Garrett Keast

Berlin-based conductor Garrett Keast was born in Houston and was mentored by Christoph Eschenbach at the Houston Symphony Orchestra.  His studies continued at the Aspen and Tanglewood Music Festivals and he was awarded the Bruno Walter Career Development Grant during his tenure as Associate Conductor of the New York City Opera.  His European career was launched with performances of Faust at the Opéra National de Paris, Georg Friedrich Haas’s Bluthaus at Oper Bonn, and Die Zauberflöte at Deutsche Oper Berlin.  Highlights of Garrett Keast’s 2016/2017 season included Le Sacre de Printemps with the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Vienna, a Haydn-Widmann program with the National Orchestra of Belgium in Brussels, and Dvorak’s Ninth Symphony with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg. 

Garrett Keast has conducted performances at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, the Gasteig in Munich, Berlin’s Konzerthaus, Theater an der Wien and the Bastille in Paris.  He continues a close relationship with the Staatsoper Hamburg, where he has conducted over seventy-five performances with John Neumeier’s Hamburg Ballet including tour performances in Vienna, Tokyo and Baden-Baden.  

The 2017/2018 season sees Garrett Keast return to the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Vienna for performances that are part of the Bernstein Centennial.  In Basel he will direct the Sinfonieorchester Camerata Schweiz in programs featuring Haydn and Mozart, and he will make his debut in Copenhagen with the Royal Danish Opera.  He also returns to the Staatsoper Hamburg for a new production of Don Quixote and performances of The Nutcracker with John Neumeier’s Hamburg Ballet.  

In demand as a guest conductor, engagements have included the NDR Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, MDR Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Prague Philharmonia, North Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música, the Odense Symphony Orchestra, Brandenburg Symphoniker, Göttingen Symphony Orchestra, Bach Collegium München, Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester, the Istanbul State Symphony, and major orchestras in Brazil and Chile.   

He has conducted opera and ballet productions with the Opéra National de Paris (Faust & Swan Lake), Deutsche Oper Berlin (Die Zauberflöte), Theater Bremen (Rigoletto), Oper Bonn (Bluthaus), Aspen Music Festival (La Bohème), Hamburg Ballet (Mahler’s 10th Symphony, Midsummernight’s Dream, The Nutcracker, Othello, Shakespeare Dances & Tatjana), Staatsoper Hannover (Three is a Party), Opera San Antonio (Carmen), Fort Worth Opera Festival (Così fan tutte), New Orleans Opera (Don Giovanni), Virginia Opera (Ariadne auf Naxos) as well as a tour of Germany with the Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester (Così fan tutte).