Principal conductor and music director of the
Solistes Européens Luxembourg, German-born
Christoph König (also spelled Koenig) has been active with an unusually wide variety of ensembles in Europe, the U.S., and South America.
König was born in Dresden, then in East Germany, in 1968. When he was nine, he won a place in the prestigious
Dresden Kreuzchor boys' choir. Studying orchestral conducting at the
Carl Maria von Weber Conservatory in Dresden from 1988 to 1993, he began to find conducting posts soon after graduating. In the 1990s, he was Kapellmeister at the Wuppertal-Gelsenkirchen Opera House, and in 2001 he became First Kapellmeisters at Opera Bonn and the associated
Beethovenhalle Orchestra.
König was named chief conductor of the
Malmö Symphony Orchestra in Sweden in 2003, and in 2008 he moved to Brazil to take the same post at the
Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Musica. Remaining there until 2014, he became known in European cities as he took the orchestra on tour to Vienna, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Strasbourg, and Luxembourg, where he attracted the attention of the
Solistes Européens and was named their music director in 2010.
König has made guest conducting appearances with major ensembles in Europe (the
Concertgebouw Orchestra, the
BBC Philharmonic, and the
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, with whom he toured in China), and the U.S. (the
Los Angeles Philharmonic and the
Pittsburgh,
Houston, and
Baltimore Symphony Orchestras). He has also conducted opera at major houses in Germany, Switzerland, and Spain. These varied orchestral associations have often resulted in recordings: In 2003,
König recorded
Beethoven's Fourth and Fifth Symphonies with the
Malmö Symphony Orchestra, and he has recorded
Beethoven and
Sibelius with the
Solistes Européens. In 2018, he released with that group a recording of the
Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3 of the 19th century French composer Louise Farrenc.
König lives in Vienna and appeared on a postage stamp issued by the Luxembourg government.