Biography

Born in 1952, Manfred Neuman was trained at the Musikhochschule of Cologne, Germany. Alongside the french horn he studied orchestral conducting with Klaus Pawassar and Siegfried Köhler, the later Music Director of the Stockholm Opera.
As a horn player he worked at the Cologne Opera (Gürzenich Orchester) for several years and became a member of the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony in 1975.

In 1988 Manfred Neuman was named Music Director of the Saarlouis Symphony Orchestra (South-West Germany), a tenure which ended in 2008, after almost 20 years.
Neuman conducted his first public concert in 1973. Since then he was invited as a guest conductor with numerous german and international Symphony Orchestras, conducting more than 400 major works of the symphonic and operatic repertoire.
Amongst other orchestras he appeared with the Westphalian Symphony Orchestra, the Classical Philharmonic Bonn, the Siegerland Orchestra, the Philharmonia Hungarica, the Folkwang Orchestra Essen, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Monterrey (Mexico) and the Orquesta Sinfonica de Cuenca (Ecuador).
As of 1989, he regularly worked with the Xalapa Symphony (Mexico). His programs featured renowned international soloists and first performances of works by Berg, Hindemith, Strauss, Mahler, Shostakovich, Poulenc and Kodaly.
In 1996 he spent three weeks working with the China National Symphony Orchestra in Beijing.
In March 2006 Neuman was invited to conduct the Unam Philharmonic Orchestra in Mexico-City for two concerts broadcast on national radio and television.

Manfred Neuman is at present a recording artist for the Naxos Label.
The conductor’s CD-recordings include a Tschaikowsky-production with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra (Bayer Records).
In 1997, a CD with french singer Romain Didier conducted by Neuman (Warner Records) was awarded the prestigious “Grand Prix du Disque” in Paris.
In 2002 Neuman conducted the Bavarian Radio Orchestra in Munich for a recording of 20th Century french music for Saxophone and Orchestra with works by Debussy, Tomasi, Caplet, Constant and Absil, including four world premiere recordings (Audite Records).
“This is absolutely the best recorded perfomance of Debussy’s “Rhapsody” that I ever heard” wrote the critic of American Record Guide on Neuman’s recording with soloist Dominique Tassot and the Munich Radio Orchestra.
His latest two CDs with the german SWR-Radio Orchestra where released in 2004 and 2006 by the Naxos Label and feature first recordings of orchestral works by german neoromantic composer Thomas Schmidt-Kowalski, whose 2nd and 3rd Symphony Neuman premiered with the Philharmonia Hungarica. The entire recording of Schmidt-Kowalski’s orchestral compositions is currently in work.

In June of 2007 Neuman performed with the German Philharmonic Orchestra Rhineland-Palatinate and renowned Bandoneón Soloist Lothar Hensel with a program entirely dedicated to symphonic Tango music. The concert was life-broadcast by German Public Radio (Deutschlandradio Kultur) and recorded for Sony Classical (CD released in April 2010).

In december of 2009, Neuman performed in Beijing’s newly built National Center of Performing Arts, conducting the opening concert of the Central Conservatory Music Festival with works by Mendelssohn, Haydn and Berlioz.

Manfred Neuman has been living in France for many years now.

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