About us

In 2020 Titus Engel was named Conductor of the Year by Opernwelt magazine. With his comprehensive view of repertoire from a wide range of musical eras, he consistently grasps works in their diverse interrelationships. The Berlin-based Zurich native recently thrilled audiences with a historically informed Brahms' cycle as well as with Lohengrin at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl and with a monumental production of Messiaen‘s Saint François d'Assise at Stuttgart Opera.

Starting in the 2023/24 season, Titus Engel will take over as Principal Conductor of the Basel Sinfonietta, in his inaugural concert he will lead the Basel Sinfonietta together with the NDR Big Band and the Chorwerk Ruhr at the Ruhrtriennale Festival in September 2023. To open the season, he conducts Tobias Kratzer's new production of Henze's The Raft of the Medusa at the Komische Oper Berlin. He then appears at Theater Basel for the revival of Weber's Der Freischütz (Christoph Marthaler) and at the Grand Théâtre de Genève with Hèctor Parra's new opera Justice.

Guest conducting engagements so far have included the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Philharmonia Orchestra, SWR and WDR Sinfonieorchester, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg as well as Ensemble Modern and Klangforum Wien. He regularly conducts at opera houses in Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Lyon, Basel, and Geneva, and has led performances of Berg's Wozzeck, Bartók's Blue Beard's Castle, Strauss's Salome, and Haas's Bluthaus, among others. In 2016 together with Lydia Steier he brought the Swiss premiere of Stockhausen's Donnerstag to the stage at Theater Basel – Opernwelt magazine named the production “Performance of the Year”. The premiere of Chaya Czernowin's opera Infinite Now took place in 2017, which he conducted at the Opera Vlaanderen, the Nationaltheater Mannheim, and the Philharmonie de Paris. He has also led numerous world premieres at the Salzburg Festival, Berliner Festspiele, Lucerne Festival, the Ruhrtriennale, and the Wiener Konzerthaus.

After studying musicology and philosophy in Zurich and Berlin Titus Engel studied conducting in Dresden with Christian Kluttig. He has recorded numerous works for radio and CD and is the founder of the Akademie Musiktheater Heute, in addition to having edited several books on contemporary opera.

The young Swiss conductor Laurent Zufferey is taking over the position of Assistant Conductor at the Basel Sinfonietta in the 2022/23 season.

Laurent Zufferey was born in 1993 in Sion in the canton of Valais (Switzerland). He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester (UK), where he was assistant conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and worked with renowned conductors such as Wassili Petrenko, Omer Meir Wellber and Joshua Weilerstein.

Laurent Zufferey has already worked with renowned orchestras such as the Orchestre Nationale de Metz, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, the Manchester Camerata, the Sofia Philharmonic, the Augsburg Philharmonic, the German Armed Forces Music Corps, the Moravian Philharmonic, the Sinfonietta de Lausanne, the Kammerphilharmonie Graubünden and the Argovia Philharmonic.

In May 2021, Laurent Zufferey won the audience prize at the Tonhalle Conducting Academy conducted by Paavo Järvi. In September 2021, he was appointed musical director of the Swiss ensemble Valéik. And in November 2021 he made his debut at the KKL Luzern with Loredana and the Red Bull Symphonic. In the 2022/23 season, he will also take up the position of Assistant Conductor with the Philharmonic Royal de Liège orchestra in Belgium.

Laurent Zufferey will support Principal Conductor Baldur Brönnimann in his rehearsals and help to shape concert projects of the Basel Sinfonietta with numerous world premieres and Swiss premieres.