Symphony Orchestra with University of Stuttgart

Puget Sound’s Symphony Orchestra, Anna Wittstruck, conductor, welcomes the University of Stuttgart Academic Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mihály Zeke, presenting a program of romantic works by German composers Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms, paired with one of the modern repertoire’s most famous concertos for the viola by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók.

This guest performance is part of the Stuttgart orchestra’s 2022 North American Concert Tour and is a special collaboration with the School of Music. Join us for a program reflecting on life and destiny, from the individual to the cosmic scale, projected into music by composers at different stages of their creative lives.

This concert is free and open to the public.

Mihály Zeke has been in charge of the University of Stuttgart Academic Symphony Orchestra and Chorus since 2020. Born in London to a Greek-Hungarian family of musicians, Zeke studied organ, piano and conducting in Athens and Stuttgart.

He has been a laureate of the Kyveli-Horn Foundation and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), as well as member of the Dirigentenforum, the German Ministry of Culture’s elite platform for young conductors.

Zeke has been teaching as a guest lecturer or professor since 2014 in Dijon, Paris and Tübingen as well as in various workshops and masterclasses. He currently teaches orchestral conducting at the Stuttgart Musikhochschule.

Anna Wittstruck joined the University of Puget Sound School of Music faculty in fall 2017 as assistant professor, director of orchestra. She moved to Washington after two years as acting assistant professor in music at Stanford University, where she served as interim music director and conductor of the Stanford Symphony Orchestra and Stanford Philharmonia.