CHRISTIAN REIF
CONDUCTOR
“No doubt about it, Reif is a remarkable talent.”
Chief Conductor of the Gävle Symphony Orchestra, GRAMMY® Award-winning artist Christian Reif has established a reputation for his natural musicality, innovative programming and technical command.
Since 2022, Reif has served as Music Director of the Lakes Area Music Festival, a month-long summer festival in Minnesota featuring the nation’s top classical performers in programming that ranges from opera and chamber music to symphonic performances along with commissioned new works. LAMF believes that high quality arts experiences should be accessible to all and operates on a name-your-price ticket model.
Highlights of Reif’s 2024/25 season include debut performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, Phoenix Symphony, Detroit Symphony, and Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra. He leads the Cincinnati Symphony in the world premiere of Fantastica, a newly commissioned work by composer Jimmy López Bellido dedicated to Reif based on The Neverending Story, originally a fantasy novel by the German writer Michael Ende and later a major motion picture. He returns to SWR Symphony Orchestra and Royal Northern Sinfonia and conducts his own arrangement of John Adams’ El Niño with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Gävle Symphony, and the American Modern Opera Company in December 2024. Reif and his wife, soprano Julia Bullock, also bring Bullock's original program History's Persistent Voice to performances at Lincoln Center and Yale University’s Schwarzman Center in February 2025.
With an equal footing in North America and Europe, Reif has conducted the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, and Kansas City, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Previous season highlights include appearances with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, and at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival with the International Contemporary Ensemble. In Europe, he has performed repeatedly with Orchestre National de Lyon, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Hallé Orchestra and Stavanger Symphony.
Reif enjoys conducting opera and has led productions at Juilliard Opera of The Merry Wives of Windsor, Opera San Jose of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and the Lakes Area Music Festival of Ariadne auf Naxos and The Rake’s Progress.
In 2024, Reif won a GRAMMY® for the Nonesuch Records album Walking in the Dark, the debut solo album of classical singer Julia Bullock in which he accompanied her on piano and led London's Philharmonia Orchestra. The album was praised by Gramophone Magazine as “illuminating” and described Reif as providing “excellent support” for Bullock. In 2020 during the pandemic, Reif and Bullock recorded a series of at-home virtual “Songs of Comfort”, ranging from Carole King’s classic “Up on the Roof” to Schubert’s Wanderers Nachtlied. NPR Music featured the duo in a “Tiny Desk Concert” for their special quarantine edition of the series, and The New York Times highlighted them on their “Best Classical Music of 2020” list.
From 2016 to 2019, Christian was Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, after being the Conducting Fellow at the New World Symphony from 2014 to 2016 and at Tanglewood Music Center in 2015 and 2016. He studied conducting at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and at The Juilliard School in New York City. He resides in Munich with his wife Julia Bullock and their son.
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“No doubt about it, Reif is a remarkable talent.”
“He’s a conductor of considerable stature, and everything about Thursday’s concert in Davies Symphony Hall felt like the work of a significant musical artist.”
“Reif conducted with a combination of sweeping and lightning-quick gestures and obviously knows how to rehearse an orchestra, as the musicians were ready for every detail.”
“Reif had a visceral feeling for the rise and fall of phrases, for the moments that wanted to be subtly pressed forward, others that wanted a little stretching. He always knew just when and how much…”
“Young German conductor Christian Reif has already built a formidable reputation on the west coast of America as well as across Europe, and from the way he handled the Shostakovich Festive Overture that opened the programme it was immediately clear why.”
“Mr. Reif evinced an ideal balance of analysis and synthesis. He clearly had studied the score intensely, considered it deeply, mapped a path to each movement’s destination, and commanded the technical means to bring the orchestra along with him.”
“The baton technique of the Bavarian-born Kapellmeister fascinates in general: with the baton swaying gently in his right hand, precisely indicating the tempo, he can impulsively steer the dynamics with the left, either reducing the volume or increasing it to full power. It is a rare pleasure to watch this conductor at work.”
“Making an impressive debut with the orchestra, young German conductor Christian Reif brought added excitement to a memorable concert to end the year, and indeed, decade for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.”
“The opulent string section, in particular, was an indication that Christian Reif is an outstanding orchestra builder.”
“Christian Reif, who stepped in on Thursday, April 26, to conduct a glorious program of music by Wagner, Liszt and Holst, has been the orchestra’s resident conductor since 2016. There was a vague temptation, when Reif was announced as the substitute for this week’s programs, to regard it as merely a case of tapping the understudy to go on. But to think that would be to reckon without the technical assurance and forceful interpretive prowess that this young German has repeatedly displayed over the past two years. Reif’s mastery extended to matters both large and small. He showed no diffidence about managing weighty blocks of orchestral sound, and he fine-tuned passages of detailed instrumental filigree with the deftness of an artisanal craftsman. There is a balletic quality to Reif’s physical presence — at once fluid and well-defined — that corresponds well with the qualities he elicits from an orchestral score. The magic began immediately, as Reif began the program with an imposing but graceful account of “Siegfried’s Rhine Journey” from Wagner’s “Götterdämmerung.” From the mysterious shimmer and growing brass presence of the opening moments, through the hero’s tumultuous progress down the river and his final triumphant arrival, Reif and the orchestra collaborated to bring to life all the composer’s considerable ingenuity.”
“In an exciting season-opening concert in Davies Symphony Hall under its new music director, the dynamic young German conductor Christian Reif, the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra demonstrated both a wonderful degree of artistic ambition and the level of execution required to fulfill those goals. What was most striking, perhaps, was the clarity and ease with which Reif shepherded the orchestra’s musicians through Henze’s The “Maenad’s Dance”. He provided enough guidance to keep things working efficiently, but also gave individual musicians – particularly in the prominent horn and cello solos – enough leeway to make their own voices heard. The same virtues were apparent on a larger scale in Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony. The broad expanse of the symphony’s slow first movement sounded as weighty and tragic as one could wish, and the brisk finale – a puckish jest on themes by Mozart and Rossini – came off with undimmed high spirits.”
“Reif led his charges through a swift and muscular account of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, one that showed clearly just how much this ensemble is capable of. The opening movement shone with bright-hued energy, and Reif took the finale at a breathlessly rapid clip that gave evidence of his faith in the technical prowess of these gifted young musicians – faith they repaid admirably.”
“Christian Reif has made a big impression in the Bay Area since becoming the San Francisco Symphony’s resident conductor two seasons ago. In addition to his work in Davies Hall and at the Symphony’s SoundBox series, he’s made appearances across the Bay as guest conductor with the Berkeley Symphony. Yet, his greatest contributions may be as leader of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra.”
“The complete package.”
San Francisco Chronicle
“Christian Reif and orchestra played with power and elegance.”
“There is only one word to define Opera San José’s production of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci: FORMIDABLE. The performance was masterful. The Orchestra, under the baton of Conductor Christian Reif, interpreted the contrasting festive and sorrowful moods of Leoncavallo’s melodies with feeling. It also managed to control its volume, allowing the audience to listen clearly, even the pianissimos tones in the voices of the singers.”
“In the pit, conductor Christian Reif worked the tempi favorably and allowed the music to breathe with the singers. The OSJ Orchestra played soundly, the strings particularly striking with their gossamer clarity and smooth crescendos. The orchestra’s expertise was cemented in the oft-performed Intermezzo, driving it with depth and feeling.”
“Conductor Christian Reif brought out the rich sonorities of Shostakovich’s orchestration.”
“The orchestra played magnificently for Reif. Reif’s sense for the dramatic was astonishing. An electrifying, earth-shattering performance.”