Leonard Elschenbroich

Described by The New York Times as “a musician of great technical skill, intellectual curiosity, and expressive depth,” Leonard Elschenbroich has performed with some of the world’s leading orchestras. As an acclaimed and award-winning cellist, his path toward conducting began in 2012 when he co-founded the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bolivia—the first orchestra in Bolivia’s history to perform a symphony by Gustav Mahler—and with which he continues to collaborate regularly through concerts and educational projects. This experience led him to further explore conducting with orchestras across Europe and Latin America, and ultimately to pursue a Master’s degree at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin, where he studied orchestral, choral, and operatic conducting with Christian Ehwald and Markus Stenz. He graduated in 2023.

Recent and upcoming highlights include engagements with the Residentie Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Sinfonia Smith Square, and Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss, where he conducts works such as Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht and Richard Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll. Elschenbroich served as assistant conductor at the Dutch National Opera for the co-premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence, and was soon invited back for the world premiere of Michel van der Aa’s Theory of Flames.

Following his debut with the Orchestra at the Reform in London in autumn 2024, Elschenbroich was invited to become the orchestra’s Music Director—a position created especially for him. For his first season in the role, he has curated a program under the theme “Hindsight is 2020: Utopianism in 1820, 1920… and today?”, featuring guest soloists such as Lotte Betts-Dean, Ava Bahari, and Elisabeth Brauß. He also conducts Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 (Pathétique), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphonies Nos. 33 and 40, and Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 3 with the Corinthian Orchestra, where he is a regular guest conductor.

As a cellist, highlights of Leonard’s career include his debut at the Vienna Musikverein on a European tour with the Staatskapelle Dresden, his U.S. debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, his Asian debut with the Japan Philharmonic at Suntory Hall, and five appearances at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall. He has released a number of critically acclaimed concerto and chamber music recordings on the Onyx Classics label.