Christian Thielemann

Biography and career[edit]

Born in West Berlin, Thielemann studied viola and piano there and took private lessons in composition and conducting before becoming répétiteur aged 19 at the Deutsche Oper Berlin with Heinrich Hollreiser^[2] and working as Herbert von Karajan's assistant.^[3] He worked at a number of smaller German theatres including the Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen, in Karlsruhe, Hanover, at Düsseldorf's Deutsche Oper am Rhein as First Kapellmeister and in Nürnberg as Generalmusikdirektor before returning to the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1991 to conduct Wagner's Lohengrin. During this time, he also assisted Daniel Barenboim at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus.


Thielemann made his US debut during the 1991–1992 season in a new production of Strauss' Elektra in San Francisco. Subsequent engagements at the Metropolitan Opera in New York followed. In 1997, he became Generalmusikdirektor of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. A report in 2000 stated that Thielemann was to leave the Deutsche Oper in 2001 over artistic conflicts with the then-incoming artistic director Udo Zimmermann.^[4] Thielemann remained with the company until 2004, when he resigned over conflicts regarding Berlin city funding between the Deutsche Oper and the Staatsoper Unter den Linden.^[5]


Thielemann became principal conductor and music director of the Munich Philharmonic in September 2004. He stepped down from his Munich post in 2011, after disputes with orchestra management over final approval of selection of guest conductors and programs for the orchestra.^[6]


In October 2009, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden announced the appointment of Thielemann as its next chief conductor, effective with the 2012/13 season.^[7] His current contract with Dresden was through 2019.^[8] In November 2017, the Staatskapelle Dresden announced the extension of Thielemann's contract as chief conductor through 31 July 2024.^[9] In 2020, Thielemann was appointed honorary professor at the Carl Maria von Weber Academy of Music in Dresden. ^[10] In May 2021, Barbara Klepsch, the Culture Minister of Saxony, announced that Thielemann is to conclude his tenure with the Staatskapelle Dresden at the close of his current contract, at the end of July 2024.^[11]


Thielemann was artistic director of the Salzburg Easter Festival from 2013 to 2022. In January 2023, Thielemann stepped in as an emergency substitute conductor for Daniel Barenboim in a new production of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. In September 2023, the Berlin Senate and the Staatsoper Unter den Linden announced the appointment of Thielemann as its next Generalmusikdirektor (GMD), effective 1 September 2024.^[1][12][13]


Thielemann has been a regular conductor at the Bayreuth Festival, following his début in 2000 with Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and at the Salzburg Festival.^[14] With the decision in September 2008 of the Richard Wagner Festival Foundation to appoint Katharina Wagner and Eva Wagner-Pasquier to succeed Wolfgang Wagner as directors of the Bayreuth Festival, Thielemann was named musical advisor.^[15] In June 2015, the Bayreuth Festival formally announced the appointment of Thielemann as its music director.^[16] With his conducting of Lohengrin in 2018, Thielemann became the second conductor, after Felix Mottl, to conduct the ten canonical operas by Richard Wagner that are regularly performed at the Bayreuth Festival. Thielemann stood down from the Bayreuth Festival post in 2020.^[13]


In 2003, Thielemann was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz).^[17] In October 2011, he received honorary membership of the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 2015, Thielemann won the Richard Wagner Award (Richard-Wagner-Preis) of Leipzig.^[18] He served in the Humanitas Programme as Visiting Professor in Opera Studies at Oxford University in January 2016. In 2019, he made his first conducting appearance in the New Year's Concert with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra,^[19][20] and returned there to conduct the 2024 concert.^[21]

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