The work of the conductor Ingo Metzmacher is characterized by his consistent dedication to music of the 20th and 21st centuries, and by his innovative programming. His great passion is to make the new sound familiar and the familiar sound new.
Since 2016 Ingo Metzmacher has been the artistic director of the KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen. From 2007 to 2010 he was artistic director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; previously he was chief conductor at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam and general music director at the Hamburg State Opera.
He works regularly with prestigious orchestras such as the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Highlights of the 2023/24 season include appearances with the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, the Radio Philharmonisch Orkest, the Oslo Philharmonic, the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the WDR Symphony Orchestra and Klangforum Wien. He also conducts Albéric Magnard’s Guercoeur at the Opéra national du Rhin, Bernstein’s Mass with the NDR Radio Philharmonic as part of the KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen, and the closing concert of the Donaueschinger Musiktage.
In recent years he has inspired audiences as the conductor of Salzburg Festival’s productions of Rihm’s Die Eroberung von Mexico, Enescu’s Œdipe and Nono’s Intolleranza 1960 and Verdi’s Falstaff. He conducted the world premiere of Johannes Maria Staud’s Die Weiden at the Vienna State Opera, along with new productions of Salome at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Œdipe and Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at the Paris Opéra and Braunfels’s Die Vögel at the Bavarian State Opera.
His extensive discography includes a complete recording of Hartmann’s symphonies with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the world premiere of Henze’s Ninth Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic and Messiaen’s Éclairs sur l’Au-delà… . Most recently he has recorded Mark Andre’s cycle riss and the album Beschenkt with the Ensemble Modern.
Ingo Metzmacher is the author of the books Keine Angst vor neuen Tönen (Don’t Be Afraid of New Sounds) and Vorhang auf! Oper entdecken und erleben (Curtain Up! Discovering and Experiencing Opera).
