Gerd Schaller

Gerd Schaller
Conductor Gerd Schaller
Born	1965 Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany
Alma mater	Würzburg College of Music,
Occupation	Conductor of classical music
Years active	1993–present
Known for	Complete Bruckner symphonies; first recordings of rare works
Website	gerd-schaller.de

Gerd Schaller (born 1965 in Bamberg) is a German conductor, best known for his performing and recording rare works, including the first full recordings of Bruckner's output.

Schaller studied music at the Würzburg College of Music, and medicine at the Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg. He took up his first post at the Hanover Staatsoper in 1993. In 1998 he became principal conductor at the Braunschweig Staatstheater, and was General Music Director at the Magdeburg Opera from 2003 to 2006. Since 2006, he has worked freelance as a guest conductor with numerous orchestras, primarily in Germany, but also in the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania. Schaller's repertoire includes conducting German and Italian works, including those of Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, and Giuseppe Verdi.

In 1990, Schaller established the Ebrach Summer Music Festival in Franconia, and he remains its Artistic Director. The event is staged in collaboration with BR's Studio Franken.

In 2008, Schaller founded the Philharmonie Festiva. Its core of Munich Bach Soloists has been expanded with musicians from across Germany.

In 2016, Gerd Schaller was unanimously selected by the Bruckner Society of America as the recipient of its Julio Kilenyi Medal of Honor.

Schaller is noted for his recordings of all of Anton Bruckner's symphonies, including versions never recorded before, for the Profil label of Edition Günter Hänssler. The recordings have been praised by Ken Ward, editor of The Bruckner Journal, as "a little musical miracle." Music critic David Hurwitz asserts Schaller "really is an excellent Bruckner conductor", and in reviewing Schaller's recording of Bruckner's Fifth Symphony, he states that Schaller, "doesn't put a foot wrong."AllMusic, reviewing a recording of Bruckner's Fourth, Seventh and Ninth Symphonies, notes, "The live performances of all three symphonies by Gerd Schaller and the Philharmonie Festiva are first-rate, with great attention to detail and controlled pacing that give the music propulsive movement and coherence." The same recording of the Fourth, Seventh and Ninth Symphonies was selected by Stereophile magazine in November 2011 as its "Recording of the Month".