Biography
Hannah von Wiehler is a trailblazing conductor and scholar who leads orchestras across Europe, the USA, and China, and served for 8 years as Music Director of the UK’s Orchestra VOX.
Known for combing fierce creativity with entrepreneurship, von Wiehler launched Orchestra VOX in Oxford, UK in 2016 – a chamber orchestra dedicated to the intersection of classical music and social impact. From 2016 to 2024, she conducted over 100 concerts, operas, and multimedia performances which she wrote and designed. In 2023-2024, she was also the assistant conductor at Opéra National de Bordeaux (2023-2024). Other highlights include her collaboration with the London Chamber Orchestra, with whom has two recordings (Three Worlds Records), and Opera Holland Park in London.
Von Wiehler holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and continues her scholarly leadership in the field of Soviet opera with an article forthcoming in Cambridge Opera Journal. She is also a polyglot: her love for languages has led her to learn 7 languages, and she is currently working on her eighth.
The 2024-2025 season sees many exciting debuts for von Wiehler, including her Italian debut with Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini in Parma, as well as her debut with the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, and her Estonian debut with an opera gala at the Estonian National Opera. In addition, she continues her existing relationships with many orchestras, such as France’s Opéra National de Bordeaux, with whom she will appear in four concerts with two different programmes this season.
Other recent highlights include von Wiehler’s debut at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall with the Sejong Soloists, where she conducted the world premiere of Haemosu’s Celestial Chariot Ride, by Augusta Read Thomas. Last season, she also debuted with the Southbank Sinfonia (UK), the Hohot Philharmonic Orchestra (China), and the Orchestre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine, with whom she also led a regional tour across four cities in France. Previously, von Wiehler has appeared frequently in the United Kingdom, on numerous occasions with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, Opera Holland Park, and the London Chamber Orchestra (with whom, in addition to concert work, she also has recorded two albums of the works of Ruth Gipps and Benjamin Britten). She previously conducted frequently in Ukraine and Russia, including orchestras like the International Symphony Orchestra Lviv, the Kaluga Symphony Orchestra and Yakutsk State Symphony Orchestra. Since February 2022, von Wiehler has chosen to curtail her work in Russia.
As Music Director of Orchestra VOX, her daring programming has included UK premieres of works by Caroline Shaw, Steve Reich, and Harrison Birtwistle, an ambitious double-bill opera of Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine and Schoenberg’s Erwartung, and multimedia performances such as her original project, Ophelia: an exploration of the psychological intricacies of Shakespeare’s character Ophelia from Hamlet, featuring the music of composers Hans Abrahamsen, Sergei Prokofiev, and fused elements of film and live theatre. Throughout her tenure, she also prioritised experimenting with friendly, non-traditional performance spaces in order to encourage wider community access to classical music, and as such the orchestra has performed in homeless shelters, hospitals, nursing homes, refugee detention centres, and even bars, in addition to traditional concert halls.
In 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, von Wiehler sought a way for Orchestra VOX to fight for beauty in an isolated world, and launched the Chrysalis Project: a multi-national initiative connecting Orchestra VOX to internationally renowned film-makers, choreographers, and composers from five countries (the UK, New Zealand, Burkina Faso, Russia, the United States). Von Wiehler led this project to create a series of short films, one filmed in each country – forging connections between multiple artistic genres and across continents – a way of instilling a message of new hope in a time of darkness.
In 2022, she was awarded the Carlos Miguel Prieto Conducting Fellowship, 1 of 9 fellows, out of an application pool of 500. She was recognised as the top conductor in the programme, and was subsequently invited for a residency in Mexico in 2023. Previously von Wiehler has assisted Barbara Hannigan with the London Symphony Orchestra, and Simone Young with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C.
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Born to American parents, von Wiehler was raised in Moscow, where she developed an early passion in for the art, music, and stories that originated behind the Iron Curtain. Her musical gifts were initially cultivated at Moscow’s State Tchaikovsky Conservatoire as a student of the violin. She went on to obtain her Bachelors Degree in Russian Literature at Georgetown University, Washington D.C., where – at the age of 23 – she developed a programme to find musical talent in the North Causasus region of Russia, in association with Clive
Gillinson and Carnegie Hall.
For nearly two years, von Wiehler served as the personal administrative assistant to Valery Gergiev, as well as Director of Special Projects for the Mariinsky Foundation of America. In these intensely enriching and fascinating roles, she worked closely on all matters from programming to touring, from to fundraising to producing festivals for the Mariinsky Theatre (including, for instance, in Vladivostok). During this time, and with Maestro Gergiev’s mentorship and encouragement, von Wiehler began to turn her attentions towards conducting, undertaking formal lessons with Leonid Korchmar whilst resident in St. Petersburg. Now based in Germany, she has also received generous coaching from Jessica Cottis and Karen Kamensek, has participated in masterclasses with Paavo Järvi and Johannes Schlaefli.
In 2020, von Wiehler completed her doctorate on the canon of Rodion Shchedrin at the University of Oxford, where she attended as a Rhodes Scholar. Not only is Oxford’s Rhodes Scholarship widely held to be the world’s most prestigious scholarship programme (renowned for producing many Heads of State, such as US President Bill Clinton) – but it is also a programme that places emphasis on attracting people who are committed to using their skills for the betterment of the world. Inspired by this environment, von Wiehler champions the belief that music has the potential to create a cultural and societal impact not stymied by global politics. Her fundamental aims as a conductor therefore hold sacred, at their core, the drive to use music as a means to effect change for greater societal good.
Although Russian music served as her entry point into conducting, this is by no means the exclusive focus of von Wiehler’s rapidly expanding symphonic and operatic repertoire. She is well-versed in music of the 19th and 20th centuries, and also enjoys a natural affinity for contemporary music, with a particular passion for contemporary opera – with Orchestra VOX she has staged the Oxford premieres of The Cave (Steve Reich) and The Corridor (Harrison Birtwistle), in addition to producing fully stage performances of canonical works such as La
Traviata, Don Giovanni and Eugene Onegin.
“Although her interests extend far beyond the Russian sphere, it is clearly some of the music von Wiehler knows and loves best. She came into her own in the Tchaikovsky, demonstrating a nuanced knowledge of the score and a great depth of musicality.”