SONOS Music Director Erik Ochsner is of American and Finnish descent and a graduate of Dartmouth College.  He attended The Pierre Monteux School for Conductors where he studied under Charles Bruck.  He studied with the great Baroque specialist Helmut Rilling and has been a student and assistant of Robert Spano.

In March 2012, Erik made his debut with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in performances of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.  The Indianapolis Star said "Pirates performance is golden … Feats of coordination as exacting as a safely choreographed pirate swordfight."  And the examiner.com declared “Ochsner masterfully led the ISO.”

Other recent notable performances include Erik’s debut in 2012 with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra conducting more than 300 performers in the Lord of the Rings Symphony. Erik led two performances of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring: Live to Projection with 5,000 audience members, outdoors, which included synchronized fireworks with the Kaohsiung (Taiwan) Symphony Orchestra (Asian premiere), the St. Louis Symphony and Tampere Philharmonic (Finland).  Erik conducted the Chinese premiere of Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire at the 2007 Beijing Festival of Contemporary Music, and also was personally invited by composer Tan Dun to conduct members of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic.  Ochsner has conducted all-Mozart and all-Gershwin concerts with the West Saxony Philharmonic (Leipzig, Germany).

Future engagements include Adelaide, Athens, Berlin, Indianapolis, Melbourne, Milwaukee, Nurnberg, Ottawa, Reykjavik, Rochester, Stuttgart, Sydney, and Toronto.

He currently resides in New York City where his hobbies include computers, traveling, wine, and collecting requiem recordings.  www.erikochsner.com

"Erik Ochsner's rehearsal for The Lord of the Rings Symphony was most efficient, demanding, helpful and fun for all our singers. He is a remarkable leader under pressure!"

Amy Kaiser, Director, Saint Louis Symphony Chorus

 

Updated September 6, 2008