Christian Pollack has been the musical director of the Wiener Residenzorchester since 2005. Born in Vienna, Christian Pollack studied composition, violin, viola and conducting (with Hans Swarowsky) in Vienna, and starting in 1981, also with Sergiu Celibidache in Munich. He began as a violist, then served as a répétiteur, then director of music in Regensburg, Aachen, and Klagenfurt and at the Wiener Kammeroper. In 1980, he was the assistant to Christoph von Dohnanyi at the Carinthian Summer festival, in 1984 also at the Bregenzer Festspiele.

Starting this year, he has been a frequent guest at the Volksoper Wien. In 1986, he was guest conductor of the Rundfunkorchester des SWR, since 1992 chief conductor of the East Slovakian Philharmonic Kosice, in 1993 he made guest appearances in Colombia, etc. He is active at the opera houses in Essen, Nuremberg and Lucerne, and he also gave concerts in St. Petersburg (with Anna Netrebko), in Washington and in Japan. In addition, he teaches at the Vienna Conservatory and is involved in other musical work, including the encyclopedic edition of Johann Strauss the elder.