Titus Engel appointed Principal Conductor of Basel Sinfonietta

Swiss conductor Titus Engel will take up the role of principal conductor of the Basel Sinfonietta starting in the 2023/24 season. After a democratically conducted vote among the members of the Basel-based orchestra at the beginning of December, Engel was chosen to succeed current principal conductor Baldur Brönnimann.

Basel Sinfonietta is the world’s only full-sized orchestra for contemporary music and, since its founding in 1980, has been challenging classical concert conventions. Baldur Brönnimann was appointed the Basel Sinfonietta’s first principal conductor in the orchestra’s 2016/17 season.

Franziska Németi-Mosimann, president of the Orchestra Board of the Basel Sinfonietta described Engel’s appointment as ‘a stroke of luck for the orchestra.’ He added: ‘The collaborative opportunities we have had to date in past concerts have proven that the chemistry between the orchestra and Titus Engel is excellent.’

Born in Zurich in 1975, Engel is now based in Berlin. He was Opernwelt magazine’s Conductor of the Year in 2020 and is an advocate of innovative concert formats. He is also an expert in historical performance practice, and forms close collaborations with organisations including Frankfurt Opera, the Stuttgart Opera, the Basel Theatre, the Grand Théâtre de Genève and the Opéra de Lyon.

Engel thanked ‘the members of the Basel Sinfonietta for their trust.’ He said: ‘My goal is to deliver special concerts for a broad audience and, at the same time, to strengthen the Basel Sinfonietta's international profile. I am also very much looking forward to working closely with the composers and the numerous institutions in Basel that are committed to modernism.’

You can find out more at the Basel Sinfonietta website.