Anton Zapf
The conductor, composer and organist Anton Zapf received his basic musical education at the Music Gymnasium of the Regensburger Domspatzen, Eberhard Kraus organ and counterpoint, Georg Ratzinger Choir. He studied organ with Werner Jacob - 1st prize at the organ competition Stuttgart, premiere of Hans Werner Henze's Toccata senza Fuga SWR - and conducting with Thomas Ungar at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart, both examinations with honors;
Formative impressions of Sergiu Celibidache and Carlos Kleiber in this Stuttgarter study times, also Cultural Award of the City of Regensburg.
Thereafter Karl Böhm and Rotary International Scholarship in the USA, studies with Charles Bruck and James Levine.
1983 within one week 2nd prize at the International Fitelberg Conducting Competition in Katowice / Poland and debut at the State Opera Stuttgart, when he stepped in short-term for Mozart's FIGARO, conducting his first opera - unusual enough - without any orchestra rehearsal. Since then started his international career as an opera as well as a concert conductor, meanwhile with over 60 orchestras in 18 countries on four continents.
1983 - 1990 he remained as Kapellmeister at the Staatstheater Stuttgart; afterwards 1st Kapellmeister positions in Dortmund, at the Nationaltheater Mannheim and from 1999 in Bonn; he was a long-time guest conductor of the Finnish National Opera Helsinki and the East Bohemian Philharmonic Hradec Králové / CZ, with whom he also premiered his first own composition, an Ave Maria for soprano and large orchestra (2003) with Simona Šaturová as soloist and conducted 2004 his orchestra piece ...in memoriam Antonin on the 100th anniversary of A. Dvoraks death at the Max Reger-Tage Weiden. Meanwhile he has composed works for orchestra, choir, chambermusic organ, piano and arrangements, that he performed in many European countries. Since 2010 they are published by C.F. Peters, since 2014 also by the Neue Musik Verlag Berlin.
He was also guest conductor a.m.o. at the opera houses in Hamburg, Paris, Madrid, Oslo, Braunschweig and the North West Opera Ireland.
He has worked with outstanding singers such as Karita Mattila, Anja Harteros, Simone Kermes, Samuel Ramey, Kurt Moll, Tom Krause, Bernd Weikl, Michael Volle, Georg Zeppenfeld or the pianist Grigory Sokolov (Rachmaninov piano concerto III with Filharmonia Wroclaw.)
His commitment to contemporary music is documented by numerous concerts, premieres and recordings, among others with the radio orchestras of the DR Berlin, the WDR Cologne, the Musikfabrik NRW, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn and especially with the RSO and vocal ensemble of the SWR Stuttgart.
Anton Zapf also likes to teach. Since his study times he is active as opera/Lied coach and as conducting teacher. 2012-2017 he was a lecturer in orchestral conducting at the Musikhochschule München and conducted the B-Orchestra. From 2016 to 2018, he was provisionally cathedral music director at the Munich Liebfrauendom, conducting a broad repertoire from Gregorianik over choir symphonic music till avantegard, including a concert tour of Rome, also with performances of some of his own works (Bartolucci Festival 2017).
In addition to his conducting and composing, Anton Zapf also performs again and again as an organist, pianist and Lied accompanist; already in young age he gave concerts in big cathedrals like in the Regensburger Dom or at the Bruckner-Orgel in St. Florian, 2009 with te premiere of his Passacaglia in the Münchner Dom, or 2021 at the fameous Barock organ in Amorbach.
2021 he also was appointed chief conductor of the European opera rarities ( www.opera-rarities.com)
2022 was his first string quartett op.24 premiered in step in space in Munich.
In October 2022 he conducted 2 Memorial Concerts for the victims of the Creeslough gas explosion in Carrigart and the cathedral in Letterkenny instead of the planned new production of "Sweeney Todd" by the North West Opera Ireland.
From his youth he has been active as a footballer (since 2015 at the seniors of FC Bayern) and has been Senior World Champion in Ski Jumping fifteen times, most recently 2023 in Oslo, where he also performed besides Bach's Dorischer Toccata his skijumping song Love, love, snow in the beautiful Holmenkollen Chapel, conducting singers and instrumentalists from the piano.
2021 he was appointed chief conductor of the European opera rarities ( www.opera-rarities.com)
2022 was his first string quartett op.24 premiered in step in space in Munich.
In October 2022 he conducted 2 Memorial Concerts for the victims of the Creeslough gas explosion in Carrigart and the cathedral in Letterkenny instead of the planned new production of "Sweeney Todd" by the North West Opera Ireland.
In 2022 he also wan both times the Teacher Award of the Manchester International Music Competition, the Franz Schubert International Music Competition and the ECM Grand Prix.
2024 he conducted the premiere of his new chamber orchestra piece Fuga senza Toccata - Come again sweet peace with the Volta-Ensemble in Munich and Kassel and with the Munich Dommusik the premiere of his Missa in tempore Coronae, a work for Soli, choir, organ and orchestra, commisioned by the Liebfrauenkirche. The portrait "Anton Zapf- ein musikalischer Überflieger" of Rebecca Satlow on TV Oberfranken wan the BLM-Televisionprice 2024, s. Video.