Ernst Theis

Ernst Theis (born July 31, 1961 in Sierning ) is an Austrian conductor .

Life

His father Georg Theis comes from near Bistritz in Transylvania and fled to Upper Austria with his parents during World War II . His mother Gertrude Theis comes from Sierning, where he was born. Ernst Theis also spent his childhood there.

His parents recognized his musical talent early on, but did not promote it any more than is customary in rural areas. Until the time of his enrollment at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna , he was engaged in brass music , folk music and pop and rock music in an amateur band. At that time he did not receive any training in a music school or a conservatory. His first musical training as a trumpeter was given by the saxophonist Franz Großauer, who was conductor of the brass band and the youth brass band Sierning when Ernst Theis was young. He also prepared him for the entrance examination to the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Ernst Theis played actively with both wind ensembles for years. Instruments such as drum set and electric guitar autodidact for the band use learned Ernst Theis.

Against the background of his previous musical education, he had to devote himself intensively to his studies in Vienna. From 1979 to 1985 he received musical training as a trumpeter and later as a classical percussionist both in the concert field and in the field of education at the Vienna University of Music (now the Vienna Music University) . The decision in favor of percussion for the time being was not superficially a deliberate one; a medical problem prevented him from continuing his studies in the central artistic subject of trumpet. In the conducting class of Otmar Suitner Theis dealt with the conducting. It was Suitner who suggested that he consider a career as a conductor. In connection with his educational training as an instrument teacher, his interest in music-sociological topics emerged.

During his instrumental training and in the years after that, he worked as an orchestral musician in various Viennese orchestras, founded a percussion ensemble with fellow students who were now members of important Viennese orchestras, and in 1986 he also took over the direction of a class in the central artistic subject of classical percussion at the then conservatory of the city of Vienna .

In 1991 he founded the Austrian Chamber Symphony Orchestra , which he directed artistically and economically until 2003. The focus of this orchestra was initially mainly in the field of contemporary music and classical modernism, later also in the field of Viennese classical music .

In 1996 Ernst Theis stepped in as Kapellmeister at the Vienna Volksoper and directed a performance by Emmerich Kálmán's Csárdásfürstin , whereupon he received a contract as Kapellmeister at this house. There he remained a member of the ensemble until the end of Klaus Bachler's management era .

In the same year he was appointed head of the department for wind instruments and percussion at the Vienna Conservatory . In this role he worked on the accreditation of the Vienna Conservatory as a private university and was intensively involved in a. with topics such as new forms of instrumental training, new forms of instrumental pedagogy training, art and science, the linking of theory and practice in the master’s training area and art-appropriate assessment systems for art universities and with new music. The implementation of the modern internship course dates back to his initiative in the early 2000s. After all, he played a decisive role in the accreditation of the Conservatory as a private university, as can be seen from the initial accreditation notices. He then continued to work as head of the university department for wind instruments and percussion and head of the Modern Internship after the university evaluation, before he left the house in favor of his conducting work.

From 2003 to 2013 Ernst Theis was chief conductor of the Dresden State Operetta . After he resigned from his position in Dresden, he made a number of highly regarded debuts. These included u. a. Performances with orchestras such as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic , the State Philharmonic of Rhineland-Palatinate , the Bochum Symphony , the Munich Radio Orchestra and the Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra . A special novelty is the collaboration with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin , which led to debuts at the Opéra de Dijon , the Konzerthaus Berlin and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam .

plant

During and after his work at the Vienna Volksoper, his artistic activities took him to many international orchestras, where he developed a repertoire that is particularly diverse. During all these years, however, his particular interest in contemporary music and the music of the 20th century remained an important field of his artistic work. He had his inaugural debut with the Duchess of Chicago by Emmerich Kálmán . Theis made it clear that for him, working on the Dresden State Operetta would not primarily be dealing with the well-known works of the genres of game opera, operetta and musical, but would be a central area, like the unknown works of well-known and less well-known composers would.

He subsequently developed projects such as The Unknown Johann Strauss , The German Offenbach and the 2011 Johann Strauss Festival Dresden . The unknown works by Johann Strauss are developed from the scientifically critical edition of the Vienna Johann Strauss Edition; Ernst Theis and the State Operetta cooperate with Edition Keck ( Boosey & Hawkes ) for Offenbach in Germany . The Dresden State Operetta developed artistically and economically positively thanks to the artistic work of Ernst Theis. After it was supposed to be closed in 2003, this year Ernst Theis began his work as chief conductor at this house, the political decision was made in 2011 to build a new theater. This new building is significant for the sustainability of the artistic work of the theater's ensemble and its chief conductor. The new operetta house in the city center opened three years after Theis contract ended in December 2016.

From an artistic point of view, the radio music project , which aims to produce the works composed for this medium for this medium when radio was first created (1923 to 1933), is one of the artist's main areas of activity and is also the subject of his dissertation . He is currently working on this at the Vienna University of Music under the supervision of Alfred Smudits at the Institute for Music Sociology.

Publications

Ernst Theis has released the only complete recording of all Haydn piano concertos for the German label Arts Music as well as a four-part CD series with works of classical modernism such as Erwin Schulhoff , Darius Milhaud , Arthur Honegger and Bohuslav Martinů for the German label cantate-musicaphon .

A cooperation project with Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk , Deutschlandradio Kultur , the Akademie der Künste Berlin and the German label CPO developed from the radio music project , which will publish all productions in this series as CD editions. Volume I was published in May / June 2010 with the work Leben in die Zeit (music by Edmund Nick , text by Erich Kästner ). Volume II was released in October 2014. On the sound carrier are u. a. Radio music by Franz Schreker , Ernst Toch and Walter Braunfels . In March 2015 Ernst Theis presented the RadioMusiken project in the great hall of the Wiener Konzerthaus with works by Kurt Weill .

The project The Unknown Johann Strauss led to the publication of the operetta Das Spitzentuch der Königin in 2009 . The Carneval in Rome was released in 2010 and Prince Methuselah was produced as a complete recording after its premiere on April 23, 2010 in August 2010 and was released in 2012. After the Strauss publications, the artist took on Jacques Offenbach. La Périchole is the first complete German-language recording to be released by CPO in August 2013.

Individual evidence

^ Siebenbürgische Zeitung: Ernst Theis - portrait from August 20, 2003 , accessed on May 23, 2010

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Theis, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Austrian conductor
DATE OF BIRTH	July 31, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH	Sierning

[1] Siebenbürgische Zeitung: Ernst Theis - portrait from August 20, 2003 , accessed on May 23, 2010