LENA-LISA Wüstendörfer
Music Director
« HEr Passion
is Infectious»
Her «crystal-clear gestures» shape the sound in a «captivating yet nuanced way.» Wherever Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer performs, she wins over audiences and critics alike with her inspiring, nuanced conducting.
Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer is the Music Director of the Swiss Orchestra and, as Artistic Director of Andermatt Music, shapes the concert program at the Andermatt Concert Hall. With its nationwide presence and focus on Swiss symphonic music, the Swiss Orchestra has carved out a unique profile in today's orchestral landscape. The ensemble regularly performs in Switzerland's major concert halls, such as Victoria Hall Geneva, Tonhalle Zurich, Casino Bern, KKL Lucerne, and LAC Lugano, and tours internationally as an ambassador of Swiss classical music. Andermatt Music is the concert organizer for the Andermatt Concert Hall, bringing music to Switzerland's highest-altitude concert hall, dedicated to symphonic performances, throughout a year-round concert season.
As a guest conductor, Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer is in international demand. Engagements have led her to renowned ensembles such as the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Basel Sinfonietta, Sinfonietta Cracovia, Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestre national de Metz Grand Est. In the 2025/26 season, she will make her debuts at the Danish National Opera, with the Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester, Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra, and Grazer Recreation Orchestra.
Born in Zurich in 1983, Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer studied violin and conducting at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel, as well as musicology and economics at the University of Basel, where she also earned her doctorate. She deepened her conducting studies with Sylvia Caduff and Sir Roger Norrington and served as assistant conductor to Claudio Abbado.
In addition to her concert activities, Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer publishes in the field of reception and interpretation history. The volume edited by her Mahler Interpretation Today (edition text + kritik) is considered, according to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung NZZ among the "most fascinating" publications on recent Mahler reception. In June 2019, the monograph was published by the same publisher Klingender Zeitgeist on Mahler's Fourth Symphony, which was described as "groundbreaking" and "highly stimulating pioneering work" (Stifter Jahrbuch) was reviewed.