“Steinaecker shapes the music with emotional depth, always maintains the overview and pays attention to every detail. 
He is a name to remember!”

Drawing on profound musical insight, Philipp von Steinaecker is a thoughtful and versatile conductor whose reputation continues to grow across an exceptionally broad repertoire, spanning from Baroque & Early Classical to German Romanticism and the Second Viennese School. His passion for historically informed performance practice led him to found the Mahler Academy’s Originalklang project—an internationally acclaimed initiative that brings together leading musicians from Europe’s foremost orchestras alongside outstanding young talents to rediscover the original sound world of Mahler’s Viennese orchestra.

In 2024, the Mahler Academy undertook a major European tour, offering audiences in Vienna, Amsterdam, Paris, and Cologne a unique listening experience that vividly captured the authentic essence of Mahler’s music. A further major European tour with the orchestra is planned for summer 2026.

Steinaecker’s expanding roster of orchestral collaborations includes the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, SWR Symphonieorchester, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. He also served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra from 2019 – 2022.

Other guest collaborations have included Camerata Salzburg, Tiroler Symphonieorchester Innsbruck, Prague Philharmonia, Residentie Orkest, Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Filarmonica Toscanini Parma, Kristiansand Symphony & Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Equally accomplished in opera, he has conducted productions such as Die Zauberflöte at the Teatro Filarmonico di Verona; Tosca and The Fairy Queen at the Tiroler Landestheater; Gounod’s La Colombe at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena; and Die Csárdásfürstin at the Teatro Comunale in Bolzano.

Philipp was profoundly shaped by the mentorship of Claudio Abbado, with whom he first collaborated as a cellist and founding member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and later as assistant and guest conductor with Orchestra Mozart. He also worked closely with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, serving as his assistant.

His discography includes recordings of Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s The Creation (in English), Bruckner’s Symphony No. 1, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, and an album of Mozart and Gluck arias with soprano Camilla Tilling. In 2024, he released a critically acclaimed recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 on period instruments—the first release in a new collaboration with Alpha Classics. This recording was nominated for an Echo Klassik Preis and won both the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis and an Edisson Klassiek. The project will continue with the release of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in August 2026.