“A conductor who is second to none” (La Terasse, Paris), and moreover researcher, scholar, musical-creative freethinker, and stage director, the name Thomas Hengelbrock has many facets. As a whole, they combine to make one of the most com- plex and exciting artist personalities of our time.

This year in July he made his debut at the Bayreuth Festival with a new production of Wagner’s “Tannhäuser”. Since September 2011 he has been the new chief conductor of the tradition-rich NDR Sinfonieorchester. As founder and director of the Balthasar-Neumann -Chor and -Ensemble, he produces internationally sought-after concerts and opera projects.

Thomas Hengelbrock is interested in the whole spectrum of the opera repertoire – from Baroque rarities such as “Il Giustino” by Giovanni Legrenzi or “Niobe” by Agostino Steffani through Mo- zart’s operas, Bernstein’s “West Side Story”, and Stravinsky’s “The Rake’s Progress”, to contemporary works such as Dalla- piccola’s “Il Prigioniero”.

Thomas Hengelbrock rigorously delves into the intellectual world of former times and of today, and into the listening comprehen- sion associated with it. In this manner, he critically calls into ques- tion traditional interpretational and listening customs, for exam- ple, with his readings not only of Mozart’s and Haydn’s operas, but also of those by Rossini, Bellini, and Verdi on historical instru- ments. And the press applauds: “Bellini’s music has possibly never been heard as sumptuous” (Opernwelt), “Today, Mozart can hardly be performed with more excitement and intensity” (Bonner Generalanzeiger), “Illuminating conducting” (AFP), “So beguiling that it leaves one breathless” (ZDF).