Guest Conductor
COncours VIOLIN-2026: GUEST CONDUCTOR
Competitors will have the opportunity to perform alongside the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) for the Final rounds. For the occasion, the official orchestra of the CMIM will be under the direction of Guest Conductor Sascha Goetzel.
A dynamic, charismatic, and compelling musical presence on the podium, Sascha Goetzel has emerged as a multifaceted conductor—a remarkable orchestra builder, creative programmer, entrepreneur, educator, and advocate for musicians and artists. He is currently serving as Music Director of the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, a post he has taken on for an initial four-year term beginning in September 2022, as well as Music Director of the Ulsan Philharmonic since March 2025.
In addition to these positions, Sascha Goetzel has been named, from the 24/25 season, Principal Guest Conductor by the Timisoara Philharmonic in Romania and by the Krakow Philharmonic in Poland. Former Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, Goetzel contributed significantly to the ensemble during his eleven-season tenure. His imaginative programming, award-winning recordings, and widely praised performances— including tours to the Salzburg Festival, BBC Proms, Royal Concertgebouw, Vienna’s Musikverein, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, and Hong Kong Arts Festival—are among his notable accomplishments. Goetzel also served as Music Director of The National Youth Orchestra of Canada (NYO Canada) in 2022 and 2023, and previously led the NYO and members of the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) in a collaborative concert tour of Ontario and Quebec in 2019.
Over the last years, Goetzel has been a highly sought-after guest conductor with a number of internationally prominent orchestras like the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Orchestre National de France, Yuomiuri Symphony Orchestra, Toyko Metropolitan Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Tonkünstler Orchestra, Orchestre National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine, and Radio Symphony Orchestra of Vienna—collaborating with major soloists, among them Daniil Trifonov, Rudolf Buchbinder, Joyce DiDonato, Yuja Wang, Nemanja Radulovic, Maxim Vengerov, Julian Rachlin, Fatma Said, Renée Fleming, Anna Netrebko, Bryan Terfel, Brandford Marsalis and Murray Perahia, among many others. In 2014, he made an electric debut at the Vienna State Opera conducting Le Nozze di Figaro, which led to six return engagements—productions of Die Fledermaus, La Bohème, Don Giovanni, Rigoletto, The Magic Flute and Der Rosenkavalier.
Goetzel has also appeared at the Mariinsky Theatre, Zürich Opera House, Tokyo Metropolitan Opera, Tokyo Nikikai Opera Company in Tokyo’s Bunka Kaikan, Opéra de Nantes-Angers, Opera de Rennes, Wiener Volksoper and Opéra de Montpellier. Recently, in the 23/24 season, Goetzel had great successes with the productions of Berlioz’s Beatrice et Benedicte in Angers, Nantes and Rennes, as well as with Orpheus et Euridice with the Reiseopera in the Netherlands. In the current 24/25 season he will lead Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman in Trondheim and Kristiansand.
Symphonic engagements in the current 24/25 season include collaborations with the Tonkuenstler Orchestra, Prague Symphony, Belgrade Philharmonic, Slovak Philharmonic, Accademia Teatro La Scala Orchestra, Romania Radio National Symphony, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, and Orquesta de les Illes Balears.
Goetzel has released several award-winning CDs in both orchestral and as partner for Solo concerti/Arias including winning albums on the Deutsche Grammophon, WARNER, Onyx and Naïve labels featuring works by Hindemith, Bartok, Schulhoff, Berlioz, Turnage, Tchaikovsky, Bizet, Rimsky-Korsakov and Respighi.
Committed to music education and an advocate for the arts in general, Goetzel is founder of the ORPHEUS-WIEN foundation for the digital transformation of the arts, Co-Director and Co-Founder of the Opera by the Fjord Academy and Festival, an innovative academy and festival for aspiring singers and instrumentalists in partnership with the Bergen National Opera. He is also co-founder and CCO of the Vienna Art Network, Artistic Director of Music for Peace (El Sistema-Turkey) and a conducting mentor at Dirigentloftet, a program in Norway focused on developing young conductors.
The CMIM guest conductor is housed at the Ritz-Carlton – Montréal
