Biography
Uwe Grodd, New Zealand based German conductor and flautist, has performed and recorded internationally for over 25 years.
2006/7 is a very creative and exciting season for Uwe. In less than twelve months, and across four countries, he has produced five different recordings for Naxos Records: four CDs as a conductor and one as a flautist, performing his own editions of quartets for flute and strings by Johnann Baptist Vanhal.
This year also marks the halfway point on the journey towards the complete recordings of the works for piano and orchestra by Beethoven’s longstanding friend and student, Ferdinand Ries. Following the success of Ferdinand Ries, Volume One, the second in this series of world premier recordings was made in Sweden with the Gävle Symphony Orchestra and the same team: Grodd - Hinterhuber.
To be released this September, it includes the ‘Swedish National Airs and Variations’." …Hinterhuber and Grodd are the ideal team for Ries’ (1784-1838) music. ...What an exciting start to this series!" Piano News 2/ 06
In January of this year, Uwe conducted volume three, this time with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. The repertoire included the ‘Abschieds Konzert’ – ‘Farewell to London’ - and a remarkable set of variations to ‘Rule Britannia’.
Uwe has made other interesting discoveries: previously unheard music by Johann Nepomuk Hummel and, in September 06, music by the ‘Swedish Mozart’, Joseph Martin Kraus. Uwe Grodd and Takako Nishizaki, with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, recorded his violin concerto as well as the orchestral ballet score to ‘Azire’ and the Incidental Music for ‘Olympie’.
Uwe conducted the opening concerts of the Thüringen Philharmonic’s 05/06 season, in Gotha and Suhl, Germany, performing Schumann, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. In the same month he appeared in the Auckland Town Hall, New Zealand, performing, with the Auckland University Symphony Orchestra, a programme entitled ‘Landscapes’, that included Copland’s ‘Appalachian Springs’, Douglas Lilburn’s ‘Songs of Islands’ and Tchaikovsky’s symphony, ‘Winter Daydreams’.
Performance highlights in 04/ 05 include the final concerts of the 53rd and the 54th Händel Festival in Halle, Germany. This prestigious event - a televised open-air concert - involves a combined choir of 280 and the State Philharmonic Orchestra. The previous year Uwe conducted the gala opening night of the HÄNDEL FESTIVAL HALLE, Germany, with 'Le Choeur des Musiciens du Louvre' from Grenoble, a number of front-line soloists and the Halle Opera Orchestra performing on original instruments. This was followed, in 03 and 04, by a highly successful season in the Halle Opera House of Händel's recently re-discovered opera, IMENEO. The season marked the launch of a new performing edition, by Baerenreiter, the foremost European publishing house. The reputable German opera magazine, OPERNWELT, nominated it as the RE-DISCOVERY OF THE YEAR 2003.
Uwe made his Mexican debut in March 2004, with the Mexico City Philharmonic, conducting Beethoven’s 1st Symphony, Liszt’s Mazeppa and Dvorak’s Czech Suite. This was followed by a return invitation in June to conduct Bruckner’s Fourth and Mozart’s Elvira Madigan. Subsequently, Uwe conducted a further eight concerts which included Ein Heldenleben by Richard Strauss, Beethoven’s and Schubert’s Fifth Symphonies and Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante.
Uwe Grodd, a Naxos Recording Artist, won First Prize, in 2000, at the Cannes Classical Awards, for the ‘Best 18th Century Orchestral Recording’ with his CD of Symphonies by J B Vanhal – Naxos 8.554341 - with the Nicolaus Esterhazy Sinfonia from Hungary. This was followed by a recording of Symphonies by Ignaz Pleyel with the Capella Istropolitana from Slovakia. In 2002, this CD was one of three finalists in the ‘Best 18th & 19th Century Orchestral Recording’ category at Cannes. It also reached the ‘Critics’ Choice’ TOP 60 Discs of the recording year in the BBC Music Magazine.
His world premier recording of the Missa Solemnis, by J N Hummel, with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Tower Voices NZ, was voted ‘Editor’s Choice’ by British Gramophone Magazine in May 2004.
Other recordings include releases of symphonies by Cannabich and Dittersdorf, two masses by Vanhal and, as a flautist, flute sonatas by Kuhlau.
From 1998 until 2002, Uwe was Artistic Director of the INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL NEW ZEALAND and has been conductor and musical director of the Auckland University Symphony Orchestra from 1989. In that year, before an audience of 250,000, he appeared in Symphony Under the Stars with the Auckland Philharmonia.
In 1993 he was appointed Musical Director of the Manukau City Symphony Orchestra. In 2005, for the opening celebration of the new concert hall – the Genesis Energy Theatre - in Manukau City, a ceremony led by New Zealand’s Prime Minister, he combined five choirs with the MCSO in a special project named "The Genesis". It included a world premier for choir and orchestra, "The Journey", written especially for Uwe Grodd and the MCSO by Leonie Holmes.
An avid supporter of contemporary music of all genres, Uwe has given many first performances including, in 2002, conducting the premier season of the multi-media opera GALILEO, with music by John Rimmer and libretto by Witi Ihimaera.
Uwe Grodd is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Flute Fest New Zealand (2001 – 2004), and an Associate Professor of Conducting and Flute at the University of Auckland. His reputation as an inspiring teacher is well documented by his students’ international performances and prizes. His editions of music by Vanhal, Beethoven and Ries, published by Artaria Editions, are increasingly in demand.
A graduate of Mainz University, Germany, Uwe Grodd studied with teachers of international repute, including Manfred Schreier, Andre Jaunet and Werner Peschke. He attributes his major musical growth to the guidance of two of Europe's finest musicians: Robert Aitken and Maestro Sergio Celibidache.
