Mats Thiersch (b. 2003) is a German conductor and since September 2026 assistant conductor with the Berliner Philharmoniker for Kirill Petrenko and conducting fellow in the Karajan-Academy. Despite his young age, he has already collaborated with several prestigious ensembles, including the Orchestre National de Lille, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, and the Gstaad Festival Orchestra.

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Future highlights include debuts with the NDR Radiophilharmonie, the RTVE Symphony Orchestra in Madrid, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, and the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto. He will also serve as assistant conductor to Joseph Bastian for Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos at the Opéra de Dijon. Most recently, in June 2026, he took part in Paavo Järvi's Conductors' Academy with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, followed by a conducting-seminar fellowship at Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony Orchestra later that summer.

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Thiersch began his musical journey at the age of six with the violin, later expanding his studies to include piano and composition. In 2021, he began studying composition under Miroslav Srnka at the University of Music and Dance Cologne (HfMT Köln). His original works have been performed by renowned groups such as Ensemble Musikfabrik and have earned him prestigious accolades, including the Composition Prize of the German Orchestra Foundation (Deutsche Orchester-Stiftung).

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In 2024, he was invited to the renowned Gstaad Conducting Academy, where he studied with Johannes Schlaefli and Jaap van Zweden. He is currently one of the six semi-finalists in the 80th Concours de Genève (Conducting Competition, November 2026). Since 2023, Thiersch has been continuing his conducting studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris in the class of Alain Altinoglu and from 2024 to 2026, served as Music Director of the Orchestre et Chœur Symphonique du COGE (Chœurs et Orchestres des Grandes Écoles de Paris). He has gained additional artistic insights in masterclasses with distinguished conductors such as Daniele Gatti, Mikko Franck, and Alexandre Bloch.