Credit: ex
VIMBAYI KAZIBONI, Conductor
Widely sought-after for his depth of approach and his interpretive imagination and expressivity, Zimbabwean-born conductor and curator, Vimbayi Kaziboni (b. 1988) has led many critically lauded performances with orchestras across the globe, in Australia, Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Kyrgyzstan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland the United Kingdom, the United States, and Uzbekistan, performing at some of the most prestigious concert halls in the world, including Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Hall, Davies Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Elbphilharmonie, Deutschlandfunk, Hessischer Rundfunk, Sala Sao Paulo, among others.
In the 2021-22 season Kaziboni makes debuts at the Berlin Philharmonie, Kölner Philharmonie, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Wiener Konzerthaus, Royal Concertgebuow, and at festivals/series that include Beethovenfest Bonn, Donaueschingen Muziktage, Music Viva, Spoleto Festival, and LA Phil Green Umbrella Series. He will return to conduct the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Contrechamps, International Contemporary Ensemble, and will make debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Lyric Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, and Grossman Ensemble. He will premiere new works by Georg Frederic Haas, George Lewis, Hannah Kendall, inti figgis-vizueta, Heiner Goebbels, and Felipe Lara, among many others. Highlights in the coming season include a collaboration with director Yuval Sharon, in a new and visionary production of Puccini’s La Bohéme (Boston Lyric Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Spoleto Festival), premiering and touring a new evening-length work for large orchestra and mixed media by the German director-composer, Heiner Goebbels with the Ensemble Modern Orchestra (EMO) throughout Western Europe, conducting Gérard Grisey’s spectralist magnum opus, Les Espaces Acoustiques with the orchestra of the Geneva Haute École de Musique and Ensemble Contrechamps in Switzerland, and leading Ensemble Intercontemporain in a week-long Boston residency. Later in the summer he’ll assume a role as Assistant Conductor for Sir Simon Rattle at the BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall in London.
A conductor who “clearly knows his way around an avant-garde score” (The Times - London), critics have hailed Kaziboni among the foremost interpreters of modern and contemporary classical music of his generation. He has worked directly with many of the leading composers of the day that include Helmut Lachenmann, Steve Reich, George Benjamin, Augusta Read Thomas, George Lewis, Liza Lim, Heiner Goebbels, Morten Lauridsen, Dai Fujikura, Rebecca Saunders, Matthias Pintscher, Olga Neuwirth, Bruno Mantovani, Nicolaus A. Huber, Jacob TV, among many others, leading hundreds of premieres of new works across the globe. Kaziboni has also had a long association with two of the foremost orchestras of contemporary music in Europe: Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt) and Ensemble Intercontemporain (Paris), where he served as Assistant Conductor at the beginning of his career and now prolifically collaborates with as a guest conductor and curator. Recent collaborators have also included the San Francisco Symphony, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Omaha Symphony, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Contrechamps (Geneva), International Contemporary Ensemble (New York), Hamburg Camerata, the Dream Unfinished (New York), Omnibus Ensemble (Tashkent), the Martha Graham Dance Company (New York), among many others.
A former Fulbright Fellow (2013-14), Mr. Kaziboni holds degrees from the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles and the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts (HfMDK) in Germany. He currently serves as Assistant Professor of Orchestral Studies and Contemporary Music at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, a fellow at the Hermitage Artist Retreat, and Artistic Advisor of the Boston Lyric Opera.