Felix Krieger

In the coming season Mr. Krieger will be conducting important works internationally, including Giovanna d’Arco by Verdi at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, and Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Seoul.

Highlight of the 2022/23 season was the world premiere of Donizetti’s Dalinda under Krieger’s baton to jubilant critical acclaim. Further important new productions in the past season included Otto Nicolai’s opera Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor with the Berliner Operngruppe chorus and the Brandenburg Symphony, and Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos in São Paulo.

In recent years Felix Krieger had acclaimed debuts at Dresden’s Semperoper conducting Mozart’s Magic Flute, with La clemenza di Tito at Teatro São Pedro in São Paulo, at Opera Bellas Artes in Mexico-City with Verdi’s Stiffelio, at the Daegu International Opera Festival in Korea with Verdi’s Don Carlo, with Lehár’s Die lustige Witwe at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genua, with Mozart’s Il re pastore at Teatro Verdi in Trieste and Psyché by César Franck at Opéra National de Paris. At Theater Lübeck he conducted Mozart’s Così fan tutte. Mr. Krieger also conducted productions at Deutsche Oper Berlin (Swanlake), Cape Town Opera (Cunning Little Vixen), Staatsoper Stuttgart (Hänsel und Gretel), Gulbenkian Foundation Lissabon (Magic Flute) and with London’s Chelsea Opera Group (Francesca da Rimini, Les pêcheurs de perles, Idomeneo). From 2013 until 2017 he served as regular guest conductor at Teatro Communale di Bologna. Having conducted the Bologna world premiere of Scannavini’s La Doppia Notte – Aida e Tristan, he led productions of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, La Strada by Nino Rota, Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps and the La Fura dels Baus production of El Amor Brujo by De Falla.

Felix Krieger has conducted major orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Berlin Staatskapelle and Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Bucharest’s Enescu Philharmonic, the Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Bach Collegium Stuttgart, and SWR Stuttgart Radio Symphony in Baden-Baden. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra had its much-publicized 2002 debut in the People’s Republic of China under the baton of Felix Krieger, performing Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony and Brahms’ First Symphony.

Following his 2003 debut at Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden, he regularly conducted the Staatskapelle Berlin in a wide range of repertoire, including the critically acclaimed production Der Kaiser von Atlantis by Viktor Ullmann (2013).

In 2010 Felix Krieger established the Berliner Operngruppe. The ensemble has since earned rave reviews for its semi-staged productions of rare opera discoveries at Berlin’s iconic Konzerthaus, including the Berlin premieres of Stiffelio, Puccini’s Edgar and Mascagni’s Iris. In June 2022 his Berliner Operngruppe presented premieres of Mascagni’s Zanetto and Il Segreto di Susanna by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari. In 2021 they gave the German premiere of Donizetti’s Deux Hommes et une femme.

In 2011 and 2012 Felix Krieger served as music director of Projeto Musica Orquestral Alemã in São Paulo, conducting numerous concerts featuring core works of German orchestra repertoire from Baroque to 20th century music. Also in São Paulo, he led Camerata Aberta in a number of South American premieres of works by Stockhausen, Henze, Rihm, and Kagel.

A prolific composer, Felix Krieger saw his work Cantus I – Zwischen den Welten (2015) for chamber ensemble premiered at the 49th Festival Musica Nova Gilberto Mendes in Brazil. In 2021, ensemble unitedberlin played the world premiere of Cantus III – Íthymbos (2020) at Konzerthaus Berlin, performing the full Cantus cycle for the first time.

Felix Krieger has conducted several critically acclaimed CD productions. His complete recording of Mascagni’s Iris (2021, Oehms Classics) received several nominations for the Opus Klassik award (including “Conductor of the Year”), for the prestigious Deutsche Schallplattenkritik award and the International Classical Music Awards 2022. In 2018 Sony Classical released his album The Art of Ensemble with London Sinfonietta and works by Spanish composer Benet Casablancas.

Born in Freiburg, Germany, Felix Krieger learnt the piano from the age of six, later adding the viola. He was a junior fellow at the Freiburg University of Music from the age of fifteen, studying piano with Andreas Immer. He studied conducting at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre with Klauspeter Seibel. In 2001 he completed his studies as a master student with Carlo Maria Giulini at Scuola di Musica di Fiesole in Italy. Aged twenty-two, he was appointed assistant to Claudio Abbado at the Berliner Philharmoniker. Felix Krieger later served as an assistant, director of studies and musical supervisor at the Bayreuth Festival, where he assisted with the acclaimed Parsifal production led by Stefan Herheim and Daniele Gatti. He also obtained critical input on contemporary music from his collaboration with Michael Gielen.

Felix Krieger is a committed supporter of the Al-Farabi Academy of Music in Berlin, a charity he founded in 2016 together with pianist Saleem Ashkar and the Deutsche Kinder- und Jugendstiftung.