Vimbayi Kaziboni
About this Artist
Described as a conductor of “great intensity, without distancing, maneuvering, without indifference” (neuemuzikzeitung) Zimbabwean-born conductor Vimbayi Kaziboni (b. 1988) is widely sought-after for his depth of approach and his interpretive imagination and expressivity. He has led many critically lauded performances with orchestras across the globe in Australia, Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Kyrgyzstan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland the United Kingdom, the United States, and Uzbekistan, performing at some of the most prestigious concert halls in the world, including Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Elbphilharmonie, Southbank Centre, and Lincoln Center among others.
This season Kaziboni makes debuts at the Berlin Philharmonie, Kölner Philharmonie, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Wiener Konzerthaus, Royal Concertgebuow, and at festivals/series that include Beethovenfest Bonn, Donaueschingen Muziktage, Musica Viva (Munich), Spoleto Festival (Charleston), Miller Theatre Composer Portrait Series (New York), and LA Phil Green Umbrella Series (Los Angeles). He will return to conduct the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Contrechamps, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), and will make debuts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, LA Phil New Music Group, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Boston Lyric Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, and the Washington National Opera.
Over the course of this year Kaziboni will premiere new works by composers that include Georg Frederic Haas, George Lewis, Hannah Kendall, Heiner Goebbels, Wadada Leo Smith, and inti figgis-vuzueta among many others. Highlights include a collaboration with director Yuval Sharon, in a new, subversive production of Puccini’s La Bohéme, premiering and touring a new evening-length work for orchestra and mixed media by the German director-composer, Heiner Goebbels with the Ensemble Modern Orchestra (EMO) throughout Europe, conducting the entire cycle of Gérard Grisey’s rarely-performed spectralist magnum opus, Les Espaces Acoustiques with the orchestra of the Geneva Haute École de Musique and Ensemble Contrechamps in Switzerland, conducting Ensemble Intercontemporain in a week-long Boston residency as well as at IRCAM’s Festival ManiFeste in Paris, and conducting the portrait concert of Brazilian composer, Felipe Lara at Miller Theatre in New York City.
A conductor who “clearly knows his way around an avant-garde score” (The Times - London), critics have hailed Kaziboni among the foremost interpreters of modern and contemporary classical music of his generation. He has led premieres of hundreds of new works across the globe and has worked with many of today’s leading composers that include Helmut Lachenmann, Steve Reich, George Benjamin, Augusta Read Thomas, George Lewis, Liza Lim, Heiner Goebbels, Morten Lauridsen, Dai Fujikura, Rebecca Saunders, Matthias Pintscher, Olga Neuwirth, Nicolaus A. Huber, Jacob TV, among many others. Kaziboni has had a long association with two of the foremost orchestras of contemporary music in Europe: Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt) and Ensemble Intercontemporain (Paris), where he served as Assistant Conductor at the beginning of his career and now prolifically collaborates with as a guest conductor and curator. Collaborators have also included the San Francisco Symphony, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Omaha Symphony, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Contrechamps (Geneva), International Contemporary Ensemble (New York), Grossman Ensemble (Chicago), Hamburg Camerata, Dream Unfinished (New York), Omnibus Ensemble (Tashkent), Martha Graham Dance Company (New York), among many others.
Kaziboni currently serves on the artistic leadership team of the Boston Lyric Opera as Artistic Advisor, a fellow at the Hermitage Artist Retreat, Artist-in-Residence with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Music Director and Conductor of the Composers Conference, and Assistant Professor of Orchestral Studies and Contemporary Music at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Previously he has served in roles as Conductor of the International Ensemble Modern Academy - IEMA (Frankfurt), Assistant Conductor of Ensemble Intercontemporain (Paris), Director of Orchestral Activities at Gettysburg College, Artistic Director of What’s Next? Ensemble (Los Angeles) and the New Philharmonic (Omaha), and Artistic-in-Residence at Illkhom Theatre with the Omnibus Ensemble (Tashkent).
A former Fulbright Fellow (2013-14), Kaziboni holds degrees from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts in Germany.