Daniel Geiss

Born in Essen (Germany), Daniel Geiss studied conducting with David Effron, cello with Janos Starker and chamber music with Menahem Pressler at Indiana University Bloomington. He continued his studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne with Michael Luig (orchestral conducting), the Alban Berg Quartet (chamber music) and Maria Kliegel (cello). In addition, he attended Masterclasses with George Crumb and Philip Glass.

His conducting career started in the US conducting the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra. In the following years he worked at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, the Teatro Real Madrid and with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. In the subsequent years, Geiss conducted the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, the Philharmonie Südwestfalen, the Belgrade Chamber Orchestra, the Brixen Classics Orchestra, the Budapest Symphony Orchestra MAV and the Philharmonie Neubrandenburg.  His concert activities have seen Geiss conducting at the Philharmonie Berlin, in Budapest, Linz, Ljubljana, St. Petersburg, Salzburg, at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and Graz, among others.

His intensive collaboration with Katharina Wagner as director began in 2019 – with a version of the “Flying Dutchman” as a children’s opera set up especially for the Spring Festival Tokyo. The success was confirmed by two direct re-invitations for 2020 (“Tristan und Isolde”) and 2021 (“Parsifal”). In 2019, Geiss also conducted at the Musikfest Leipzig as well as the opening concert of the 44th Cantiere Internationale d’Arte Festival in Montepulciano.