Clemens Schuldt

Bio

Clemens Schuldt, who has made a name for himself particularly thanks to his innovative programming and his deep repertoire understanding, has been Music Director of Orchestre Symphonique de Québec since the 2023/24 season. His artistic work is characterised by the combination of classical and romantic works with lesser-known repertoire and contemporary music.

Clemens Schuldt opens the current season in Quebec with a symphonic programme from the world of opera with pieces from Wagner, Sarasate, Mahler and Strauss. In the past, he has already set programmatic accents there, placing Mahler, Britten and Rachmaninoff in exciting contexts with compositions by Jacques Hétu, Anna Clyne, Keiko Devaux and Katia Makdissi-Warren, as well as curating cross-genre programmes. He has creatively and innovatively combined orchestral music with flamenco, worked with indigenous musicians and introduced new concert formats, such as ‘Concert en Jeans’. Clemens Schuldt also garnered national attention in Canada with the Beethoven Festival, which was held for the first time under his direction.

His collaborations with soloists, such as Augustin Hadelich, Fazıl Say, Bruce Liu, Nemanja Radulovic and Noa Wildschut have been celebrated by audiences and critics alike. The 2025/26 season sees this continue with, among others, James Ehnes, Lise de la Salle, Eldbjørg Hemsing, Nils Wanderer and Julian Steckel.
In November 2025, he will make his debut with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the International Composers Festival. Other guest engagements this season will take Clemens to Japan with Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra and Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra as well as to Scandinavia where he returns to Malmö Symphony Orchestra and to the Finnish Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra. He also continues his longstanding collaboration with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London.

Clemens Schuldt has previously conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Staatskapelle Weimar, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, SWR Symphonieorchester, Münchener Kammerorchester – where he was Chief Conductor – the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna as well as the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and Gulbenkian Orchestra, among others. Outside Europe, Clemens Schuldt has performed with Oregon Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, City of Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, Xi’An Symphony Orchestra, and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. He has worked with soloists, such as Khatia Buniatishvili, Vilde Frang, Håkan Hardenberger, Steven Isserlis, Igor Levit, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Alisa Weilerstein, Christian Tetzlaff, Arabella Steinbacher and Daniil Trifonov.

In addition to symphonic works, Clemens Schuldt devotes himself intensively to opera. In May 2026 he debuts at the Opéra de Québec with Puccini’s “La Bohème”. Most recently, he conducted Mozart's ‘Così fan tutte’ at Opera North, a highly acclaimed new production of Mozart's ‘Mitridate, re di Ponto’ with The English Concert at Garsington Opera, and Mozart's ‘Die Zauberflöte’ at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. At the Staatstheater Mainz, Clemens Schuldt previously conducted new productions of Bellini’s ‘Norma’, Gluck’s ‘Armide’, Gounod’s ‘Faust’, Verdi’s ‘Rigoletto’ as well as productions of Wagner’s ‘The Flying Dutchman’. In 2019, he made his acclaimed debut at the Venice Biennale conducting George Benjamin's opera ‘Written on Skin’ with the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI.

Clemens Schuldt is a former winner of the prestigious Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London and was Assistant ConductorofLondon Symphony Orchestra for one year. Born in Bremen, he first studied violin and performed with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. He then completed his conducting studies in Düsseldorf, Vienna, and Weimar. Today, he is a professor of conducting at the Conservatoire de Québec.