Sascha Goetzel

Sascha Goetzel is born in Vienna, and had his first violin lessons with his father at the age of five, and at eleven his first conducting classes with Prof. Richard Österreicher. Later he had Seiji Ozawa as well as Jorma Panula as teachers, and at 24 he took over the musical direction of the Austrian-Korean Philharmonic in Vienna.

2008-2020 Goetzel was Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, which has performed at the Salzburg Festival and at the BBC Proms, and had its first major European tour in 2017. He has also been musical director of the Attergau Orchestra Institute which operates under the aegis of the Vienna Philharmonic, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Kanagawa Philharmonic in Japan and the Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne. After a six year tenure of the music directorship of the Kuopio Symphony in Finland (2007-2013) he remains a regular guest with the orchestra.

Goetzel has also conducted performances at the Wiener Staatsoper several times, after the debut with the Nutcracker in 2007. He has also conducted Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (Marriage of Figaro) several seasons from 2014.

Goetzel has also been the mentor the Norwegian program Dirigentløftet for young conductors, and together with Eivind Gullberg Jensen he has also made the digital series «Be prepared».

Sascha Goetzel is Music Director for Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and National Youth Orchestra of Canada, and Principle Guest Conductor for Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra.

In February 2025 Goetzel will conduct The Flying Dutchman (Der fliegende Holländer) with Trondheim Symphony Orchestra & Opera, before the performance goes to Kristiansand in March, then with Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra.

Updated June 2024