Violinist Daniel Hope will succeed Sir Roger Norrington as Music Director of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra (ZKO) from 2016. Under Norrington, who became the Music Director in 2011, the orchestra have made recordings for Sony Classical of Haydn's 'Paris' Symphonies, Mozart's Serenade No 5 and Divertimento No 10 (read the review), and Stravinsky's Dumbarton Oaks and L'Histoire du Soldat Suite (read the review). For Berlin Classics Norrington and the ZKO recorded piano concertos by CPE, JC and JS Bach with soloist Sebastian Knauer (read the review).

Daniel Hope served as the orchestra's Artist-in-Residence this season, made his first appearance with the orchestra in 2006, and he will lead the orchestra from the violin. Hope recently recorded Korngold's Violin Concerto with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Alexander Shelley as part of his 'Escape to Paradise' album. Gramophone's Adrian Edwards wrote of this album: 'At the heart of this disc is his swashbuckling performance of Korngold’s Violin Concerto, where Hope brings off with aplomb the tension between the work’s contrasting lyrical ideas and the electric energy of the virtuoso writing.'

The Director of the ZKO, Michael Bühler, said of Hope's appointment: 'We want to expand our presence on the international music stage. Daniel Hope is a charismatic star violinist, who is also a well known producer, best-selling author and TV presenter, and is at home practically anywhere in the world. This communicative artist has a particularly clear understanding of how to build bridges between genres and generations.'