Brazilian born conductor John Neschling comes from a Viennese musician’s family.
Grand nephew of composer Arnold Schoenberg and conductor Arthur Bodanzky, he
studied in Vienna with Hans Swarowsky and attended classes with Leonard
Bernstein and Bruno Maderna in Europe and in the USA.
He started very young his conducting career which took him to collaborate with
many orchestras such as Vienna Symphony, London Symphony, Tonhalle Zürich,
Warsaw Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Santa Cecilia in Rome, Residenz in the
Hague. As Opera conductor he has led productions in Opera Houses all over the
world, such as the Vienna State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro San Carlo di
Napoli, Arena di Verona, Opernhaus Zürich, Washington Opera.
He acted as Musical Director at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon, the
Opera in St. Gallen in Switzerland, the Teatro Massimo in Palermo and the
Orchestre National de Bordeaux in France and in his home country he directed both
Opera Houses of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
In 1997 he decided to involve himself in the musical development of his country
and took over the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, in Brazil, where he
worked as musical director until 2009. During these years he transformed a local
orchestra into the leading Symphony Orchestra of Latin America, toured the USA
and Europe three times, recorded over 30 CDs, was awarded raving reviews and
important prizes and his recordings were given both the Diapason d’Or and the
Diapason d’Or de l’Année for his complete recording of Villa-Lobos “Choros” for BIS
.
When he left the orchestra’s direction, Gramophone Magazine (London) indicated
São Paulo Orchestra as “one of the up and coming orchestras in the world, among
the best of its kind”, Alain Lompech, of Le Monde (Paris) wrote “John Neschling is
certainly the most important musician in Brazil, since Villa-Lobos” and Pizzicato
wrote on his Hindemith recording “sicher, kann man bei Hindemith die Analytischen
Linien eines Abbados oder die Emotionsgeladenen Interpretationen eines Bernstein
vorziehen, für mich aber vereint Neschling beide Pole auf eine kongeniale Art und
Weise und zeigt darüber hinaus, dass sein Orchester mit den besten es aufnehmen
kann”.
In 2011 he decides to return to Europe where he conducts concerts and opera
productions around Italy, France, Switzerland, Spain, Belgium and Poland. At the
end of 2012 he's invited by the new government of the city of Sao Paulo to take
over the Artistic and Musical Direction of Theatro Municipal, so in January 2013 he
goes back to Brazil and resumes his active work for his Country’s musical and
cultural life, while continuing his international conducting activities.
