Gerd Schaller is one of the most significant conductors of the works of Anton Bruckner. In 2008 he founded the Philharmonie Festiva, a symphony orchestra comprising selected musicians from top German orchestras. The music of Anton Bruckner is at the very heart of Gerd Schaller's work; the composer’s combination of profound emotionalism and complexity has fascinated the conductor since his early youth. That fascination has resulted in Schaller’s large-scale project BRUCKNER2024, which aims to record all Bruckner symphonies in all versions. The series has won numerous prizes and awards. One highlight is undoubtedly Schaller's completion, based on the composer's own sketches, of the final movement of the 9th Symphony. Schaller also likes to discover new and unknown repertoire and has been championing the rehabilitation of forgotten works and rare gems such as Carl Goldmark’s opera Merlin, whose modern-day premiere he conducted and whose score he edited. The wide-ranging spectrum of his achievement encompasses works by rarely played composers. In the course of his career Schaller has worked on a vast repertoire ranging from Baroque to present day. He is the Artistic Director of the Ebrach Summer Music Festival, founded by him in 1990, which in recent years has received ever more international critical acclaim precisely on account of Schaller’s enlightened Bruckner readings performed in the ideal acoustics of Ebrach Abbey.