Since the 2012/2013 season, Christian Thielemann has been principal conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden. Following engagements at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, in Gelsenkirchen, Karlsruhe, Hanover and Dusseldorf, he moved in 1998 to Nuremberg to assume the post of music director. In 1997 he returned to his hometown of Berlin to direct the Deutsche Oper until 2004, when he became music director of the Munich Philharmonic, a post he held until 2011.
Thielemann maintains close ties to the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic, whose New Year’s Concert he conducted in 2019. Following his debut at the Bayreuth Festival in 2000, he has returned every year to thrill audiences with benchmark interpretations.
In addition, he has been invited to conduct the leading orchestras of Europe, the United States, Israel and Asia.
In addition to his current position in Dresden, Thielemann has been artistic director of the Salzburg Easter Festival from 2013 to 2022. After serving five years as the festival’s musical adviser, he became its music director from 2015 to 2020.
As a UNITEL exclusive artist, Thielemann has a comprehensive catalog of recordings. His most recent projects with the Staatskapelle have been to record the symphonies of Anton Bruckner and Robert Schumann, Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, as well as numerous operas.
Thielemann is an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London, honorary professor at Dresden’s Carl Maria von Weber College of Music and holds honorary doctorates from the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar and the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. In 2003, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In May 2015, he received the Richard Wagner Prize from the Richard Wagner Society of Leipzig, followed by the Prize of the Semperoper Trust in October 2016 and an honorary award of the state of Salzburg in April 2022.
Fall 2022
Please note: Biographies are based on information provided to the CSO by the artists or their representatives. More current information may be available on websites of the artists or their management.
