Since his debuts with Sir Simon Rattle, Magdalena Kožená and the Berlin Philharmonic and also at the Salzburg Festspiele, Christian Schmitt has been one of the world’s most sought-after organists. During the 2021/22 season, he will be the ‚Artist in Focus‘ of the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich. Since 2014 he has been curating an organ series at the Bamberg Concert Hall as the ›Principal Organist‹ of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. Recent international concert highlights include his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Japanese premiere of Toshio Hosokawa’s ‚Embrace – Light and Shadow‘ with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. In addition, Christian Schmitt has given recitals at the Bachfest Leipzig, at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and has played the organs of international concert halls from Vienna to Montréal. He has worked with many renowned conductors including Christoph Eschenbach, Daniel Barenboim, Philippe Herreweghe, Jakub Hruša, Marek Janowski and Manfred Honeck.
As a supporter of new organ music, Christian Schmitt regularly plays works by composers of the 20th and 21st centuries and combines contemporary compositions with works by composers such as Bach and Schumann.
Since the winter semester of 2021, he has been Organ Professor at Codarts University Rotterdam and successor to Ben van Oostens.