Ulf Schirmer

Ulf Schirmer (* 1959 in Eschenhausen near Bremen) is a German conductor . He has been general music director since 2009 and also artistic director of the Leipzig Opera since 2011 . From 2006 to 2017 he was chief conductor of the Munich Radio Orchestra .

Live and act

Schirmer studied at the Bremen Conservatory and at the Hamburg University of Music with György Ligeti , Christoph von Dohnányi and Horst Stein . As Lorin Maazel's assistant and resident conductor at the Vienna State Opera , he directed numerous premieres such as Un Re in ascolto , Raimonda and Die Entführung aus dem Serail . From 1988 to 1991 he was general music director in Wiesbaden and artistic director of the symphony concerts at the Hessian State Theater . From 1991 onwards he was employed as resident conductor at the Vienna State Opera, and in the following years he also had an advisory role. From 1995 to 1998 he was chief conductor of the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Copenhagen. In 2000 Ulf Schirmer was appointed professor for musical analysis and music dramaturgy at the Hamburg University of Music and Theater . From 2006 to 2017 he was artistic director of the Munich Radio Orchestra .

As part of his concert activities, he conducted the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna and Bamberg Symphony, the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Orchester de la Suisse Romande . Guest engagements have taken him to the Bregenz Festival , the Salzburg Festival , the Vienna State Opera, the Graz Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin , the Paris Opéra Bastille , the Scala in Milan , Tokyo, Geneva and Israel. He celebrated great success with the productions of Der Rosenkavalier , Salome , Nabucco , Fidelio , Die Fledermaus and with the world premiere of Death and the Devil by Gerd Kühr . At the Vienna State Opera he was the musical director of La Bohème and The Flying Dutchman . In the 2005/06 season he was responsible for the production of Parsifal at the Leipzig Opera .

Ulf Schirmer has been General Music Director of the Leipzig Opera since the 2009/10 season. In addition, since the 2011/12 season he has also been artistic director of the Leipzig Opera. Since then, works by Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss in particular have been studied, including Die Feen in cooperation with the Bayreuth Festival (BF Medien), Der Ring des Nibelungen , Ariadne auf Naxos and Elektra . He also directed the rehearsals for Hansel and Gretel , Macbeth , Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny , West Side Story and Charley's aunt in the mirror tent. In the 2017/18 season he studied Tannhäuser and the Singing War on Wartburg and Alban Berg's Lulu .

In the council meeting of the city of Leipzig on June 21, 2017, Schirmer was unanimously confirmed as artistic director of the Leipzig Opera until July 2022. The reasons given by the city of Leipzig for the extension said that the opera had developed extremely successfully under Schirmer. The repertoire was expanded and supplemented in a balanced way under Schirmer, so that the Leipzig Opera was once again highly accepted and recognized by the public. This development is reflected in numbers: At the beginning of Schirmer's directorship, 154,516 visitors were counted in the 2011/12 season, in 2016 there were 189,316 spectators in total - a result that has not been achieved for over 15 years.

The main focus of his work as an opera conductor is the works of Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner. Schirmer is also committed to the works of many contemporary composers. As a concert conductor, he has a repertoire that culminates with Beethoven , Bruckner and Richard Strauss.

Honors

In 2010 Ulf Schirmer received the Echo Klassik for the opera recording of Karl Amadeus Hartmann's Des Simplicius Simplicissimus Jugend with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester.

In 2016 he was awarded the Leipzig Tourism Prize in the “Personalities” category.

In 2018 Schirmer was honored with the International Classical Music Award for the CD recording of Proserpine by Camille Saint-Saëns.

CD recordings

• Richard Strauss, Capriccio Op. 85, Vienna Philharmonic, 1996, Decca
• Alban Berg, Lulu , Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, 1997, Chandos
• Carl Nielsen, Maskarade , Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Radio Choir, 1998, second edition 2003, Decca
• Ernst Krenek, various works, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra , 2000, Orfeo
• Tales of Opera, Simon Keenlyside, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, 2006, Sony Classical
• Albert Lortzing, Regina , Munich Radio Orchestra, Prague Philharmonic Choir, 2013, cpo
• Franz Lehár, Das Fürstenkind , Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Bavarian Radio Chorus , 2013, cpo
• Richard Strauss, Feuersnot , Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Bavarian Radio Chorus, 2014, cpo
• Gordon Getty, The Little Match Girl , Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, 2015, PentaTone
• Franz Lehár, Paganini , Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Bavarian Radio Choir, 2015, cpo
• Joseph Beer , Polish Wedding , Choir of the State Theater on Gärtnerplatz, Munich Radio Orchestra, 2016, cpo
• Camille Saint-Saëns, Proserpine , Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Flemish Radio Choir, 2017, Ediciones Singulares

Web links

• Official website of Ulf Schirmer
• Works by and about Ulf Schirmer in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Leipzig Opera: Ulf Schirmer. Archived from the original on October 1, 2014 ; accessed on June 16, 2020 (German). 
2. ↑ Ulf Schirmer remains artistic director of the Leipzig Opera - "extraordinarily successful". Accessed June 22, 2018 (German). 
3. ^ Federal Association of the Music Industry: ECHO Klassik Prize Winner 2010. Archived from the original on April 25, 2018 ; accessed on June 16, 2020 . 
4. ↑ “Leipziger Tourismuspreis 2016” goes to RasenBallsport Leipzig and Schirmer . In: Mynewsdesk . ( mynewsdesk.com [accessed June 25, 2018]).
5. ↑ Winners 2018 . In: ICMA . ( icma-info.com [accessed June 25, 2018]).
6. ↑ Ulf Schirmer at Discogs (English)