- Biography
Joseph SIEBER
Candidate of the 2027 Competition
Joseph Sieber is Assistant Conductor of the Basel Sinfonietta, a conducting mentee of Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and Founder and Artistic Director of the music outreach initiative “Simple Symphony”.
He worked with Orchestras like the Netherlands Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Zagreb Philharmonic, the Real Filharmonia de Galicia, the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz or the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra. As assistant conductor he has worked with orchestras such as the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Orchestre National de France and the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductors like Susanna Mälkki, Marin Alsop and Jonathan NoE. Educated in Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, and now based in Paris, he graduated with the highest distinction for his diploma concert with the BBC Philharmonic and learned as a Conducting Fellow of both the Lucerne Festival and the Cabrillo Festival. Formed in piano by Konstantin Lifschitz and the Neuhaus-pupil Esther Yellin, and in composition by Dieter Ammann, his most influencial conducting mentors include Bernard Haitink and Sascha Goetzel.
Praised by the Luzerner Zeitung as a “bridge-builder for new audiences in classical music,” Sieber developed the Zentralschweizer Jugendsinfonieorchester ZJSO, which he founded as a student, into one of Switzerland’s most versatile and acclaimed youth ensembles over the seven years of his leadership, winning numerous awards as a pioneer in youth music education and innovative orchestral productions (a.o. European Music Mediation Award). A charismatic public speaker, he regularly presents classical concerts and in 2024 gave his first TEDx talk “Dare to be an Artist”.