Matthias Pintscher is Music Director of the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra, appointed in the 2024-25 season. The 2025-26 season marks his sixth as Creative Partner at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Matthias recently concluded a successful decade-long tenure as the Music Director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the iconic Parisian contemporary ensemble, founded by Pierre Boulez, and winner of the 2022 Polar Prize. During his stewardship, Pintscher led this most adventurous institution in the creation of dozens of world premieres by cutting edge composers from all over the world and took the ensemble on tours to Asia, North America and throughout Europe to all the major festivals and concert halls.
In Pintscher’s second season as Music Director of Kansas City Symphony, highlights include concerts celebrating the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff with piano soloists Yefim Bronfman and George Li, and the US premiere of Toshio Hosokawa’s trumpet concerto, Im Nebel.
As guest conductor, Matthias makes debuts with Oregon Symphony and Munich Philharmonic and returns to Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and the Boulez Ensemble.
Matthias has collaborated on projects with the Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Montreal, Baltimore, Houston, Pittsburgh and Detroit Symphony Orchestras as well as with Orchestre de Paris, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Radio Symphonie Orchester Wien.
Also known as one of today’s foremost composers, Matthias’ works appear frequently on the programs of major symphony orchestras throughout the world. His third violin concerto, Assonanza, written for Leila Josefowicz, was premiered in January 2022 with the Cincinnati Symphony. Another 2021-22 world premiere was neharot, a co-commission of Suntory Hall, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Staatskapelle Dresden, where he was named Capell-Compositeur. Matthis has been composer-in-residence at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Salzburg Festival and Lucerne Festival.
Matthias has been professor at The Julliard School since 2014 and is published by Boosey & Hawkes.
