In demand as a distinguished guest conductor with the finest orchestras and opera houses throughout the world, Christoph Eschenbach began his tenure in  September 2010 as Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra as well as  Music Director of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. Since his appointment to these positions in 2008, he has played a key role in planning future seasons, international festivals and special projects for these two prestigious institutions.  

Highlights of 2014 and 2015 seasons as a conductor includes engagements in the United States with the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Throughout these seasons, Mr. Eschenbach will appear as Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra, conducting a variety of programs in the Kennedy Center, including a special performance of Die Rosenkavalier with Rene Fleming in Spring 2014. He will also return to the Houston Symphony for a performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 8, the "Symphony of a Thousand."  

In Europe he will perform with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Münchner Philharmoniker, the Dresden Staatskapelle at the occasion of the Salzburg Easter Festival, the Deutsche Symphonie Orchester Berlin, the Filarmonica della Scalla in Milan and the Czech Philharmonic in Prag.  

The Orchestre de Paris he led as Music Director between 2000 and 2010, the Norddeutscher Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester, where he was also Music Director from 1998 to 2004, the Bamberger Symphoniker, the National Spanish Orchestra, l'Orchestre National de France, the orchestra of the Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome will also welcome Maestro Eschenbach this season. In December 2014 he will have the pleasure to come back to China to conduct in Beijing the NCPA orchestra.  

In the Opera repertoire Mr. Eschenbach will conduct the Mozart The Magic Flute and Idomeneo at the Vienna State Opera and, with Don Giovanni, he will continue the Mozart Da Ponte cycle he initiated the previous season at the Salzburg Summer Festival.  

He will tour in Europe with the Wiener Philharmoniker, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and take part, as every season since 1999, to the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival.  

Mentored by George Szell and Herbert von Karajan, Mr. Eschenbach held the posts of Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Tonhalle Orchestra from 1982 to 1986; Music Director of the Houston Symphony from 1988 to 1999; Music Director of the Ravinia Festival from 1994 to 2003; and Artistic Director of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival from 1999 to 2002. His many honors include the Légion d’Honneur; Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; the Officer's Cross with Star and Ribbon of the German Order of Merit; and the Commander's Cross of the German Order of Merit for outstanding achievements as pianist and conductor. He also received the Leonard Bernstein Award from the Pacific Music Festival, where he was co-artistic director from 1992 to 1998.