Johannes Kalitzke

JOHANNES KALITZKE is an internationally renowned conductor and composer, particularly known for his work in contemporary music. His guest conducting engagements have taken him to prestigious festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, Wiener Festwochen, Wien Modern, Berliner Festspiele, Warsaw Autumn, and the Venice Biennale. He has collaborated with leading ensembles including Klangforum Wien, Collegium Novum Zürich, and Ensemble Modern, as well as with major symphony orchestras such as the radio symphony orchestras of NDR Hamburg, SWR Stuttgart, BR Munich, DSO and RSB Berlin, and ORF RSO Vienna. Johannes Kalitzke is a frequent guest conductor at leading opera houses, including the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, the Stuttgart State Opera, and the Musiktheater an der Wien. His interpretation of Heart Chamber by Chaya Czernowin, premiered at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2019, and his conducting of the long-awaited German premiere of György Kurtág’s Fin de Partie at Theater Dortmund in 2024 have garnered significant international acclaim. During the 2025/26 season, Kalitzke will conduct the new production and German premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s opera Orlando at the Komische Oper Berlin. He will also return as a guest of the Sofia Philharmonic and the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra in Ljubljana. Together with the Bruckner Orchestra Linz, he will appear at the Johann Strauss 2025 Festival in Vienna, where the program features the world premiere of a new “waltz symphony” composed by young students. Created in collaboration with Ars Electronica Futurelab, this work explores the dynamic interplay between artificial intelligence and human creativity. Johannes Kalitzke continues his work on orchestral music for expressionist silent films with his latest composition, Hoffmann’s Tales, written for Max Neufeld’s film and performed by the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and at Theater Essen. As a composer, Kalitzke has received commissions from Donaueschinger Musiktage, Ultraschall Berlin, Wittener Tage für Neue Musik, Musica Viva, and numerous radio symphony orchestras. In 2011, the Augsburg Philharmonic commissioned him to compose the orchestral score for the 1927 silent film The Weavers. Johannes Kalitzke’s first opera, Bericht über den Tod des Musikers Jack Tiergarten (Report on the Death of Musician Jack Tiergarten), premiered at the Munich Biennale in 1996. His second opera, Molière oder die Henker der Komödianten (Molière, or The Executioners of the Comedian), was commissioned by the State of Schleswig-Holstein and received its premiere in Bremen, followed in 2004 by his opera Inferno. He was later commissioned to write an opera based on Witold Gombrowicz’s novel Die Besessenen (The Possessed) for the Theater an der Wien. His opera Pym (after the novel by Edgar Allan Poe) was first performed at the Theater Heidelberg in 2016, and was followed in 2021 by the church‑film opera Joan of Arc, premiered at the Carinthian Summer Festival. His most recent opera, Kapitän Nemos Bibliothek (Captain Nemo’s Library), premiered in 2022 at both the Schwetzingen Festival and the Bregenz Festival. Johannes Kalitzke, born in Cologne, studied church music, piano (with Aloys Kontarsky), conducting (with Wolfgang von der Nahmer), composition (with York Höller), and electronic music (with Hans Ulrich Humpert). He received a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, which enabled further studies at IRCAM in Paris. In 2015, he was appointed professor at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. His distinctions include the Bernd Alois Zimmermann Prize in Cologne and the Villa Massimo scholarship (2003). He is a member of both the Academy of Arts, Berlin and the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts.