Music Director of Prague State Opera and newly appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor at the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, German conductor Karl-Heinz Steffens is recognized as a conductor of great distinction in both the operatic and symphonic worlds. As a sought-after guest conductor, he has worked with major orchestras, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Zurich Tonhalle and the Israel Philharmonic, the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hannover, Leipzig and Stuttgart. Last season he continued his relationship with the Philharmonia in London following his Brahms cycle with them and returned to the Orchestre National de Lyon and the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg. During his time as Music Director of the Rheinland-Pfalz Philharmonic, the orchestra received the ECHO award for Best Orchestra in 2015 for their recording of works by B.A. Zimmermann and in 2016-17 they were nominated prizewinners of the Best Concert Program of the Season by the German Music Publishers’ Association. Their recording of works by George Antheil was designated Concert Recording of the Year by the Opus Klassik awards. In the opera house, he has appeared several times at the Teatro alla Scala and is regularly invited to the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden. While Music Director of the Norwegian National Opera, he led the Norwegian premiere of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, amonng others. Prior to his conducting career, he was a highly respected solo clarinetist who also held several orchestral positions culminating in the successive posts of Principal Clarinet with the Bavarian Radio and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras. Karl-Heinz Steffens has recently been awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz in Germany for his services to music.