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Gordon Safari
MA MA
Gordon Safari is a Salzburg-based conductor with an active international career, known for his stylistic versatility and his commitment to rediscovering neglected repertoire. He is the founder and artistic director of Ensemble BachWerkVokal Salzburg and co-founder of the progressive Kammeroper Salzburg. Since 2020, he has been a lecturer in oratorio at the Mozarteum University Salzburg.
Gordon Safari lives in Salzburg with his family and is active internationally as a conductor. He has been awarded the Lower Saxony Culture Prize and the City of Salzburg Culture Prize.
His work is characterised by a direct and vibrant approach to music-making, a wide-ranging repertoire and a deep engagement with historical styles. A particular focus of his artistic activity lies in the rediscovery of rarely performed or forgotten works, including the preparation of performing editions, reconstructions of incomplete sources and first recordings.
Safari has worked with ensembles including the Hanover Symphony Orchestra, the Prussian Chamber Orchestra Potsdam and the orchestra of the Tyrolean Festival Erl. He is also a regular guest at international festivals and concert series, including Mozartwoche Salzburg, Bachfest Leipzig, the Vienna Volksoper, Bachwoche Greifswald, Telemann-Tage Magdeburg, Südtirol Festival Merano, the Tyrolean Festival Erl, the International Baroque Days Melk and the Thuringian Bach Festival.
In 2015, he founded the Ensemble BachWerkVokal Salzburg, which has quickly gained recognition as one of the most exciting ensembles in the field of historical performance practice. The ensemble is regularly invited to international festivals and has released four critically acclaimed albums: Cantate Domino (2019), Jesu meine Freude (2021), Genug (2022) and Jauchzet & lobet (2024). These recordings have received multiple nominations for the Opus Klassik, the German Record Critics’ Award and the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA).
“The best debut in early music for a long time (…) Gordon Safari: a name to remember.”
(Deutschlandfunk Kultur)
Another important strand of his work is the Kammeroper Salzburg, founded in 2020 together with Konstantin Paul and Michael Hofer-Lenz. The company focuses on 20th- and 21st-century repertoire and explores new forms of music theatre through the integration of digital media and innovative staging concepts.
Its productions address contemporary themes and have attracted international attention, including the digital operas Tag 47 and Im Westen nichts Neues. A distinctive format is the “Improv Night”, which combines opera and improvisation in new ways and has also been presented at the Vienna Volksoper.
Safari studied conducting, music theory, composition and church music at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover.