Rapidly establishing himself as one of the rising stars of his generation, Andrei Feher was recently appointed as the new Music Director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra effective August 2018. Feher, chosen after a thorough 18-month long search, was noted for his conducting prowess and musicianship, as well his imaginative approach to performance, repertoire and community connection.
Having gained early experience as assistant to Fabien Gabel at the Québec Symphony Orchestra at the age of 22, in September 2014, Andrei joined the Orchestre de Paris as Assistant Conductor to its Music Director, Paavo Järvi, during which time he collaborated with conductors including Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev, Christoph von Dohnányi, Thomas Hengelbrock and Jaap van Zweden, as well as being regularly invited to conduct the orchestra in their highly popular « Young Public » concerts at the Philharmonie de Paris.
In 2013 he was invited to conduct the closing concert of the Young Prague Festival, in the DvořákHall of the Rudolfinum before going on to work with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, whom he replaced at the head of the Orchestre Métropolitan, Montreal, in 2014 in a programme of music by Richard Strauss after which he was immediately re-invited to conduct in the orchestra’s subscription series.
The 2015/16 season saw Andrei return to conduct both the Québec Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Metropolitan Orchestra and Orchestre de Paris in performances of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev and Strauss’ Til Eulenspiegel.
A strong advocate of contemporary music, he has recently performed works by Eric Champagne, Pierre Mercure, George Dimitrov, Ciprian Pop and Abigail Richardson and in November 2015 gave the world premiere of Soleil noir by Pierre Jodlowski with the Orchestre de Pau-Béarn, an engagement which resulted in an immediate re-invitation to work with the orchestra in the 17/18 season as well as a reprise of Soleil noir in Toulouse for November 2016.
In the 2016/17 season Andrei Feher made his debuts with the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica de Stat ‘Transilvania’ in Cluj and the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony Orchestra. His debut with the Orchestre de chambre de Lausanne led to two re-invitations to the orchestra, to conduct in their popular Sunday series as well as the world premiere of Thierry Besancon’s opera for children 'Les Zoocrates' His return to the Quebec Symphony Orchestra conducting Mozart and Dvorak received great critical acclaim.
Forthcoming highlights in the 17/18 season include debuts with the Romanian Radio National Orchestra, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, les Violons du Roy, Orchestre nationale d’Ile de France as well as reinvitations to the Orchestre de chambre de Lausanne, Filarmonica de Stat ‘Transilvania’ and concerts with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony.
Born in Romania to a family of musicians, Andrei Feher began his musical education as a violinist in his hometown Satu-Mare before continuing his studies at the Montreal Conservatoire in Johanne Arel and Raffi Armenian's studios.
