Otto Tausk

Bio

"Tausk emphasized precision and clarity with the orchestra without sacrificing emotion and narrative power." (NRC Amsterdam, December 2021)

Dutch conductor Otto Tausk has served as Music Director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO) and Artistic Advisor of the VSO School of Music since 2018, with his contract renewed through to the end of the 2029/30 season. Tausk has demonstrated extraordinary artistic leadership in the VSO community and beyond; his innovatively re-imagined digital performance series and his initiative to introduce Canadian contemporary music, including works by five Indigenous composers, have been highly acclaimed and have significantly expanded the orchestra's reach. Tausk is a passionate believer in the concert as a shared experience between the performers and the audience, and his inclusive approach has had a profound impact on the community of Vancouver where the orchestra has become an essential part of the cultural identity of the city and its people.

Otto Tausk’s musical expertise ranges from historically informed performances of Mozart and Beethoven to the early 20th century scores of Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Richard Strauss and new works by today’s composers. In the 2024/25 season, he performs masterpieces by Stravinsky, Sibelius, and Brahms as well as Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and gives the world premiere performance of a new work by Canadian composer Marcus Goddard. He works with stellar soloists such as Lang Lang, Behzod Abduraimov, Leila Josefowicz, Bruce Liu, and Vadim Gluzman. Tausk’s guest conducting appearances thisseason include concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Weimar, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra among others.

Tausk has worked with orchestras such as the Concertgebouworkest, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Residentie Orkest, Orchestre national de Belgique, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and BBC National Orchestra of Wales with whom he made his BBC Proms debut in 2018.

As Chief Conductor of the Sinfonieorchester and Theater St. Gallen from 2012 to 2018, Tausk led numerous opera productions such as the world premiere of ‘Annas Maske’ by Swiss composer David Philip Hefti, the Swiss premiere of George Benjamin’s ‘Written on Skin’, as well as productions of Korngold’s ‘Die tote Stadt’, ‘Don Giovanni’, ‘Die Entführung aus dem Serail’, ‘Eugene Onegin’, ‘West Side Story’, ‘Lohengrin’, and ‘Ariadne auf Naxos’. He is a long-time collaborator of the Dutch composer Michel van der Aa and conducted the highly acclaimed world premiere production of ‘Upload’ in Amsterdam, Cologne, Bregenz, and New York. In 2023/24, he conducted the Dutch premiere of Thomas Adès’ ‘Powder Her Face’ at the Nederlandse Reisopera.

Tausk has recorded with the Concertgebouworkest, Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Hans Pfitzner’s Orchesterlieder for the CPO label and Prokofiev with Rosanne Philippens on Channel Classics garnered international praise.

Born in Utrecht, Otto Tausk studied violin with Viktor Liberman and conducting with Jonas Aleksa. From 2004 to 2006, he was an Assistant Conductor to Valery Gergiev with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2011, he received the prestigious ‘De Olifant’ prize of City of Haarlem, recognising his achievements as music director of the Holland Symfonia and his contribution to the Arts in the Netherlands.