Charles A. Ansbacher

Charles Ansbacher is Principal Guest Conductor of the Sarajevo Philharmonic and Conductor Laureate of the Colorado Springs Symphony Orchestra. He first directed the Sarajevo Philharmonic during the war and continues to conduct on international tours, most notably the Orchestra's first performance at Ricardo Muti's prestigious Ravenna (Italy) Festival in August 1998. More recently, Ansbacher conducted the Concert for Peace, a joint concert with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra commemorating the fourth anniversary of the signing of the Dayton Peace Accord.

In April of 1999, Charles Ansbacher was enthusiastically received for conducting members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a concert sponsored by the Croatian Embassy to the United States.

In July of 1998, Maestro Ansbacher made his debut at Austria's famed Bregenz Festival with an appearance of the Vienna Concert Society Orchestra, a branch of the Vienna Symphony. From 1993 to 1997 while living in Vienna, he conducted in the important venues of that city, including the Vienna State Opera, the Golden Hall of the famous Musikverein, the Kammeroper, and the Konzerthaus. He was invited for return engagements with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Vienna State Opera, and the Vienna Chamber Opera. Now he is in demand as a guest conductor, having conducted in many locations including Bratislava, Budapest, throughout the Czech Republic, Dubrovnik, Krakow, Minsk, Moscow, Odessa, Palermo, as well as many other cities of the former Soviet Union, Slovenia, Salzburg, Warsaw, and the Balkans.

Ansbacher has collaborated with many of the most acclaimed soloists of our time: including Hermann Baumann, Philippe Entremont, Thomas Hampson, Lynn Harrell, Heinz Holliger, Young Uk Kim, Yo-Yo Ma, Roberta Peters, Ivo Pogorelich, Leonard Rose, Nadja Solerno-Sonnenberg, Janos Starker, Isaac Stern, and Pincus Zuckerman.

Ansbacher now lives in the Boston area where he was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University's Music Department, and is a member of the Board of Overseers of the New England Conservatory of Music. He often returns to Colorado Springs to conduct the orchestra in the United States where he was music director for twenty years. Now Ansbacher lives in Cambridge Massachusetts with his wife, the former U.S. Ambassador to Austria, and two of his children.

Back