Conductor Ingo Metzmacher has distinguished himself through his innovative programming and profound dedication to twentieth and twenty-first century music; to make the new sound familiar and to make the familiar sound new has been Metzmacher’s focus since the beginning of his career.

Metzmacher’s 2017/2018 season includes Lulu and Elektra at the Vienna State Opera, The Raft of the Medusa at the Dutch National Opera, and Bluebeard’s Castle and La Voix Humaine at Opéra de Paris. He tours with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, and he conducts the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie- Orchester Berlin, and the National Theatre Orchestra Mannheim. In May, he presents the third edition of the KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen under his artistic direction.

Highlights of recent seasons include new productions of operas by Luigi Nono, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, and Wolfgang Rihm at the Salzburg Festival, as well as Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen at the Geneva Opera. Metzmacher has conducted at the great international opera houses including Covent Garden, Zurich Opera House, Teatro Real, La Scala, Opéra de Paris, and the Grand Théâtre de Genève, and the Berlin and Vienna State Operas. He has conducted leading orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Metzmacher was General Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera from 1997 until 2005, where he led a series of internationally-acclaimed productions, many in collaboration with stage director Peter Konwitschny. Subsequently, he became Chief Conductor of the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam. From 2007 to 2010 he was Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.

Metzmacher’s wide discography includes live recordings of his New Year’s Eve concerts in Hamburg from 1999 to 2004 entitled Who’s Afraid of 20th Century Music, a complete recording of Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s symphonies with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the world premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s Ninth Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic, and Olivier Messiaen’s Illuminations of the Beyond… with the Vienna Philharmonic.