Friedrich Praetorius

The unpretentious young conductor from Leipzig with a spectacularly confident beating clearly has a very precise idea of how Bruckner should sound, how it should develop, how all the beautiful and most beautiful passages can be turned into an architecturally convincing work. Secondly, and this is even more remarkable, he also knows exactly how to rehearse and what to show in concert. Leipziger Volkszeitung, 7/10/2024

Extraordinary and remarkable - there is no other way to describe the development and career start of the young conductor Friedrich Praetorius. After completing his studies at the Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar, he is now working as Kapellmeister and assistant to Donald Runnicles at the Deutsche Oper Berlin since the current season, where he conducts La Bohème, La Traviata, Rigoletto, Hansel and Gretel, Die Zauberflöte and Il Barbiere di Siviglia, among others. As a student of Nicolás Pasquet and Ekhart Wycik in Weimar and at the Conservatorio di Milano Giuseppe Verdi with Daniele Agiman, Friedrich Praetorius was already engaged as Kapellmeister at the German National Theatre Weimar and at the Theatre Chemnitz, where he conducted new productions of Der Silbersee, Sleepless and Rigoletto. He has also conducted performances at the Landestheater Coburg and the Musikalische Komödie Leipzig, as well as assisting and conducting at the Leipzig Opera, the Meininger Staatstheater and the Conservatorio di Giuseppe Verdi Milano.

He has also worked with the WDR and MDR Symphony Orchestras, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Jena Philharmonic and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi. Marc Albrecht, Christian Thielemann, Johannes Schlaefli, Ole Kristian Ruud, Arthur Fagen and Stefan Blunier provided him with important impulses. 

Friedrich Praetorius is also already gaining valuable experience as a festival director: Since 2023, he has been both chief conductor and artistic director of the Summer Music Academy Hundisburg Castle in Saxony-Anhalt.

He has attracted attention with several first prizes at national and international competitions, including the 10th Competition for Opera Conductors Orvieto (Italy), the 11th Conducting Competition of the Central German Music Academies and the 1st International Conducting Competition at the University of Almería (Spain), where he also received the orchestra prize. He is also second prize winner at CAMPUS DIRIGIEREN 2022 and has been supported by the German Music Council's Forum Dirigieren concert funding programme since 2023.

Born into a family of musicians in Lutherstadt Wittenberg in 1996 and raised in Leipzig from the age of nine, Friedrich Praetorius received his first musical training in the Thomanerchor. In addition to singing and instrumental lessons (piano and cello), this later included conducting lessons, which he was able to put into practice as a prefect. His time with the Thomanerchor Leipzig shaped him as a person and musician: a self-confident, enthusiastic and inspiring team player with a special understanding of vocal requirements. 

Season 2024/2025

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