Johannes Klumpp

From the very first beat, this interpretation was fueled with ever-increasing emotion that built  to great suspense. In this way, the conductor gave the instrumental first part a vibrant mobility, sparking much enthusiasm. Scherzo

In creative partnership with the orchestra, Johannes Klumpp develops unique programmes from late baroque to classical modernism that thrill audiences. Since the 2013/14 season, he has worked with the young musicians of the Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen as its chief conductor and artistic director. Klumpp has also developed innovative programme formats through the “ExtraKlang” series – held at the UNESCO World Heritage Site Zeche Zollverein – collaborating with such well-known German cultural figures as the publicist Roger Willemsen, the actor Rufus Beck, and the Oscar-nominated composer and pianist Hauschka.

Johannes Klumpp has cultivated a busy calendar of performances with prominent orchestras including the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Düsseldorf Symphony, Dresdner Philharmonie, WDR Funkhausorchester Köln, Staatsorchester Stuttgart, the Munich, Stuttgart and Nuremberg Symphonies, Russian Philharmonic Orchestra and Kammerakademie Potsdam. His latest release with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and the bassoonist Matthias Rácz with works by Françaix, Tomasi, Jolivet and Villa-Lobos was critically acclaimed.

His appearances in the opera house have also been highly praised, with critics calling him a “conductor-of-singers par excellence.” Most recently, his Figaro at the Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck in winter 2016/17 attracted great attention. The conductor feels an especially close connection to the works of Mozart, but since his time as First Kapellmeister of the Musiktheater im Revier Geselkirchen, he has also developed a wide-ranging theatrical repertoire including works from Handel’s Flavio and Monteverdi’s Lamenti to Verdi’s Aida, Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor and Gounod’s Faust.

Klumpp also regularly appears in the dual role of conductor and presenter to encourage audiences’ connection with the music. He is convinced that “in this day and age we have to show the way to what we love so much – cross over the threshold.” He also implements this philosophy at the Schloss Hundisburg Summer Music Academy Festival in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, where he was appointed artistic director in 2013. Here, the conductor and his team create outstanding musical experiences in a rural setting, far from cultural centres.

He begins the 2018/19 season at the podium of the Junge Philharmonische Orchester Niedersachsen, followed by return invitations to the Hofer Symphoniker, the Landesjugendorchester Baden-Württemberg, the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra and the Deutsche Philharmonie Merck. Under his direction, the Philharmonie Südwestfalen will give its important New Year's concert series in the regoin. In spring 2019, Johannes Klumpp will make his debut with the Dresden Festival Orchestra as part of a guest performance in Bogota.

Born in Stuttgart, Johannes Klumpp learnt his trade under Prof. Nicolás Pasquet and Prof. Gunter Kahlert in Weimar alongside viola studies and first attracted international attention when he won second prize in the International Conducting Competition in Besançon in 2007. This was followed by further awards at the German conservatoire competition “in memoriam Herbert von Karajan”, in which he won both the first and special prizes, and at the German Conducting Competition in 2011. Masterclasses with renowned conductors such as Kurt Masur, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Michail Jurowski rounded off his artistic training, during which he was a scholarship-holder of the German Music Council’s conductors’ development programme “Maestros of Tomorrow”.    

2018/19 season

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