The 2025/26 season marks Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider’s sixth as music director of the Orchestre National de Lyon, a partnership that has been extended until 2026/27.
Szeps-Znaider regularly features as guest conductor with the world’s leading orchestras, such as the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, London Symphony, and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. His return to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra continues a flourishing relationship.
On the operatic front, following a successful debut conducting Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Dresden Semperoper, Szeps-Znaider was immediately re-invited to lead Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. He recently made debuts with the Royal Danish Opera, Bavarian State Opera, and the Zurich Opera House.
Also a virtuoso violinist, Szeps-Znaider maintains his reputation as one of the world’s leading exponents of the instrument with a busy calendar of concerto and recital engagements. This season, he makes return appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, London Philharmonic, and Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, as well as with the New World and St. Louis symphony orchestras. He also embarks on an extensive European recital tour with pianist Daniil Trifonov.
Szeps-Znaider boasts an extensive discography of much of the core repertoire for violin, including a critically praised complete collection of Mozart’s violin concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra, which he directs from the violin. Other notable recordings include Nielsen’s Violin Concerto with the New York Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert, Elgar’s Concerto in B minor with the Dresden Staatskapelle and Sir Colin Davis, award-winning recordings of the concertos by Brahms and Korngold with the Vienna Philharmonic under Valery Gergiev, the concertos by Beethoven and Mendelssohn with the Israel Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, Prokofiev’s Concerto no. 2 and Glazunov’s Concerto in A minor with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Mariss Jansons, and Mendelssohn’s concerto on DVD with the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly. Szeps-Znaider has also recorded all of Brahms’s works for violin and piano with Yefim Bronfman.
Szeps-Znaider plays the 1741 “Kreisler” Guarnerius del Gesù instrument on extended loan by the Royal Danish Theatre through the generosity of the VELUX Foundations, the Villum Foundation, and the Knud Højgaard Foundation.
Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider is managed by Enticott Music Management in association with IMG Artists.
September 2025
Please note: Biographies are based on information provided to the CSOA by the artists or their representatives. More current information may be available on websites of the artists or their management.
