Contact
Kerstin Altka@karstenwitt.com+49 30 214 594-235
Heike Wilmshw@karstenwitt.com+49 30 214 594-236
General Management
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 Wendeberg performs works by Jean Barraqué & Hèctor Parra
Michael Wendeberg, piano
SangJin Kim, New work (world premiere)
Hyunsu Kim, New work (world premiere)
Sihyun Uhm, New work (world premiere)
Dabeen Lee, New work (world premiere)
Dieter Ammann, STELLEN
Dieter Ammann, pRESTO sOSTENUTO
Michael Wendeberg, conductor
Ensemble Modern
Ensemble TIMF
Clara Iannotta, They left us grief-trees wailing at the wall
Clara Iannotta, echo from afar (ii)
Márton Illés, New Work (world premiere)
Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart
SWR Experimentalstudio
Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Photoptosis
Bernd Richard Deutsch, Percussion Concerto (world premiere)
Isabel Mundry, Panorama ciego
Dieter Ammann, GLUT
Michael Wendeberg, piano and complete direction
Christoph Sietzen, percussion
hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt
Isabel Mundry, composition
Heitor Villa-Lobos, Amazon Rainforest
Camila Mandillo, soprano
Bianca Dacosta, visuals
Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Musica
Classical repertoire – from Bach to Boulez – comes to conductor and pianist Michael Wendeberg with just as much ease as his dedicated work with new music. Michael Wendeberg opens the 2026/27 season with the Ensemble Modern at the Academy of the Tongyeong International Music Festival, before conducting the ensemble in the world premiere of a new work by Márton Illés at Musikfest Berlin. In November 2026, he appears with the hr-Sinfonieorchester in a programme featuring works by Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Dieter Ammann, the world premiere of a new percussion concerto by Bernd Richard Deutsch with Christoph Sietzen as soloist, and Isabel Mundry's Panorama Ciego, in which he performs at the piano while conducting. In the second half of the season, he returns to Oper Frankfurt for the world premiere of Lucia Ronchetti's Battaglia – die Frauen von Palermo in a production by Claus Guth. Further engagements include concerts with Ensemble PHACE at musikprotokoll Graz and the Vienna Konzerthaus, and with Ensemble Modern at the ECLAT Festival Stuttgart. He also conducts Villa-Lobos' Floresta do Amazonas with the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música. As a pianist, he continues his Berlin cycle of the complete solo piano works of Johannes Brahms throughout the season and, in March 2027, performs Philippe Manoury's Das wohlpräparierte Klavier at the Pierre Boulez Saal.
Michael Wendeberg has conducted renowned orchestras and ensembles including WDR Symphony Orchestra, SWR Symphony Orchestra, MDR Symphony Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, Ensemble intercontemporain, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Basel Sinfonietta, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, and Staatskapelle Berlin. In 2022, Michael Wendeberg made his debut with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra with Debussy's Jeux and the world premiere of Isabel Mundry's Viola Concerto with Nils Mönkemeyer. In 2023 he stood in for Daniel Barenboim at both the piano and the conductor's desk in concerts with works by Mozart, Boulez and Manoury with the Boulez Ensemble in Berlin and at the Philharmonie in Paris. He has made guest appearances at the Lucerne Festival, Munich Biennale, Beethovenfest Bonn, Bregenz Festival, Venice Biennale, ECLAT Festival Stuttgart, Ultraschall Berlin Festival, Acht Brücken Festival Cologne and Klangspuren Schwaz as well as at Wien Modern. He served as Music Director of the Ensemble Contrechamps in Geneva from 2011 to 2018.
Michael Wendeberg’s opera repertoire ranges from Handel's Orlando to Mozart, Beethoven, Donizetti, Verdi, Bizet, Puccini, Strauss, Wagner, and Britten, and includes numerous world premieres. From 2014 to 2017, he conducted several series of Die Zauberflöte at the Berlin State Opera, as well as a new production of Aribert Reimann's Gespenstersonate. In 2022, he gave his debut at the Semperoper Dresden with the world premiere of Torsten Rasch’s Die andere Frau. In 2026, he conducted the world premiere of Sarah Nemtsov's Wir (We) at Theater Dortmund. From 2016 to 2023, he was “Erster Kapellmeister” at the Bühnen Halle (Saale), where he also served as Chief Conductor of the opera from 2020 to 2022. There he conducted premieres of Mozart's Don Giovanni, Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, among others.
Michael Wendeberg studied piano with Markus Stange, Bernd Glemser, Stefan Litwin and Benedetto Lupo, and conducting with Toshiyuki Kamioka. 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.
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 played Boulez’s complete works for piano as part of the easter festival at the Staatsoper Berlin and in 2018 at the Boulez Saal. The Berlin label bastille has released CDs featuring Michael Wendeberg both as a pianist (Boulez's piano works, 2021) and as a conductor (Sur Incises and Eclat-Multiples, 2025).
2026/27
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
"At the conductor’s podium, Michael Wendeberg brings everything together, keeps everything together, and creates an irresistible magnetic pull."
Theaterpur, Christoph Schulte im Walde, 19/5/2026 (on the world premiere of Sarah Nemtsov’s WE at the Theater Dortmund)
“The performance by the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra is, however, unquestionably magnificent, with guest conductor Michael Wendeberg guiding the orchestra through the score with tremendous virtuosity and enthusiasm.”
Concerti, Peter Krause, 15/5/2026
“With virtuosity, Michael Wendeberg emphasizes the individual passages, bringing out delicate, dreamy lyrical lines and allowing his audience to partake in the captivating journey through the varying moods – sometimes playful, sparkling, and at other times full of energy with lively contrasts.“
Schwarzwälder Bote, Ulrike Zimmermann, 10/2/2025 (on a piano recital with Beethoven and Skrjabin)
“The quality of the TLT choir and Tiroler Symphonieorchester remains undisputed, with Michael Wendeberg as a precise conductor, who accentuates and softens in the right places, but also gives the singers the necessary space to shine in the arias.”
Tiroler Tageszeitung, Barbara Unterthurner, 29/4/2024 (on Le Nozze di Figaro at the Tiroler Landestheater)
“The conductor and pianist Michael Wendeberg accompanied all the recitatives with vigour on the fortepiano. Mozart's music was performed in a fresh, direct, virtuosic, and heartfelt manner, stimulating and with tastefully chosen tempi.”
Onlinemerker, Thomas Nußbaumer, 27/4/2024
“[In Mozart's Gran Partita] Wendeberg's conducting is energetic, almost fiery.”
Diapason, Pierre Rigaudière, 5/5/2023
“The orchestra under the sovereign baton of Michael Wendeberg, who stepped in at very short notice, accompanied very sensitively and emphasised the expressive singing in perfect harmony. Already in the first half of the concert, the Philharmonic had produced glowing colours, explored the greatest possible dynamic contrasts, and luxuriated in rich sonority with sweeping gestures."
Weser Kurier, Gerd Klingeberg, 26/2/2023
On Blühen at Frankfurt Opera“The Ensemble Modern under Michael Wendeberg bring Vito Žuraj's music, which is as complex as it is sensuous in every moment, to life and glow.“
BR-KLASSIK, Jörn Florian Fuchs, 23/1/2013
On the opening concert in the Pierre Boulez Saal“Michael Wendeberg is an absolute Boulez expert. He plays not only competently down to the last detail, but also full of wit and irony. I have rarely experienced this notation of Boulez more sensually.“
rbb kulturradio, Andreas Göbel, 6/9/2022
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
Original version in German language. Thomas Mohr, Franziska Krötenheerdt, Romelia Lichtenstein, Gabriella Guilfoil, Levent Bakirci, Chor der Oper Halle, Staatskapelle Halle, Michael Wendeberg
CPO, 2023, 0761203555321
Michael Wendeberg, Nicolas Hodges
destille, 2021, bm16