BERLIN ACADEMY OF AMERICAN MUSIC

A desire to unify hearts and minds through the spirit and messages of music is at the core of Garrett Keast’s work. Known for his ability to inspire and connect with musicians and audiences alike, the Berlin-based conductor is widely recognized for his musical depth with a wide range of repertoire both in the concert hall and opera house. Keast has become known in recent years for his symphonic conducting and expertise in American repertoire as well as for his rise as founder and conductor of his critically acclaimed orchestra, the Berlin Academy of American Music.  

 

Keast began his career as Associate Conductor of New York City Opera before launching his career in Europe with engagements at the Paris Opera, Orchestre de Paris, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester. Today, he regularly appears at top venues including Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Brussel’s BOZAR, the Staatsoper Hamburg, Seoul Arts Center, Theater an der Wien, and the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. Described as drawing out “refined and concentrated playing” with “assured sensitivity” (Financial Times), Keast has conducted performances with orchestras including the Tonkünstler Orchester, Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin, Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Orchestre National Capitole Toulouse, Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, the Atlanta Symphony, and the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra. Recent recording projects have included Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf with the Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin and the debut album of the Berlin Academy of American Music, Transatlantic, which received 5 stars from the BBC, Fanfare, Limelight and das Orchester magazines.  

 

The 2024-2025 season begins in South Korea with concert performances of Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony with the Bucheon Philharmonic and Bernstein’s West Side Story Symphonic Dances with the Jeonju Symphony Orchestra. Keast joins tenor Jonathan Tetelman for performances with the Copenhagen Philharmonic and will bring in the new year at the Essen Philharmonie with the WDR Funkhausorchester, performing a Gershwin Tribute concert featuring pianist Makoto Ozone. He returns to the Ballets de Monte Carlo with both Romeo and Juliet and Swan Lake, making debuts with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Florence and Orquestra de la Commitat Valenciana. In the US, Keast will make his debut with the Houston Ballet. His Berlin Academy of American Music (BAAM) continues to garner attention, performing again at the Konzerthaus Berlin as well as on tour.

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The 2023-2024 season featured a televised, live broadcast with Vienna’s Tonkünstler Orchestra (Bernstein and the American Songbook), as well as engagements with the Royal Swedish Opera, the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Staatsorchester Braunschweig, the Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, and a Korean tour featuring Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet with the Ballets de Monte-Carlo and Hankyung Arte Philharmonic. Keast finished the season at the Atlantic Music Festival with a program featuring Midori. Repertoire highlights included John Adam’s Fearful Symmetries, Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Fazıl Say’s Istanbul Symphony, Gershwin’s An American in Paris, Missy Mazzoli’s Dark with Excessive Bright, Caroline Shaw’s Watermark Concerto, and Kurt Weill’s Symphony No. 2. In addition, Keast conducted performances of the Berlin Academy of American Music at the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and Konzerthaus Berlin.  

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With distinct performances leading over sixty symphony orchestras and more than twenty opera companies across four continents, the conductor’s experience on the podium showcases extraordinary range. His symphonic repertoire extends from Brahms, Mahler, and Tchaikovsky to Adams, Britten, and Widmann. From the operatic canon, Keast has led masterworks of contemporary composers such as Georg Friedrich Hass and Unsuk Chin to pillars of the genre by Mozart, Puccini, Strauss, and Wagner. 

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Additionally, Keast has conducted performances with orchestras including the SWR Sinfonieorchester, Prague Philharmonia, Belgian National Orchestra, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Royal Danish Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.  

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Having been a singer and instrumentalist since childhood, Keast brings a passion for creating a holistic approach to opera and stage productions. His opera credits include Faust (Opéra National de Paris), Die Zauberflöte (Deutsche Oper Berlin), La Bohème (Aspen Music Festival), Ariadne auf Naxos (Virginia Opera), Carmen (Opera San Antonio), Midsummernight’s Dream in Tokyo, Der Fliegender Holländer (Theater Erfurt), Rigoletto (Theater Bremen), Don Giovanni (New Orleans Opera), and Bluthaus (Oper Bonn), as well as a critically-acclaimed production of Così fan tutte at the Fort Worth Opera Festival, described by the Dallas Morning News as “the operatic experience of the year.” 

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At the Staatsoper Hamburg, Keast enjoyed a long relationship with John Neumeier’s Hamburg Ballet where he led over 130 performances of eight productions. Additionally, he conducted Swan Lake with the Opéra National de Paris, Don Quixote, Romeo and Juliet and the Nutcracker at the Royal Swedish Ballet, as well as several productions at the Finnish National Opera & Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet and Staatsoper Hannover.  

 

Connection is a theme carried throughout Keast’s endeavors. The Houston-born conductor is a prominent interpreter of repertoire from his homeland, continuously developing relevant, thought-provoking programming. In recent seasons, he has led programs premiering works of Missy Mazzoli, Anthony Davis, Caroline Shaw, David T. Little, David Lang, and Avner Dorman.   

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Additional American programs include John Neumeier’s Bernstein Dances in the Los Angeles Music Center and Baden Baden Festspielhaus, a Broadway program at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, a Bernstein Gala with the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, performances of Bernstein’s Mass in Dresden’s Frauenkirche, and Copland’s Third Symphony at the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.  

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Presenting a fusion of iconic and modern American and American-themed works is also the focus of the Berlin Academy of American Music (BAAM), founded by Keast at the height of the pandemic. The orchestra’s debut recording, Transatlantic, was released in October 2021 on the ONYX Classics label. The orchestra has quickly gained recognition for its exceptional quality of performance and programming, garnering return invitations, sold-out performances, and tour developments.

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Garrett Keast was mentored by Christoph Eschenbach at the Houston Symphony and served as his assistant conductor for opera productions and international tours at the Paris Opera, Vienna State Opera, National Symphony Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, and the Pacific Music Festival. Keast studied at the Aspen and Tanglewood Music Festivals and was assistant conductor at the Dallas Opera, where he received the Bruno Walter Career Development Grant.