| Kevin John Edusei | |
| Birth Place: | Bielefeld, Germany |
| Alma Mater: | Royal Conservatory of The Hague |
| Occupation: | Conductor |
Kevin John Edusei (born 1976) is a German conductor.[1] He previously held positions as Chief Conductor at Munich Symphony Orchestra and Konzert Theater Bern.
Born in Bielefeld, Edusei studied orchestral conducting, classical percussion and sound engineering ("Tonmeister") at the Berlin University of the Arts and the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where his teachers included Jac van Steen and Ed Spanjaard.[2]
Edusei held a conducting scholarship at the 2004 Aspen Music Festival, where he was mentored by David Zinman.[3] His other mentors included Kurt Masur, Péter Eötvös, Marc Albrecht, Peter Gülke and Sylvain Cambreling. In 2004, he became assistant conductor of the Ensemble Modern, Frankfurt,[4] and served on the conducting staff of the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar for two seasons.[5]
From the 2004-2005 season, Edusei served as First Kapellmeister and Deputy Generalmusikdirektor at the Theater Bielefeld. From 2007 to 2011, he worked in the same position at the Staatstheater Augsburg.[6] He was a prize-winner at the 2007 Lucerne Festival Academy conducting masterclass, under the guidance of Pierre Boulez and Péter Eötvös[7] and in 2008 he was the first-prize recipient in the Dimitris Mitropoulos Conducting Competition in Athens.[8] Edusei is an alumnus of the Deutsche Bank Stiftung Akademie Musiktheater heute[9] and the Dirigentenforum of the German Music Council.[10]
In 2013, Edusei was named Chief Conductor of the Munich Symphony Orchestra. He continued in this post until the 2021/2022 season.[11]
From 2015-2019, Edusei was Chief Conductor of the Konzert Theater Bern,[12] having been named principal guest conductor in 2014.[13] During his tenure, he led new productions of among others Peter Grimes, Salome, Ariadne auf Naxos, Bluebeard's Castle, Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde, Káťa Kabanová and a cycle of the Mozart - Da Ponte-operas.
Edusei's guest conducting work has included his debut at the BBC Proms in August 2017[14] with the Chineke! Orchestra. In 2022, he returned to The Proms for its annual concert of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, with Chineke! Orchestra.[15]
Edusei first guest-conducted the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (FWSO) in September 2021. He subsequently served as the FWSO's principal guest conductor for three seasons, as of the 2022=2023 season.[16]
In the autumn of 2022, Edusei made his debut with the Royal Ballet and Opera, Covent Garden, conducting Puccini’s La bohème with a cast that included Ailyn Pérez and Juan Diego Flórez that was streamed to cinemas worldwide. He returned in 2023/2024 for a production of Madama Butterfly with Asmik Grigorian singing the title role. Alongside productions at the Semperoper Dresden, Volksoper Wien and Komische Oper Berlin, Edusei's notable opera conducting appearances include; Calixto Bieito’s production of Verdi's Requiem at Hamburg State Opera in 2018,[17] Tosca directed by Vassily Barkhatov at Staatsoper Hannover in 2019,[18] and The Marriage of Figaro directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins with English National Opera in 2020.[19]
| Orchestra | Album | Soloist (if any) | Label | Release year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Munich Symphony Orchestra | Einschoch6: Die Stadt springt | Einschoch6 | Solo Musica | 2015 | |
| Munich Symphony Orchestra | Tchaikovsky Extracts from the Nutcracker | Solo Musica | 2016 | ||
| Tonkünstler Orchestra | Enjott Schneider: Shadows in the Dark | WERGO | 2016 | ||
| Tonkünstler Orchestra | Enjott Schneider: Bach, Dracula, Vivaldi & Co. | Csaba Kelemen, trumpet, Stefan Langbein, trombone | WERGO | 2016 | |
| Chineke! Orchestra | Dvořák & Sibelius | Signum Records | 2017 | ||
| Munich Symphony Orchestra | Schubert Symphonies Nos 4 & 7 (four-movement realisation of Symphony No. 7) | Solo Musica | 2017 | ||
| Munich Symphony Orchestra | Schubert Symphonies Nos 5 & 6 | Solo Musica | 2018 | ||
| Bern Symphony Orchestra | Korngold & Mozart: Violin Concertos | Claves Records | 2018 | ||
| Bern Symphony Orchestra | Shostakovich, Weinberg & Kobekin | Anastasia Kobekina, cello | Claves Records | 2019 | |
| Munich Symphony Orchestra | 1939 | Fabiola Kim, violin | Solo Musica | 2019 | |
| Munich Symphony Orchestra | Schubert Symphonies Nos 3 & 7 | Solo Musica | 2020 | ||
| The Royal Opera | Puccini: Madama Butterfly | Asmik Grigorian (Cio-Cio San), Joshua Guerrero (Pinkerton), Lauri Vasar (Sharpless), Hongni Wu (Suzuki), Ya-Chung Huang (Goro), Jeremy White (The Bonze) | Opus Arte | 2024 | |
| London Symphony Orchestra | Rózsa Violin Concerto – Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2 | Roman Simovic | LSO Live | 2024 |