Bernhard Gueller, principal guest conductor of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director Laureate of Symphony Nova Scotia where he was music director from 2012-2018, was also music director of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra and principal guest conductor of the Victoria Symphony in Canada. Acclaimed for passion, interpretations and phrasing, he continues to bring excitement to the podium. He has collaborated with artists such as pianists Lars Vogt and Marc Andre-Hamelin, violinists James Ehnes and Joshua Bell, as well as Metropolitan Opera singers Pretty Yende and the late Johan Botha. CDs with Symphony Nova Scotia include orchestrated Schubert lieder, and Wagner-Mahler lieder with mezzo-soprano Hanneli Rupert and the CPO.
The Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra is the oldest and foremost orchestra in Africa, having been established in 1914. It has a national and international reputation for excellence thanks to the high quality of its performances and the artists such as pianists Paul Le
wis and Stephen Hough and violinist Joshua Bell. Versatile and multifunctional, the CPO accompanies ballet, opera, musicals, plays pops, rock and family concerts as well as concerts tailored for schools and presents a platform to community performances. The orchestra’s vast youth education and development programme includes two acclaimed youth orchestras, a music academy and a grassroots strings and woodwinds training project, Masidlale, which teaches marginalized young people the value and self-worth that comes from music.