American conductor Michael Hurshell studied piano and composition at Brown University (magna cum laude). His postgraduate studies took him to Vienna’s University of Music and Dramatic Arts. As a touring conductor he led productions of operas by Mozart, Verdi and Puccini in European tours. Guest conducting engagements at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Düsseldorf as well as Duisburg) included productions of Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos, Rigoletto and Cosi fan tutte. Between 1998 and 2006 he was regular guest conductor at the Slovak National Philharmonic, Bratislava, with whom he recorded works by Wagner, Liszt, Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky. In 2004 he brought the Slovaks to Saxony’s Dreiklang Festival, where they performed a special program of works by Jewish composers who fled to the United States (Korngold, Rózsa, Waxman and Steiner). In 2000 he was
invited to lead the Northwest German Phllharmonic on a tour of North Rhine-Westphalia, performing Bruckner’s ninth symphony to public and critical acclaim. Hurshell is equally at home with contemporary repertoire; that same year he performed an all-Penderecki program in Hannover with the National Philharmonic of Warsaw at the EXPO, including the world premiere of Penderecki’s “Music for Marimba, Recorders and Orchestra.” Much media attention was generated when he conducted the orchestra of Dresden’s Music University in the “Bach-Metropolis Transformation” – a special re-cut version of Lang’s film accompanied by a live orchestra performing Bach orchestral works – in 2005. Michael Hurshell has accompanied many international soloists, such as Gustav Rivinius, Wolfgang Bauer, Jenö Jandó, Marta Klimasara, Arnaud Sussmann and István Lantos. Since 2002 he has lectured on orchestral conducting as docent at Dresden’s Music University. From 2008 to 2016 he also held classes and seminars in musicology at Dresden’s Technical University, with a special emphasis on film music. In 2007 Hurshell was appointed artistic director and chief conductor of the newly formed Neue Jüdische Kammerphilharmonie Dresden (New Jewish Chamber Philharmonic Dresden, NJK) with whom he has toured extensively in Germany, as well as France, Poland, and in 2015 Israel (see Media/Video). In 2009 he was named curator of the permanent multimedia exhibit at the Richard-Wagner-Stätten Graupa (just outside Dresden) – an exhibit which has since become an absolute audience favorite.
In 2021, the Saxon government sponsored an event series called “Umanut we Chaim” (Art and Life), celebrating Jewish culture and arts. The opening concert, at Dresden’s opera house (the famous Semperoper) was performed by the NJK under Hurshell’s direction. This cooperation between the Dresden opera and the NJK was recently renewed, when young members of the opera ensemble performed forgotten Jewish works (bei Seiber, Goldschmidt and Alma Mahler) accompanied by Hurshell and the NJK, at the Görlitz Synagogue.