I can remember like yesterday the first Barenreiter score I conducted! It was Mozart’s K. 364, Sinfonia Concertante, and with an orchestra I put together myself as a conducting student at the Aspen Music Festival in 1998.  

In 2014, I led a wonderful project with the Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester that featured Syrian refugees in an amazing staging of Mozart’s Così fan tutte.  We lived and worked with the Syrians and their families together in a small village south of Ulm which was an amazing experience. We found a way to integrate them singing a folk song of their own and the entire staging focused on close relationships formed between Germans and Syrians. The production traveled to five German cities and received a lot of attention and critical acclaim. A fascinating experience for this American conductor!  

More recently I have come to think first and foremost about Bärenreiter via the music of my good friend, the German composer Philipp Maintz. On my desk at the moment is his work Tríptico Vertical for Soprano and large orchestra, something I am looking to perform with my good friend Chen Reiss.

Garrett Keast
Conductor

Artistic Director of the Berlin Academy of American Music