Felix Krieger has made a name for himself as one of the most interesting Verdi conductors of his generation, thanks to critically acclaimed Verdi performances at the Konzerthaus Berlin. He began his career as assistant to Claudio Abbado at the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

He is founder and artistic director of the Berliner Operngruppe, together with whom he was awarded “Ausgewählten Ort 2012” in the German competition for innovation, “365 Orte im Land der Ideen”.
Focusing on seldom played Italian opera, Felix Krieger and the Berliner Operngruppe have given enthusiastically received performances, including the Berlin premieres of Verdi’s Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio, Stiffelio and Donizetti’s Maria di Rohan, the German premiere of Donizetti’s Betly, and also Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda, Verdi’s Attila, I Masnadieri, and most recently Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco in March 2018.

Born in Freiburg, Felix Krieger studied conducting, piano and music theory at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, completing his studies with Carlo Maria Giulini at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole in Italy.
As assistant conductor and musical supervisor, he was collaborating in Stefan Herheim’s production of Parsifal (Daniele Gatti, Philippe Jordan) at the Bayreuth Festival.

He has conducted many internationally renowned orchestras, including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Staatskapelle Berlin, London Sinfonietta, the Münchener Rundfunkorchester, the Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris, the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, the Bach Collegium Stuttgart / Gächinger Kantorei, and the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg.

He is a regular guest at major international opera houses, such as the Staatsoper Berlin, the Opéra National de Paris and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna.
Further engagements have taken him to the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Swan Lake), Cape Town Opera (The Cunning Little Vixen), the Württembergische Staatsoper Stuttgart (Hansel and Gretel), the Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon (The Magic Flute) and the Chelsea Opera Group (Francesca da Rimini, The Pearl Fishers, Idomeneo) in London.

Felix Krieger was musical director of the Projeto Musica Orquestral Alemã from 2011-2012, conducting several symphonic concerts of the major German orchestral repertoire from the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods to the 20th century in and around São Paulo.

Following early engagements in the opera houses of Kassel and Bielefeld, in which he acquired a diverse operatic repertoire, Krieger conducted a successful debut ballet performance in 2003 of Schumann’s second symphony at the Staatsoper Berlin. Since then, he has conducted the Staatskapelle Berlin on numerous occasions, most recently in the premieres of Viktor Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis (2012/13), Marc Neikrug’s Through Roses (2013/14) and Stephen Oliver’s Mario und der Zauberer (2015/16).

Since 2013, Krieger has been a regular guest conductor at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. His world premiere of Scannavini’s La Doppia Notte – Aida und Tristan was followed by productions of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, and he returned in the 2016/17 season for De Falla’s El Amor Brujo with La Fura dels Baus.

In recent years, he has made successful debuts at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa with Lehar’s Die lustige Witwe (2015), at the Teatro Verdi in Triest with Mozart’s Il re pastore (2014), and at the Opéra National de Paris with César Franck’s Psyché (2014).
In the 2015/16 season he was guest conductor at the Theater Lübeck for Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte.

In the 2018/19 season he will conduct Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Semperoper Dresden, Verdi’s Don Carlos at the Daegu International Opera Festival in South Korea, Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito in São Paulo, and give the Latin American premiere of Verdi’s Stiffelio at the Opera Bellas Artes in Mexico City.
With the Berliner Operngruppe he will perform Giacomo Puccini’s opera Edgar, to be heard at the Konzerthaus for the first time ever in Berlin.

As conductor of Camerata Aberta in São Paulo, he has given numerous South American premieres of works by major composers such as Stockhausen, Henze, Rihm and Kagel.

On the Sony Classical label he has recorded works by the Spanish composer Benet Casablancas (*1956) with the London Sinfonietta. The CD was released in January 2018. 

Felix Krieger has also recently come into the public eye as a composer. His work for large ensemble, Cantus I – Zwischen den Welten, was successfully premiered at the 49th Festival Musica Nova Gilberto Mendesin Brasil in 2015. Here, too, the first performance of Cantus II – “…durch alle Lüfte bricht“ was given in Autumn 2017..

Felix Krieger is actively involved in music outreach work. Together with pianist Saleem Ashkar and the Deutsche Kinder-und Jugendstiftung, he founded the Al Farabi Musikakademie in Autumn 2016. Here, both local and refugee youngsters in Berlin-Spandau have the opportunity to make music together in a choir and orchestra.

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