Paul Meyer - Chief Conductor

Since the 2019/2020 concert season, Paul Meyer has been principal conductor of the Chamber Orchestra Mannheim KKO. 

Paul Meyer is one of the leading clarinettists worldwide performing regularly with renowned orchestras in Europe and the United States, in the Far East and Australia; but since 1988 he is also a conductor besides his career as a soloist. He founded the Orchestre de Chambre d'Alsace, was assistant to John Crewe with the Northern Junior Philharmonic in England and in 2007 was appointed "Associate Chief Conductor" of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra by Myung Whun Chung, shaping its international profile with French compositions and works by Roussel, Dukas and Saint-Saëns in particular. Paul Meyer is co-founder of the Korean Orchestra Academy for Young Talents. From 2009 until 2012 he was chief conductor of the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra and has since worked with a number of renowned orchestras such as the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, l'Orchestre National de Bordeaux, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Flemish Philharmonik, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Danish Symphony Orchestra or the China Philharmonic.

More than 50 CD recordings with leading labels, among others DGG, Sony, RCA, EMI and Virgin, have documented his musical activities; for these he won numerous prizes, e.g. Fono-Forum, Diapason d'Or, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Gramophone and Grammy Awards. Particularly worth mentioning are his recordings as conductor of the Camerata Padova (piano concertos by Mozart and Haydn with JM Luisada), the Royal Philharmonique de Liège (works by Darius Milhaud), the Brussels Philharmonic (compositions by Corigliano & Carter), the Staatskapelle Weimar (cello concertos by Elgar & Walton), also the horn concertos of diverse epochs with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra as well as the highly successful CD "Bolero de Meyer" with the Tokyo Kosei Orchestra. The series of Play-and-Conduct recordings with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne has also won prizes.

Here we can only mention some examples only of the chamber orchestras conducted by Paul Meyer: the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Stockholm Chamber Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonia, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, the Sinfonia Varsovia, the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester or the Münchener Kammerorchester. In 2012, Paul Meyer was awarded France's highest cultural distinction for his musical merits – the "Commandeur de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres".

Succeeding Johannes Schlaefli, Paul Meyer was elected unanimously to become the new chief conductor in the autumn of 2018, and since the season of 2019/20 the artistic development of this reputed orchestra has been in his hands.