David Afkham
David Afkham is a German conductor.Biography
Afkham was born in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, and started his music education at age 15 at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, where he studied piano with James Avery. In 2002 he won the Jugend Musiziert competition. In 2007 he finished his conducting studies with Nicolás Pasquet at the Hochschule für Musik "Franz Liszt" in Weimar.
In 2008 Afkham won the first prize of the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition and became the assistant conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, assisting Valery Gergiev. Since 2010 he is also the assistant conductor of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra.
He has conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, Chicago Civic Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar, Bamberg Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Staatskapelle Weimar, as well as assistant to Bernard Haitink with the Royal Concertgebouw and Chicago Symphony orchestras, assistant guest conductor of the Baden-Wurttemberg Youth Orchestra, and principal conductor of the KHG-Symphony-Orchestra Freiburg.
He is a conducting fellow of the Richard Wagner Association in Bayreuth, Germany.
Since 2014 he is the main conductor of the Orquesta Nacional de España.
One of his siblings is Micha Afkham, violist with the Berlin Philharmonic.
