Johannes Wildner

Johannes Wildner studied conducting, violin and musicology in Vienna and Parma (with Karl Österreicher, Otmar Suitner and Vladimir Delman) and has established himself as one of the foremost Austrian conductors. His years of experience as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra have given his conducting a distinctive stamp.   After positions as Chief Conductor of the State Philharmonic Orchestra of Košice (Slovakia, 1990-93), Chief Conductor of Prague State Opera (1994-95) and First Permanent Conductor of Leipzig Opera (1996-98), Johannes Wildner was the General Music Director of the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Westphalia (Germany) for ten years from 1997. He served as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra in London 2010-2014. He has been the Director of the Austrian Opera Festival Opera Burg Gars since 2014 and was appointed Professor of Conducting at the Vienna Music University with effect of October 2014.   As a guest conductor Johannes Wildner has conducted major orchestras all over the world such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Russian State Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio, the orchestra of the Arena di Verona, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra Copenhagen, the Odense Symphony, the Aarhus Symphony, the Gelders Orkest, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana Palermo, the Haydn-Orchestra di Bolzano e del Trento and the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the China and Hongkong Philharmonic, the Guangzhou and the Shanghai Symphony or the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan. In Germany and Austria he has performed with orchestras like the MDR-Symphony-Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, the State Philharmonic of Rhineland-Palatinate, the Radio Symphony Orchestra and the State Orchestra of Saarbruecken, the Vienna Symphony, the ORF-Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, the Tonkuenstler Orchester Niederoesterreich, the Bruckner-Orchestra Linz, the Mozarteum-Orchestra Salzburg.   Johannes Wildner has recorded more than 100 CDs and videos and DVDs, including the integral version of “The Bat” and “Così fan tutte” for Naxos, "Carmen", Bruckner’s 3rd (in all versions) and 9th symphony (with the reconstructed finale by Samale, Philips, Mazzuca and Cohrs) for Naxos. Recent recordings include 4 CDs with music by Erich Zeisl, Josef Marx and Johann Nepomuk David with the RSO Vienna and the cpo label, as well as, in 2010, a 3-CD box with Schumann's complete works for piano and orchestra with Lev Vinocour, piano and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under Johannes Wildner's baton for Sony. A recording of Beethoven violin concerto with Alexandre Da Costa (violin) and Beethoven’s 7th Symphony with Taipei Symphony Orchestra was released with the Warner label in 2013.   Johannes Wildner has always devoted an important part of his activity to opera. In addition to his performing at the Prague State Opera, Leipzig Opera (TV-recordings of Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro" and "Cosí fan tutte") and at the Musiktheater im Revier/Gelsenkirchen, Germany, ("Lulu", "Rosenkavalier", "Freischütz", "Il Trovatore", "Falstaff", etc.) he has also regularly appeared at opera houses such as Volksoper Wien ("A Night in Venice"), the Operetta festival of Mörbisch ("Wiener Blut"), the Berlin Metropol-Theater ("Merry Widow", "Land of Smiles"), the Wagner-Festival in Wels ("Tristan und Isolde"), the Vienna Summer Festival "Mozart in Schönbrunn" ("Don Giovanni", "Zauberflöte"), the Carinthian Summer ("The martyrdom of St. Magnus"; "Mary of Egypt"), des NCPA in Mumbai ("Madama Butterfly"), the "Festival de Mayo" in Guadalajara/Mexico ("Fidelio", "Madama Butterfly"), the Opera House of Halle ("The Flying Dutchman"), Graz Opera House ("La Bohème"), the Salzburg Landestheaters ("Hänsel und Gretel"; "Abduction from the Seraglio"), Bratislava National opera ("Il Trovatore"), Brno National theatre ("Tosca"), des Croatian National theatre Zagreb ("Don Giovanni", "Carmen"), the Arena di Verona ("Carmen"), the New National Theatre Tokyo ("Die Fledermaus"), St. Margarethen Festival (“Don Giovanni”), Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova (“Magic Flute”, 2011,  "Le Nozze di Figaro, 2014) etc.   Future engagements include concerts with orchestras like the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the China Philharmonic and Guangzhou Symphony, the Vienna Symphony, the Tonkuenstler Orchester NÖ, St. Gallen Symphony and a new adaption for children of Lortzing's "Undine" by Tristan Schulze for Vienna State Opera. After “Der Freischütz in 2014, he will again assume the musical direction of Verdi’s “Don Carlo” in the festival Oper Burg Gars in 2015.   Besides a series of concerts and recordings with the BBC Concert Orchestra in London, a regular cooperation with the Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra has included a highly successful tour to Mexico and continues with a tour to Japan once every year.