Around the Music Festival

Conductor Ingo Metzmacher, artistic director of the Herrenhausen Arts Festival in Hanover, Germany, has announced that he will retire in 2025. Metzmacher has been in his position since 2015, and in stepping down after 10 years in the position, “I want to devote more time to my work as a conductor. His successor has not yet been announced.

Metzmacher was born in Hanover in 1957 and is 66 years old. He received his education in piano, music theory, and conducting in Hanover, Salzburg, and Cologne. He then joined the Frankfurt-based Ensemble Modern in 1980 as a pianist in a chamber ensemble specializing in the interpretation of contemporary Music.

His conducting career began around 1985, and in 1987 he made his operatic debut at the Frankfurt City Opera. In 1994, he conducted the premiere of the revised version of Hans Werner Henze’s Symphony No. 6, and in 1997, he gave the world premiere of Symphony No. 9 at the composer’s request.

In 1997, he became the general music director of the Hamburg State Opera. In 2005, after his retirement, he was named “Opera House of the Year” by the German opera magazine “Opernwelt”. He was subsequently appointed Chief Conductor of the Netherlands National Opera in Amsterdam (2005-2008) and Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin (2007-2012).

Herrenhausen, the site of the festival, is a baroque garden created in the 1700s by Sophie von der Pfalz, wife of the Elector of Hanover. Since the time of Metzmacher, the second artistic director of the festival, the festival has been held at venues in the city in addition to the garden.

PHOTO：NDR　/　Susann Ziegler


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