Since May 2015, Alexander Liebreich is Artistic Director of the Katowice Kultura Natura Music Festival, which has already had guests like the Rias Chamber Choir, the Academy of Early Music Berlin, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. In May 2018, Leif Ove Andsnes, the Quatuor Ebène and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich are expected to perform for the 4th edition of the festival. In 2018, Liebreich will take over the position of Artistic Director of the Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
From 2006 to 2016 Liebreich was Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Munich Chamber Orchestra (MKO). The first CD of the ensemble with works by Joseph Haydn and Isang Yun under his direction was received enthusiastically by the critics during its release in January 2008; 2009 followed a Bach CD with Hilary Hahn, Christine Schäfer and Matthias Goerne for the Deutsche Grammophon. The recording with the MKO of Tigran Mansurian’s “Requiem” (2017, ECM Records) with the RIAS Chamber Choir was honored with the Recording Academy nominations for the 2018 Grammy Awards as well as by the jury of the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA).
As one of Germany’s leading conductors, Alexander Liebreich is at home on the big concert stages in the world. As a guest conductor, he has collaborated with many top-class orchestras, including the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchester National de Belgique, the Rundfunk-Symphonieorchester Berlin, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo the Dresdner Philharmonie, the Orchester Philharmonique de Luxembourg, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra. Current and future commitments include debuts with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Orquesta de Valencia, the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Essen Philharmonic, the Staatsorchester Stuttgart, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.
Liebreich has performed with outstanding soloists such as Lisa Batiashvili, Krystian Zimerman, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Gautier Capuçon, Leila Josefowicz and Isabelle Faust.
In addition to his concerts and opera productions, Liebreich has also built up a reputation with innovative projects. In 2011, he was the first European Artistic Director of the Tongyeong International Music Festival (TIMF) in South Korea, one of the largest and most important music festivals in Asia. To promote intercultural encounters, he launched the East-West Residence Program and invited artists like Heiner Goebbels, Unsuk Chin, Martin Grubinger, Toshio Hosokawa, and Beat Furrer to South Korea.
In October 2016 Alexander Liebreich was awarded the special prize of the Kulturpreis Bayern 2016.
As a native of Regensburg Alexander Liebreich studied at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Munich and the Salzburg Mozarteum. He gained his first artistic experience with Claudio Abbado and Michael Gielen.
