He is the successor to Ernst von Marschall, who conducted the youth orchestras for 18 years.
In order to fill the position, more than 150 applications were reviewed over the past weeks and months, not only from candidates from German-speaking countries, but also from other European countries, the USA and Asia. 13 applicants were invited to interview, five of whom completed auditions.
In 2007, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf was the first concert hall in Germany to establish its own youth symphony orchestra.
Around 100 young people aged between 15 and 25 from Düsseldorf and the surrounding area make music in the JSO, including numerous prizewinners and national winners of the „Jugend musiziert” competition.
In addition to the JSO, the Tonhalle’s three-part children’s and youth orchestra system also includes the U16 orchestra with around 70 members and the children’s orchestra with almost 50 members. The U16 was founded by Ernst von Marschall in 2008 and the children’s orchestra in 2010.The young musicians are between 10 and 15 years old, rehearse weekly like the JSO and also perform regularly in the Tonhalle.
