Cornelius Meister

Cornelius Meister began his tenure as Music Director of the Staatsoper und Staatsorchester Stuttgart in 2018. The awards that he has received in recent years include the Gramophone “Contemporary” Award 2022, the OPUS Klassik award of “Conductor of the Year”, the International Classical Music Award of “Symphonic Recordings” for the complete recording of Bohuslav Martinů’s symphonies, and the Diapason d’or and the German Record Critics’ award for the DVD Jules Massenet: Werther (Opernhaus Zürich). Under his direction, the Staatsorchester Stuttgart was also awarded the Innovationspreis of the Deutsche Orchester-Stiftung in 2020. Last summer, he conducted a new production of the Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival. In the past two decades, he has conducted Wagner's works regularly at major opera houses (Wiener Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper, Semperoper Dresden and Latvian National Opera). 

In his fifth season, as a General Music Director in Stuttgart, Meister goes on to conduct a further production of the Ring Cycle, as well as performances of Hänsel und Gretel and Rusalka. As a concert conductor, he continues his collaborations in 2022/23 with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester. He makes his debuts with the WDRSinfonieorchester and at the Prague Spring Festival. Alongside the core repertoire, Meister maintains a strong affinity to rarely heard works such as Alexander von Zemlinksky’s Die Seejungfrau and works by Martinů and Boulez in his concert programmes and performed numerous world premieres.