Sébastian Jacot wins audition for the position of principal flute

The Berliner Philharmoniker has a new principal flute: Sébastian Jacot, currently principal flute of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, won the audition on 27 May. Congratulations! The Geneva-born musician succeeds Mathieu Dufour, who will leave the orchestra at the end of the 2021/22 season.

Sébastian Jacot comes from a family of musicians and studied at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique de Genève under Jacques Zoon. He began his orchestral career in 2006 as assistant principal flute with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Further stations in his career included principal positions at the Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto, Japan, and with the Ensemble Contrechamps in Geneva before joining the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig in November 2015. Sébastian Jacot, a winner of several international competitions, including the ARD Music Competition, is also a keen chamber musician and performs as a soloist with orchestras such as the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève and the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra.

Since March 2022, three other musicians have won auditions for the Berliner Philharmoniker: Tobias Reifland from Stuttgart, principal violist of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks since 2020, has been offered a position in the viola section. Bertold Stecher, who comes from South Tyrol and is principal trumpet of Deutsche Oper Berlin, joins the Berliner Philharmoniker as 2nd trumpet. The position of principal timpanist was won by Vincent Vogel from Vienna. A student of Rainer Seegers and former scholarship holder of the Karajan Academy, he has been principal timpanist of the Staatskapelle Halle since 2019.