Felix Krieger
Conductor
“Felix Krieger is a brilliant partner on the podium, who spices up his Mozart in a crisp, bouncy and fresh way.”
“A coup, realised magnificently beyond expectation.”
Felix Krieger is the founder, Artistic Director, and Principal Conductor of the Berliner Operngruppe, with which he has been captivating audiences since 2010 through revivals of rare operas. Under his direction, the company has presented, among others, the Berlin premieres of Verdi’s Stiffelio, Puccini’s Edgar, and Mascagni’s Iris, the German premiere of Donizetti’s Deux Hommes et une femme, the posthumous world premiere of Donizetti’s Dalinda or most recently the first international revival and German premiere of Franchetti´s Fior d´Alpe. With these productions at the Konzerthaus Berlin, he has established himself as one of the most distinguished conductors of his generation.
Since early 2024, he has also been a regular guest conductor of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra, performing in venues such as the Berlin Philharmonie, the Friedensfest Augsburg, and Monheim am Rhein. His recent engagements include, among others, Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Semperoper Dresden (2025/26), Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at the Palermo Classica Festival (2025/26), Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges for the Korea National Opera (2024/25), Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco for Opera Bellas Artes in Mexico City (2024), and Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos in São Paulo (2023).
Krieger regularly conducts productions at internationally renowned opera houses, such as the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Semperoper Dresden, Korea National Opera in Seoul, and Opéra National de Paris. He has appeared on the podium of numerous major orchestras, such as the Staatskapelle Berlin, Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Staatskapelle Dresden, London Sinfonietta, and Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris. Under his direction, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony and Brahms’ First Symphony in China for the first time—a historic concert held in cooperation with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra at the Shanghai Spring Music Festival in 2002.
His discography includes Mascagni’s Iris, nominated for the Opus Klassik, the Deutsche Schallplattenkritik, and the International Classical Music Awards 2022, as well as highly acclaimed recordings of Donizetti’s Dalinda, Wolf-Ferrari’s Il segreto di Susanna, and Mascagni’s Zanetto (all for OehmsClassics), as well as The Art of Ensemble with the London Sinfonietta (Sony Classical, 2018).
Born in Freiburg im Breisgau, Krieger studied piano and viola, was a junior student (piano) at the Freiburg University of Music, and studied conducting with Prof. Klauspeter Seibel at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. He completed his studies in 2001 as a master student of Carlo Maria Giulini at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole in Italy. He received formative artistic guidance early in his career from Claudio Abbado, who appointed him assistant with the Berlin Philharmonic at the age of just 22 in 1996. For the Bayreuth Festival, he worked as assistant conductor to Daniele Gatti, as well as musical supervisor.
His first theater engagements took him to Kassel and Bielefeld, where he worked as Kapellmeister and developed a wide-ranging repertoire. From 2003, he became a regular guest conductor at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, with his production of Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis (2013) receiving particular acclaim.
In recent years, Felix Krieger has also emerged as a composer. His work Cantus I – Zwischen den Welten for chamber ensemble was successfully premiered in 2015 at the 49th Festival Musica Nova Gilberto Mendes in Brazil. There, Cantus II – “…durch alle Lüfte bricht” (2017) for chamber ensemble was premiered in autumn 2017, followed by his duo for alto flute and double bass Oh Luft, du edles Element, führ hin mein Liedlein behend in autumn 2020. In November 2021, the ensemble unitedberlin performed the world premiere of Cantus III – Íthymbos (2020) under his direction at the Konzerthaus Berlin as part of the first complete cycle of the Cantus pieces.
Since 2023, his works are published by Universal Edition Wien.
He lives with his family in Berlin.
