JOHANNES WILDNER is one of the most prominent contemporary Austrian conductors. He studied conducting, violin and musicology in Vienna and Italy. His long-standing experience as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra have given a distinctive stamp to his manner of conducting.
Following tenures as Principal Conductor of the State Opera Prague and at the Opera of Leipzig, in 1997 Johannes Wildner became the General Music Director of the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Westphalia (Germany), holding the post for ten years. Between 2010 and 2014, he served as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra in London. In 2014 he became the director of the Oper Burg Gars Festival in Austria, and the same year received an appointment as Professor of Conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. From 2019/2020, Johannes Wildner assumed the functions of Principal Conductor of the Sønderjyllands Symphony Orchestra in Sønderborg, Denmark.
Wildner has frequently guest-performed at major opera houses such as the Tokyo New National Theatre, the Teatro Carlo Felice Genova, the Arena di Verona, Leipzig, Graz, Salzburg, the State Opera Houses of Prague and Zagreb. He has conducted major orchestras such as the London Philharmonic and the Royal Symphony Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Vienna, Tokyo, Hong Kong, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Sinfonica Siciliana Philharmonic Orchestra and the Palermo.
Johannes Wildner has recorded over a hundred compact-discs, DVDs and videos, including Johann Strauss’ operetta Die Fledermaus (‘The Bat’), Mozart’s operas Cosí fan tutte and Le Nozze di Figaro, Bizet’s Carmen; Bruckner’s Third and Ninth Symphonies, Robert Schumann’s complete works for piano and orchestra, with pianist Lev Vinocour; Beethoven’s Violin Concerto (with soloist Alexandre Da Costa) and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, as well as works by forgotten composers like Frédéric d’Erlanger and Walter Braunfels with the BBC Concert Orchestra, as well as recordings of previously unknown repertoire by Erich Zeisl, Joseph Marx and Johann Nepomuk David with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.