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 just as naturally to conductor and pianist Michael Wendeberg as his passion for new music. As of 2020/21 he has been appointed Chief Conductor Opera at the Bühnen Halle, where he has held the position of “Erster Kapellmeister” since 2016. In the current season he is conducting first performances of Janáček’s Jenůfa and Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde among others.

Michael Wendeberg has conducted renowned orchestras and ensembles including the Staatskapelle Berlin, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra Ljubljana, Klangforum Wien, Remix Ensemble Porto, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Musikfabrik Cologne 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 2020/21 season, concerts with Ensemble Modern will take him to Prague, for Messiaen’s Turangalîila with the Solvenian Philharmonic to Ljubljana and with the WDR Symphony Orchestra to Witten. In 2021 he will lead the rescheduled world premiere of Alexander Moosbrugger’s WIND as the workshop production at the Bregenz Festival. Also rescheduled was his debut with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra as part of Suntory Hall’s Summer Festival with Debussy’s Jeux alongside a new viola concerto by Isabel Mundry for soloist Nils Mönkemeyer.

His opera repertoire ranges from Handel's Orlando to Mozart, Beethoven, Donizetti, Verdi, Bizet, Puccini, Strauss and Britten, and includes numerous world premieres. He attracted national attention early in his career with the world premiere of Enno Poppe's ArbeitNahrungWohnung in a production by Anna Viebrock at the Munich Biennale in 2008. 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 Weber’s Freischütz and Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine, as well as the premieres of Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos and Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

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 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, a CD production of the complete sonatas is also soon to be released on the lable bastille.

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 and the Staatsoper Berlin, where he assisted Daniel Barenboim and guest conductors such as Pierre Boulez and Sir Simon Rattle, and was principal conductor at the Lucerne Theater.

2021/21 season

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