Johannes Wildner

Johannes Wildner studied conducting, violin and musicology in Vienna and Italy and is today one of the leading Austrian conductors of his generation. His time as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra had a lasting influence on his conducting style and music-making.

After positions as Chief Conductor of the Prague State Opera and as Principal Permanent Conductor of the Leipzig Opera, Johannes Wildner was General Music Director of the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen (Recklinghausen, Germany) from 1997-2007, which is also the opera orchestra of the theatre in Gelsenkirchen. From 2010-2014 Johannes Wildner was Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra in London. Since 2014 he has been artistic director of the opera festival Oper Burg Gars and university professor for conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Since 2019/2020 Johannes Wildner is also principal conductor of the Sønderjyllands Symphony Orchestra in Sønderborg (DK).

He is a regular on the podium of major opera houses such as the New National Theatre Tokyo, the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, the Arena di Verona, the Leipzig Opera, the Graz Opera, the Salzburg Landestheater and the Prague and Zagreb State Operas. He conducts major orchestras such as the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana (Palermo), the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the China and Hong Kong Philharmonics or the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.

Johannes Wildner has recorded more than 100 CDs, DVDs and videos, including the complete recordings of "Die Fledermaus", live recordings of "Carmen", "Nozze di Figaro" and "Così fan tutte", as well as the 3rd and 9th symphonies by Anton Bruckner, the complete works for piano and orchestra by Robert Schumann with pianist Lev Vinocour, Beethoven's Violin Concerto (soloist: Alexandre Da Costa) and 7th Symphony with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, as well as works by forgotten composers such as d'Erlanger and Braunfels with the BBC Concert Orchestra.