For the conductor and pianist Michael Wendeberg, dealing with the concert repertoire from Bach to Schönberg is as natural as his intensive preoccupation with new and newest music. Since 2016 he has been the principal conductor at Halle Opera, where he will conduct in the 2019/2020 season, among other works, Stravinsky´s “The Firebird“; Mozart´s “Don Giovanni“; and Tchaikovsky´s “Eugene Onegin“ in the concert version. At the same time he is in demand as a guest conductor with renowned orchestras and ensembles, and he has been a conductor for, among others, Staatskapelle Berlin; Junge Deutsche Philharmonie; the Orchestra of the Slovenian Philharmonic; Klangforum Wien; Remix Ensemble Porto; Ensemble Intercontemporain; Ensemble Musikfabrik; and Sinfonietta Basel. He has been a guest with various programs at the Lucerne Festival; the Munich Biennale; the Bregenz Festival; the Venice Biennale; the Eclat Festival Stuttgart; the Ultraschall Festival Berlin; Klangspuren Schwaz: and Wien Modern. Most recently, he made his debut with the Westdeutscher Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra; ensemble Modern; the Mahler Chamber Orchestra at the Beethovenfest Bonn; and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin at the EIGHT BRIDGES | Music for Cologne festival. In April 2018, after seven years as the musical director, he was appointed principal guest conductor of Ensemble Contrechamps in Geneva. Michael Wendeberg studied piano under Markus Stange; Bernd Glemser; and Benedetto Lupo, and studied conducting in Toshiyuki Kamioka´s master class in Saarbrücken. During his studies he worked as an assistant to Toshiyuki Kamioka at Wuppertal Bühnen. He then worked at the Nationaltheater Mannheim; the Lucerne Theater as principal conductor; and at Staatsoper Berlin, where he assisted Daniel Barenboim and guest conductors such as Pierre Boulez and Sir Simon Rattle. His operatic repertoire includes Bizet´s “Carmen“; Britten´s “A Midsummer Night´s Dream“; Händel´s “Orlando“; Mozart´s “Zaide,“ “La Clemenza di Tito“ and “The Magic Flute“; Verdi´s “La Traviata,“ “Un Ballo in Maschera“ and “Il Trovatore“; Donizetti´s “Lucia di Lammermoor“ and “Don Pasquale“; Rossini´s “La Scala di Seta“ and “La Cenerentola“; Humperdinck´s “Hansel and Gretel“; Ponchielli´s “La Gioconda“; Bernstein´s “West Side Story“; and Puccini´s “La Bohéme“ and “Tosca.“ He attracted national attention early on with “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat“ in 2006 in Wuppertal; with the world premiere of “ArbeitNahrungWohnung“ (“WorkNourishmentApartment“) by Enno Poppe in a production by Anna Viebrock at the Munich Biennale in 2008; and with Karl Amadeus Hartmann´s “Des Simplicius Simplicissimus Jugend“ (“Of Simplicius Simplicissimus´ Youth“), directed by Thomas Fiedler in 2010 in Zurich. In 2016 he conducted the world premiere of the opera “Die Andere“ (“The Other“) by Sidney Corbett in Magdeburg. He also returned in 2017 to the Staatsoper Berlin for performances of “The Magic Flute“ and for a new production of Aribert Reimann´s “Ghost Sonata.“ In Halle last season he conducted, among other productions, Strauss´ “Ariadne auf Naxos“; Weber´s “Der Freischütz“; and Meyerbeer´s “L´Africaine.“ As a pianist Michael Wendeberg has won several international competitions, and he has performed as a soloist with renowned orchestras conducted by, among others, Jonathan Nott; Marek Janowski; and Daniel Barenboim. From 2000 to 2005 he performed as a pianist with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, and he worked intensively with Pierre Boulez. As previously with the Festtage der Staatsoper Berlin in 2015, in 2018 he performed Boulez´s complete works for piano, this time at Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, and he recorded the performance for a CD production. At the beginning of the season 2019/2020 he toured with Ensemble Modern and performed at Klangspuren Schwaz and in Shanghai. In addition, once again he is conducting concerts with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, and he has rejoined the Westdeutscher Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra. He was a guest performer with the Südwestrundfunk Symphony Orchestra at the Eclat Festival Stuttgart, and he will launch a new opera by the composer Ole Hübner at the Munich Biennale. In August 2020 he will conduct the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra as part of the summer festival at Suntory Hall, featuring a new viola concert by Isabel Mundry for the soloist Nils Mönkemeyer.
