Profiled, lively, versatile - three characteristics sum up Simon Gaudenz's distinctive musical interpretations.

He has been General Music Director of the Jena Philharmonic since 2018 and since then has left a lasting mark on the city's musical life. Simon Gaudenz and his orchestra inspire with numerous new and innovative ideas, including the sensational Mahler-Scartazzini cycle, with which the orchestra also regularly tours internationally.

As an internationally sought-after guest conductor, he conducts numerous renowned orchestras such as the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Orchestre National de France, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Russian National Philharmonic, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Bamberg Symphony, the WDR Sinfonieorchester, the NDR Radiophilharmonie, the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, the radio orchestras of Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart and Saarbrücken, the philharmonic orchestras of Monte Carlo, Lyon and Luxembourg and the Bavarian State Orchestra.

He is a welcome guest at international festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Berliner Festwochen, the Thüringer Bachwochen, the Festspiele Südtirol, the Carl Nielsen Festival and the Schwetzinger Festspiele.

A cordial collaboration connects him with soloists such as Gidon Kremer, Anne-Sofie von Otter, Igor Levit, Michael Barenboim, Daniel Ottensamer, Veronika Eberle, Renaud Capucon, Arabella Steinbacher, Benjamin Appl, Sabine Meyer, Lauma Skride, Lise de la Salle, Lilya Zilberstein, Maximilian Hornung and many others.

After initial positions as Principal Conductor of the Collegium Musicum Basel, and previously as founding member and Artistic Director of the camerata variabile basel, he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Odense Symphony Orchestra in 2010. In 2012, he was appointed Principal Conductor of the tradition-rich chamber orchestra Hamburger Camerata, with whom he regularly performs at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and continues to be associated as a guest conductor.

His discography includes the highly acclaimed complete recording of Schumann's symphonies as well as the OPUS KLASSIK 2020 award-winning recording of symphonies by Haydn contemporary Francois-Joseph Gossec for the cpo label.
The recordings released within the last year with the NDR Radiophilharmonie and the Jena Philharmonic with works by Louis Spohr, Carl Loewe, Hugo Wolf and Karl Weigl also met with an extremely positive response. The first three albums of the Mahler-Scartazzini cycle with the Jena Philharmonic - the first seven symphonies have already been released - are considered a milestone in their unique idea of recording all Mahler symphonies in combination with associated works by the Swiss composer Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini.