Kevin John Edusei

Kevin John Edusei is praised repeatedly for the drama and tension that he brings to his music-making, for his clear sense of architecture and attention to detail. A suave and elegant figure on the podium, he divides his time equally between the concert hall and opera house with a particular interest in German music from the early romantic period and early 20th century. He is Chief Conductor of the Munich Symphony Orchestra.

Highlights of Edusei’s symphonic engagements include the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Bamberg Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and in the United States the Colorado Symphony. In 2017 he made his debut at the BBC Proms with the Chineke! Orchestra and in the same year conducted John Adams Nixon in China at the Zaterdag Matinee at the Concertgebouw. Highlight’s for the season 2020/21 will include his debuts at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

Edusei was appointed Chief Conductor of the Munich Symphony Orchestra in 2014. He has been applauded for introducing an eclectic range of repertoire into the MSO concert programmes and cultivating a loyal, trusting audience. In recognition of these achievements the orchestra was awarded the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal Government in 2018. In 2019 Edusei led the MSO on their first tour of China and Korea.

Edusei concluded his tenure as Chief Conductor of Bern Opera House in 2019, where he led many new productions including Britten Peter Grimes, Strauss Salome, Bartók Bluebeard’s Castle, Wagner Tannhäuser, Janáček Kátya Kábanová, a cycle of the Mozart Da Ponte operas – described in the press as “rousing and brilliant” – and Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos which led the Neue Zürcher Zeitung to describe him as “the discovery of the production”. Elsewhere, Edusei has conducted at the Semperoper Dresden (Mozart Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Hindemith Cardillac), and in 2018 he made his debut at the Hamburg State Opera. He conducted Mozart Die Zauberflöte and Don Giovanni at the Volksoper Wien and Komische Oper Berlin. In 2019/20 he made his debut at the Hannover State Opera in a new production of Puccini Tosca and at English National Opera in a new production of Mozart The Marriage of Figaro.

Edusei has a varied discography, which includes recordings with the Bern Symphony Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra and Tonkünstler Orchestra, and he is currently mid-way through a cycle of the complete Schubert symphonies with the Munich Symphony Orchestra.

Born in 1976 in Germany Edusei studied orchestral conducting at the Royal Conservatory The Hague and the University of the Arts Berlin with Jac van Steen and Ed Spanjaard. In 2004 he was awarded the fellowship for the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival by David Zinman, in 2007 he was a prize-winner at the Lucerne Festival conducting competition under the artistic direction of Pierre Boulez and Peter Eötvös, and in 2008 he won the International Dimitris Mitropoulos Competition.

Discography