Contact
Kerstin Altka@karstenwitt.com+49 30 214 594-235
Heike Wilmshw@karstenwitt.com+49 30 214 594-236
General Management
Michael Wendeberg conducts the new production of Paderewski's opera Manru in Halle from 19 March - a video of the premiere is now available online.
Before his career as a conductor, Michael Wendeberg was a member of the Ensemble Intercontemporain as a pianist and worked closely with Pierre Boulez. On the fifth anniversary of Boulez’ death, his complete recording of the composer's piano works were released.
Michael Laurello, A Matter of Indescribable Heartbreak
Michael Wendeberg, conductor
Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz
Ensemble Repercussion, percussion ensemble
Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Manru
Staatskapelle Halle
Katharina Kastening, stage direction
Aribert Reimann, Ein Traumspiel
Keith Warner, stage direction
Claude Debussy (Bearbeitung: Jean-Efflam Bavouzet), Jeux
György Kurtág, Játékok
Igor Strawinsky, Le sacre du printemps - version for piano 4 hands
Michael Wendeberg, piano
Nicolas Hodges, piano
Olivier Messiaen, Coleurs de la Cité Celeste
Olivier Messiaen, 'Le Courlis cendré' for piano solo from: Catalogue d'oiseaux Livre 7
Olivier Messiaen, Oiseaux exotiques for piano and chamber orchestra
Ueli Wiget, piano
Ensemble Modern
Hochschulorchester der HfMDK, orchestra
Giuseppe Verdi, Rigoletto
Louisa Proske, stage direction
Isabel Mundry, Endless Sediments for chamber orchestra
Philipp C. Mayer, Dear Haunting for Orchestra
Isabel Mundry, Gesture for Viola and Orchestra
Claude Debussy, Games
Nils Mönkemeyer, viola
The Tokyo Symphony Orchestra
Isabel Mundry, composition
Michael Wendeberg’s interpretation was gripping, with sharp and accurate dotted notes and impactful climaxes, yet also with room for rest and contemplation. Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, 19/02/2020
Classical repertoire – from Bach to Schoenberg – comes to conductor and pianist Michael Wendeberg with just as much ease as his dedicated work with new music. As of 2020/21 he has been appointed Chief Conductor Opera at the Bühnen Halle (Saale), where he has held the position of “Erster Kapellmeister” since 2016. In the current season he is conducting first performances of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, and Paderewski‘s Manru among others.
Michael Wendeberg has conducted renowned orchestras and ensembles including the Staatskapelle Berlin, WDR Symphony Orchestra, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra Ljubljana, Klangforum Wien, Remix Ensemble Porto, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, and the Basel Sinfonietta. He has made guest appearances at the Lucerne Festival, Munich Biennale, Bregenz Festival, Venice Biennale, ECLAT Festival Stuttgart, Ultraschall Berlin Festival, and Klangspuren Schwaz, as well as at Wien Modern. He made his debuts with the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the Ensemble Modern and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra at the Beethovenfest Bonn and with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin at the Acht Brücken Festival Cologne. He served as Music Director of the Ensemble Contrechamps in Geneva from 2011 to 2018.
In the 2021/22 season, concerts with Ensemble Modern will take him to Frankfurt, s’Hertogenbosch, and Prague, as well as for Messiaen’s Turangalîila with the Solvenian Philharmonic to Ljubljana. He will give his house debut at the Semperoper Dresden with the world premiere of Torsten Rasch’s Die andere Frau and will lead the Staatskapelle Halle in several concerts including one with Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3 and Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony.
His opera repertoire ranges from Handel's Orlando to Mozart, Beethoven, Donizetti, Verdi, Bizet, Puccini, Strauss, and Britten, and includes numerous world premieres. In 2017 he returned to the Staatsoper Berlin for performances of Die Zauberflöte and for a new production of Aribert Reimann's Gespenstersonate. In Halle, he conducted Beethoven’s Fidelio, Verdi’s Aida, Puccini’s Tosca, as well as the premieres of Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos among others.
As a pianist, Michael Wendeberg has won several national and international piano competitions and performed as a soloist at renowned festivals and with prestigious orchestras under conductors such as Jonathan Nott, Marek Janowski, and Daniel Barenboim. From 2000 to 2005 he was a member of the Ensemble intercontemporain and worked closely with György Kurtag and Pierre Boulez. In 2015 he appeared with Boulez’s complete works for piano as part of celebrations at the Staatsoper Berlin and in 2018 at the Boulez Saal, in 2021 a CD production of the complete sonatas was released on the lable bastille musique.
Michael Wendeberg studied piano with Markus Stange, Bernd Glemser, and Benedetto Lupo, and conducting in Toshiyuki Kamioka’s masterclass in Saarbrücken. During this time, he worked as Toshiyuki Kamioka’s assistant at the Wuppertaler Bühnen. After graduating, Michael Wendeberg held positions at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, Lucerne Theatre, and the Staatsoper Berlin, where he assisted Daniel Barenboim and guest conductors such as Pierre Boulez and Sir Simon Rattle.
Season 2021/22
This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unless expressly authorised by the artist management.
CONDUCTED PROGRAMME 1
CONDUCTED PROGRAMME 2
PIANO PROGRAMME 1
PIANO PROGRAMME 2
On Ein Traumspiel at Halle Opera“In the pit, the music is in the best hands with Michael Wendeberg. What he makes of the score with the Staatskapelle is of captivatingly clear transparency.“
nmz, Joachim Lange, 10/5/2022
On Manru at Halle Opera“The orchestra's precise articulation, the sense of overriding formal progressions, the plasticity of the permanently blossoming sound images are all captivating.“
Opernwelt, Jürgen Otten, May 2022
“Conductor Michael Wendeberg powerfully brings the music to the foreground.“
Concerti, André Sperber, 21/3/2022
On Tristan and Isolde at Halle Opera“In the prelude, the orchestra and conductor are projected onto dividing stage curtains. So you can see that the fabulous Michael Wendeberg gets along without notes or a podium. The orchestra that will one day secure him as GMD can count itself lucky - in Halle he has the status of a prophet in his own country.“
nmz, Joachim Lange, 8/1/2022
“The Staatskapelle Halle plays in outstanding form both in the details and in the musical climaxes and in the great arcs - from the quiet very calm beginning of the prelude to the magnificent Liebestod - under the sovereign and extremely secure direction of the acting principal conductor Michael Wendeberg (he would make a terrific GMD), who conducted the huge score from memory.”
Klassik begeistert (Blog), Guido Müller, 6/1/2022
On A Midsummer Night's Dream at Halle Opera“The Staatskapelle played with enchanting precision and, under the baton of Michael Wendeberg, met the special challenge of contributing the atmospheric part of the Gesamtkunstwerk quite brilliantly.”
Concerti, Joachim Lange, 19/9/2021
“Michael Wendeberg and Nicolas Hodges succeed in consistently interesting interpretations because they breathe real life into the pieces. In the early works some emotion penetrates Wendeberg’s sensitive, singing playing.“
Pizzicato, Remy Franck, 18/2/2021 - on the CD Pierre Boulez: Constellation-Miroir
“Boulez specialist and conductor Wendeberg, who worked with the composer himself during his lifetime [...] sets the tone: dynamic, energetic, and assured.”
Tagesspiegel, Christiane Peitz, 21/10/2020 - on the piano duo recital with Nicolas Hodges / Pierre Boulez's Structures
“From the orchestra pit, Michael Wendeberg (who frequently delivers and whom one could well imagine in place of the Staatskapelle's GMD Ariane Matiakh, who seems to again have gone astray) ensured a supple orchestral sound that always supported and spurred on the singers, without falling into a by-the-numbers revue.”
nmz, Joachim Lange, 2/3/2020 - on Don Giovanni (Oper Halle)
“Wendeberg also places special emphasis on the tender and introspective musical passages of this opera. A touching musical interpretation.”
Klassik begeistert, Guido Müller, 29/2/2020
“Michael Wendeberg’s interpretation was gripping, with sharp and accurate dotted notes and impactful climaxes, yet also with room for rest and contemplation.“
Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, 19/2/2020
“With relish, Michael Wendeberg inspires the musicians of the Staatskapelle to traverse both the precision of chamber music and the full opulence of Strauss.”
nmz, Joachim Lange, 24/2/2019
Janáček's piano works | Sonata 1, X. | Oper Halle |
Michael Wendeberg @ Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin 2018
I. Stravinsky: Fire Bird
G. Verdi: Messa da Requiem | Oper Halle
Michael Wendeberg, Nicolas Hodges
destille, 2021, bm16