Biography
A conductor whose international reputation is built on repertoire of unusual stylistic diversity. Frank Strobel has long been recognised as a leading figure in the space where film meet music. In particular, he has played a crucial role in bringing film concerts into leading opera houses and concert halls.
As a guest conductor Frank Strobel conducts both film concerts and symphonic repertoire with orchestras such as the Filarmonica della Scala, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, HR-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, London Symphony Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National Capitole Toulouse ,Orchestre National de Radio France, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Orchestre National de Belgique, Philharmonia Orchestra, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Seattle Symphony, Staatskapelle Dresden, Sydney Symphony, ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. He is curating film symphonic concert series at the Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Tonhalle Zürich. Frank Strobel held recently the position as Chief Conductor of the WDR Funkhausorchester.
The 2025/26 season includes a tribute to Ennio Morricone, featuring both symphonic and symphonic film with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin at the Philharmonie Berlin. At the Philharmonie in Paris Frank Strobel conducts the Orchestre de Paris with the French premiere of Bram Stoker's Dracula and music by Wojciech Kilar. In Los Angeles at the iconic United Theater on Broadway, he will perform Phantom of the Opera with the score by Roy Budd and the LA Opera Orchestra. Celebrating the centennial of Richard Strauß‘ score for Der Rosenkavalier, Frank Strobel appears at the Liederhalle Stuttgart. The cycle Die Nibelungen takes him to the Konzerthaus Vienna, conducting the ORF Radio-Sinfonieorchester. At the Philharmonie in Luxemburg and in Monaco, he appears with Hitchcocks’ Blackmail in collaboration with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo respectively. With the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich Frank Strobel performs Blancanieves at the Tonhalle Zurich and with the HR-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt Frank Strobel will appear in a symphonic programme at the Alte Oper Frankfurt.
Frank Strobel has been particularly at home in the French music scene for some time. In July 2024, the premiere of Abel Gance's Napoléon epic took place in its’ entirety at the Seine Musicale in Paris, lasting a total of seven hours in two parts, directed by Strobel. The Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Choeur de Radio France performed this exceptional symphonic film concert with a revised compilation by Simon Cloquet- Lafollye, incorporating a vast collection of classical scores from Mozart to Wagner. In 2023 he premiered also in Paris together with the Orchestre National de France the new score by David Hudry for Berlin. Symphony of a big city. Later on the premiere of the film concert with the feature film Kaamelott: Premier Volet by producer, actor and composer Alexandre Astier took place with the Orchestre National de Lyon. Another premiere was the film music concert Chaplin in Concert. With a smile under his direction at the Philharmonie de Paris with the Orchestre de Paris. Frank Strobel is also a repeated guest at the Festival Lumière. Grand Lyon Film Festival. In February 2021, he conducted at the Victoires de la Musique.
Another important French film concert project came to fruition at the Musikfest Berlin and at the Festival Lumière in Lyon in 2019: Abel Gance’s seven-hour silent epic La Roue, with a score specially assembled from 117 works written by French composers between 1880 and 1920. Having reconstructed Sergei Prokofiev’s music for Eisenstein’s films Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible, Strobel conducted the first performances of his realisations at the Musikfest Berlin. In 2008 an original copy of Metropolis was discovered in Buenos Aires; two years later a fully restored version of the film was premiered at the Berlinale, with Frank Strobel conducting the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. In 2006 at Dresden’s Semperoper he conducted the Staatskapelle Dresden to accompany a reconstruction of the film of Der Rosenkavalier with Richard Strauss’s original music.
Beyond the world of film music, Frank Strobel has achieved international recognition for his first performances and revivals of works by Alfred Schnittke, Franz Schreker, Alexander von Zemlinsky und Siegfried Wagner. The great Russian composer Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) found Frank Strobel congenial, considering him an ideal interpreter of his works. Strobel now retains the adaptation rights for Schnittke’s music.
In 2000 Frank Strobel co-founded the Europäische FilmPhilharmonie, an institution dedicated to the artistic development of music and film in the concert hall. Of special significance in this context was Strobel’s role as an adviser to the TV station ZDF/ARTE on its’ programming of silent films and this has resulted in notable performances of silent films to the accompaniment of legendary musical works.
Within his vast discography the CD series of first recordings with film suites by Alfred Schnittke, arranged by Frank Strobel and realised with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin were received to great critical acclaim. The fifth release of this series received an Opus Klassik Award in 2022.
2025/2026
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