Ingo Metzmacher

Conductor Ingo Metzmacher has distinguished himself through his innovative programming and profound dedication to twentieth and twenty-first century music; to make the new sound familiar and the familiar sound new has been Metzmacher’s focus since the beginning of his career. Metzmacher is Artistic Director of the KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen in Hanover. He was General Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera from 1997 to 2005, Chief Conductor of the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam from 2005 to 2007 and Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin from 2007 to 2010. Highlights of recent seasons include new productions of operas by Nono, Rihm and Enescu at the Salzburg Festival as well as the world premiere of Staud’s Die Weiden at the Vienna State Opera, new productions of Strauss‘ Salome at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Enescus Œdipe and Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in Paris and Braunfelds Die Vögel (The Birds) at the Bavarian State Opera. He returned to The Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker and Ensemble Modern among others. As part of the KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen he conducted Schoenberg‘s Gurre-Lieder, Goebbels‘ Surrogate Cities, Berlioz‘ Requiem and the world premiere of Andre‘s rwḥ 1–4. Metzmacher has led productions at many of the great international opera houses including the Vienna State Opera, La Scala, Teatro Real, Opéra de Paris and the Zurich Opera House, and has conducted leading orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Metzmacher’s wide-ranging discography includes live recordings of his legendary New Year’s Eve concerts in Hamburg from 1999 to 2004 entitled Who’s Afraid of 20th Century Music?, a complete recording of Hartmann’s symphonies with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the world premiere of Henze’s Ninth Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic, Messiaen’s Eclairs sur l'Au-delà… with the Vienna Philharmonic. Most recently, he released two recordings with Ensemble Modern: Andre’s cycle riss and Beschenkt – 40 miniatures celebrating the ensembles 40th anniversary. He is the author of two books: Keine Angst vor neuen Tönen [Don’t Be Afraid of New Sounds]
and Vorhang auf! Oper entdecken und erleben [Curtain Up! Discovering and Experiencing Opera].