Michael Wendeberg

Classical repertoire – from Bach to Schönberg – comes just as naturally to Michael Wendeberg as his passion for new music. He is especially eager to change the way contemporary repertoire and music is seen and heard through comparing and correlating different music traditions.

He is pursuing this approach in particular in his current position as musical director of the Ensemble Contrechamps in Geneva, which he has held since 2011. Michael Wendeberg has also conducted renowned orchestras and ensembles that include the Staatskapelle Berlin, WDR Symphony Orchestra, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra Ljubljana, Klangforum Wien, Remix Ensemble Porto, Musikfabrik Cologne, Neue Vokalsolisten Stuttgart and the Basel Sinfonietta. He has made guest appearances at the Lucerne Festival, Munich Biennale, Bregenz Festival, Venice Biennale, Eclat Festival Stuttgart and Klangspuren Schwaz, as well as at Wien Modern and Musica de hoy Madrid with a variety of programmes.

Michael Wendeberg studied conducting in Toshiyuki Kamioka’s masterclass in Saarbrücken, and piano with Markus Stange, Bernd Glemser and Benedetto Lupo. 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 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. His opera repertoire from this time comprises, among others, Bizet’s Carmen, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Handel’s Orlando, Mozart’s Zaide, Clemenza di Tito and The Magic Flute, Verdi’s La Traviata and Il Trovatore, Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor and Don Pasquale, Rossini’s La Scala di Seta and La Cenerentola, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, Ponchielli’s La Gioconda and Bernstein’s West Side Story.

In freelance music theatre projects Michael Wendeberg always cultivates a close working relationship with the directing team. He gained national recognition early on in his career in 2006 with The man who mistook his wife for a hat by Michael Nyman in Wuppertal, with the world premiere of ArbeitNahrungWohnung by Enno Poppe in a production by Anna Viebrock in 2008 at the Munich Biennale, and with Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s Des Simplicius Simplicissimus Jugend, which was staged by the director Thomas Fiedler in Zurich in 2010. In 2016 he led the world premiere of Sidney Corbett’s opera Die Andere at the Magdeburg Theatre.

As a pianist Michael Wendeberg 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 until 2005 he was a member of the Ensemble intercontemporain and worked intensively with Pierre Boulez. He recently performed the late composer’s complete works for piano during his 90^th birthday celebrations at the Berlin State Opera in 2015.    

In the 2016/17 season Michael Wendeberg will stand on the podium of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, make his debut with the Ensemble Modern and return to the Staatsoper Berlin for the revival of The Magic Flute and a new production of Aribert Reimann’s Gespenstersonate. Starting in summer 2016, he also holds the position of “Erster Kapellmeister” of the Halle Opera. 

2016/17 Season

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