Michael Wendeberg

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

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