Justus Thorau

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Justus Thorau (* 1986 in Berlin ) is a German conductor and acting general music director at Theater Aachen from summer 2017 to summer 2018 .

Live and act

Thorau grew up in a musical family and received piano and violin lessons at an early age. After completing school and community service , he began studying music at the Liszt School of Music Weimar in 2006 with a focus on conducting under Nicolas Pasquet, Gunter Kahlert and Anthony Bramall . He deepened his skills in numerous master classes with Herbert Blomstedt , Georg Fritzsch , Reinhard Goebel , Bernard Haitink , Mariss Jansons , Markus Poschner and Jukka-Pekka Saraste, among others . In 2010 Thorau was accepted as a scholarship holder of the Conductor Forum of the German Music Council and included in its list of artists "Maestro of Tomorrow".

Thorau already took on his first duties as a conductor as a student and led the Collegium Musicum Weimar and, from 2009 to 2012, the student symphony orchestra of the Catholic University in Freiburg im Breisgau . In 2011 he conducted the opera production Angiolina by Antonio Salieri on the occasion of the Opera Oder-Spree festival .

Thorau got his first permanent job after completing his studies at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe , where he was hired in the 2012/2013 season, initially as a solo repetitor with conducting duties and assistant to the general music director, and in the 2013/2014 season as a solo repetitor with conducting duties and conductor . Subsequently, from the 2014 season onwards, the Aachen Theater hired him as 1st Kapellmeister and Deputy General Music Director Kazem Abdullah . After Abdullah's contract was not renewed in the summer of 2017, Thorau was appointed acting general music director for the entire 2017/2018 season.

The German premiere of Philippe Boesmans' opera Au monde, directed by Ewa Teilmans, took place in Aachen in 2015 . Furthermore, Thorau was primarily responsible for numerous new productions, including Handel's Orlando , Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice , the chamber opera Powder Her Face by Thomas Adès or Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea . In addition, he advocates new performance practices at the Aachen Theater, such as the “Orchestra up close” or the “Classic Lounge”, where orchestra members and concert-goers can get into conversation, and the “Music Is It” concert form, which is particularly aimed at young people turns.

In addition, Thorau performed guest conductors with numerous orchestras, including the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn , the Bergische and Nürnberger Symphoniker , the MDR Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig and the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne , the Jena Philharmonic , the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and the Potsdam Chamber Academy .

From the 2018/19 season he will be first conductor at the Saarbrücken State Theater .

Honourings and prices

In 2011 Thorau took part in the 5th German University Competition in orchestral conducting in Leipzig and won both first prize overall and the special prize from the New Liszt Foundation Weimar for the world premiere of the orchestral work Crise by Manuel Durão . In the same year he also won the 2nd prize in the International Conducting Competition in Bucharest , whereby a 1st prize was not awarded.

In 2015 Thorau entered the competition for the German Conductor Award in Berlin . He made it to the final round and won the special award that entitles him to perform at the Bad Homburg Palace Concerts the following year .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ First performance Crise by Manuel Durão on the composer's list of works
personal data
SURNAME Thorau, Justus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German conductor and acting general music director at Theater Aachen
DATE OF BIRTH 1986
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin