Hanover-born Ingo Metzmacher studied piano, music theory and conducting in his home town and in Salzburg and Cologne. He found his first artistic home in Frankfurt, with the Ensemble Modern and the Frankfurt Opera under Michael Gielen.

His international career began in 1988, during Gerard Mortier’s tenure as director of the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, when he stepped in to conduct a new production of Franz Schreker’s ›Der ferne Klang‹.

In 1997 he was appointed General Music Director of Hamburg Opera, where he conducted a series of internationally acclaimed productions, many of them in collaboration with Stage Director Peter Konwitschny, over eight seasons. Highlights include ›Lohengrin‹, ›Wozzeck‹, ›Freischütz‹, ›Don Carlos‹ and ›Moses and Aron‹. The leading German opera magazine ›Opernwelt‹ voted the Hamburg opera house ›Opera House of the Year 2005‹. He then became Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam. Highlights of his tenure include performances of Henze’s ›The Bassarids‹ directed by Peter Stein, ›Die tote Stadt‹ and ›Die Gezeichneten‹ with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, a cycle of the three ›Da Ponte‹ operas by Mozart in productions of Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito and a Pierre Audi production of Messiaen’s ›Saint François d’Assise‹.

From 2007 to 2010 he was Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. His thematic concert cycles during this time entitled ›From The German Soul‹, ›Breakthrough 1909‹ and ›Temptation‹ as well as a series of ›Casual Concerts‹ moderated by himself made a lasting impact on Berlin’s music life. Various tours brought the orchestra and him to Hamburg, Cologne, Bonn, Baden-Baden, Paris, Brussels, Edinburgh, London, Vienna, Rimini, Meran, Madrid, Zagreb, Riga, Vilnius, Warsaw, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Beijing.

Highlights of recent years include appearances at the Salzburg Festival (world premiere of Wolfgang Rihm's opera fantasy ›Dionysos‹ as well as ›Prometeo‹ and ›Al gran sole carico d’amore‹ by Luigi Nono), ›The Rake’s Progress‹ and ›Die tote Stadt‹ for the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, a series of new productions for the Zurich Opera House (›Königskinder‹, ›Tristan und Isolde‹, ›Der ferne Klang‹, ›Tannhäuser‹, ›From the House of the Dead‹), ›The Rake’s Progress‹ for Berlin Staatsoper, ›Dionysos‹ for the Netherlands Opera as well as ›Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District‹ and ›Parsifal‹ for Vienna Staatsoper.

On the concert platform he appeared with the Vienna Philharmonic in subscription concerts as well as orchestras including the Russian National Orchestra, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, Czech Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Berlin, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, Dresden Philharmonic and St. Petersburg Philharmonic.

In the 2011 | 2012 season he returns to the Zurich Opera House for new productions of ›The Nose‹ by Shostakovich (stage director: Peter Stein) and ›Palestrina‹ by Pfitzner (stage director: Jens-Daniel Herzog) and the Vienna State Opera for Weill’s ›Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny‹ (stage director: Jérôme Deschamps). He will make his debut at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in a new production of Verdi’s ›Macbeth‹ directed by Christof Loy. Revivals of his Salzburg productions of Nono’s ›Al gran sole carico d’amore‹ and Rihm’s ›Dionysos‹ are scheduled at Berlin’s Staatsoper. As a guest conductor he is invited by orchestras including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, New Japan Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris and Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester.

Future plans include concerts with the Berlin, Munich and Czech Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, New Japan Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Opera productions include ›Die Soldaten‹ for the Salzburg Festival 2012, ›Il prigioniero‹ and ›Suor Angelica‹ in Madrid in the autumn of 2012 as well as ›Der Ring des Nibelungen‹ for the Geneva opera in 2013 and 2014.

Ingo Metzmacher’s discography includes live recordings of his New Year’s Eve concerts in Hamburg from 1999 to 2004, entitled ›Who is afraid of 20th Century Music?‹, a complete recording of Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s symphonies with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the world premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s 9th Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Olivier Messiaen’s ›Illuminations of the Beyond…‹ with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Hans Pfitzner’s ›Von deutscher Seele‹ and Engelbert Humperdinck’s ›Königskinder‹ with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin as well as a live recording of ›Lady Macbeth of Mzensk‹ from the Vienna State Opera. Pierre Audi’s production of ›Saint François d’Assise‹ by Olivier Messiaen for the Holland Festival 2008 and the Amsterdam productions of Mozart’s Da Ponte operas directed by Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito are available on DVD.

Over the last years Ingo Metzmacher has appeared as a pianist in recitals with Christine Schäfer, Matthias Goerne and Christian Gerhaher at the Aspen Music Festival, the Wigmore Hall in London, the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg as well as at the Salzburg Festival.

In his book ›Vorhang auf! Oper entdecken und erleben‹, published in German in the autumn of 2009, Ingo Metzmacher presents operas from four centuries and explains the making of a music theatre production. He is also the author of ›Keine Angst vor neuen Tönen‹, published in 2005, a passionate plea for pioneering composers such as Luigi Nono, Charles Ives, Olivier Messiaen, Arnold Schönberg, Edgard Varèse, Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage.

Last updated February 2012. Contact Opus 3 Artists for the most up-to-date version.