President
Toni J. Krein

Toni J. Krein is a dramaturge and cultural mediator with extensive experience in the area of concerts and musical theatre. He has been Artistic Administrator of the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, a co-founder of the Frankfurt Feste and leading dramaturge at the Lucerne Theatre. He has worked for the composer Hans Werner Henze, and has been the Artistic Administrator of the Lucerne International Festival of Music (now the Lucerne Festival). He was subsequently chief executive and joint artistic director of European Music Month 2001 in Basel, and from 2002 until the end of 2011 he was Head of Corporate Cultural Sponsorship at Credit Suisse. He has been President of orchester.ch since December 2010. He sits on the boards of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra ZKO and the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival, and was Vice President of the Davos Festival Foundation until 2020.

E-Mail: krein@orchester.ch

Vice-President
Franziskus Theurillat
Director of the Sinfonieorchester Basel

Franziskus Theurillat has been director of the Basel Symphony Orchestra since 2000. In addition to his main profession he is engaged as a member of various foundation councils and as an independent lecturer and speaker. He received his musical training at the Basel Academy of Music – the cornet as a main discipline and the piano as a secondary discipline. In parallel with other musical studies in Stuttgart and Dresden, he studied business administration. In his early years as a cornet player he has performed in orchestras such as the Vienna Chamber Philharmonic, the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden and Freiburg, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Pierre Boulez, Heinz Holliger, Yehudi Menuhin, Armin Jordan, Mario Venzago among others. His solo and chamber musician activities have led him to many countries in Europe, Asia and South America.

E-Mail: f.theurillat@sinfonieorchesterbasel.ch

Dieter Kaegi
Artistic Director of the  Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn

Attended schools and university in Zurich. Held permanent posts as Assistant Director and Evening Supervisor at the Zurich Opera House, English National Opera and Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Assistant to the Artistic Director of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Production Manager at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Artistic Director of Opera Ireland – and since 2013 Artistic Director of TOBS (Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn). Since 2016 he has sat on the committees of the Union of Swiss Theatres (UST) and orchester.ch.

E-Mail: Dieter.Kaegi@TOBS.ch

Florian Scheiber
Orchestra Director Theatre and Orchestra Heidelberg, Germany

Florian Scheiber was born in 1968 in Togo, West Africa. After completing his diploma program in “Languages, Business, and Cultural Area Studies” at the University of Passau, he initially worked as an orchestra manager for the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, a pan-European orchestra founded by Claudio Abbado and based in Vienna. After five years in Vienna and numerous tours throughout Europe, the USA, and Cuba, Florian Scheiber became the orchestra manager for the Sinfonieorchester Münster in Northern Germany at a three-division theater. Following his experience with an international youth orchestra, he took over the orchestra management of a professional cultural orchestra. From 2004 to 2023, Florian Scheiber served as the Concert Director of the Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen. Currently, he holds the position of Orchestra Director at the Theater and Orchestra Heidelberg.

E-Mail: florian.scheiber@heidelberg.de

Lena-Catharina Schneider
Artistic Director / Managing Director Zurich Chamber Orchestra

Born in the heart of Schleswig-Holstein, Lena-Catharina Schneider developed a great passion for music at an early age, especially for the folklore of neighbouring Denmark. She began playing the violin at the age of six and, after classical violin lessons, focused mainly on the folk music of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Shetland and Scotland. While studying German language and literature, art history, film studies and musicology in Kiel and Copenhagen, she founded Haugaard’s International Fiddleschool in North Friesland in 2011 together with folk fiddler Harald Haugaard and ran it until 2014. After graduating, she worked as a concert planner and events instructor for the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival from 2013 to 2018. It was during the festival that she met Daniel Hope and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. This encounter then led her to Zurich in 2019, where she has since been managing the affairs of the ZKO in co-leadership with Helene Eller.

Email: lena.schneider@zko.ch

Antony Ernst
Executive Director Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne

Born in Australia to a family with Austrian roots, Antony Ernst began his career as a dramaturge and assistant director at Opera Australia in Sydney. After several engagements in this capacity in Germany, Italy and Spain, he took a break to do his doctoral thesis on Max Brod’s German translations of Janácek’s operas. A contract as Assistant Artistic Director with the Sydney Symphony introduced him to the business of orchestra management, and he was subsequently employed as Artistic Director and Production Manager with the Auckland Philharmonia in New Zealand, and later with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg. Two years at the helm of the Royal Danish Orchestra (Det Kongelige Kapel) were followed by his current position as Executive Director of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. He is also a lecturer, playwright, writer, director, translator and was for many years a guide for cultural tours.

E-Mail: antony.ernst@ocl.ch

Nathalie Rea Otth

Geschäftsführerin

E-Mail: otth@orchester.ch