Das Bild zeigt einen Mann im Anzug mit Fliege.
Friedrich Praetorius | Photo: Karima Albrecht

Great career step

Weimar conducting student Friedrich Praetorius becomes Kapellmeister and assistant to the General Music Director at the Deutsche Oper Berlin

He may still be formally studying for his master's degree, but he has long since landed softly in professional life: Weimar conducting student Friedrich Praetorius, engaged as 2nd Kapellmeister at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar since the 2022/23 season, is taking the next big career step.

He recently won the audition for the position of Kapellmeister and Assistant to the General Music Director at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Praetorius, who studies in the conducting class of Prof. Nicolás Pasquet and Prof. Ekhart Wycik at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar, will begin his new position in August 2024. 

"Sometimes I can't think of synonyms for the words 'extraordinary' and 'remarkable,'" enthuses the director of the Department of Conducting and Opera Correpetition, Prof. Ulrich Vogel, who wishes the up-and-coming young maestro "lush, lasting moments of artistic happiness."

Friedrich Praetorius' main duties in Berlin will include conducting part of the current repertoire, with about 30 productions per season. For the larger productions, he will also serve as assistant to General Music Director Donald Runnicles as well as guest conductors*.

"I am very pleased to be able to expand my repertoire many times over in such a short time and to come into contact with renowned artistic personalities," says Friedrich Praetorius. "Since the Deutsche Oper is one of the leading opera houses in Europe, it will certainly be a very exciting and thrilling time."

The 26-year-old praises his Weimar professors Nicolás Pasquet and Ekhart Wycik: "They set the right course with stringency, perseverance and foresight, so that I could fully concentrate on the important challenges."

Friedrich Praetorius was born in Lutherstadt Wittenberg in 1996 and received his first musical training as a member of the Thomanerchor zu Leipzig. He began his bachelor's degree in orchestral conducting at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar in 2015 with Prof. Nicolás Pasquet, Prof. Gunter Kahlert and Prof. Ekhart Wycik, and is currently completing a master's degree in Weimar.

Since 2017 Friedrich Praetorius is chief conductor of the Wendland Symphony Orchestra as well as founding member and musical director of the association "Junge Mitteldeutsche Kammeroper e.V.". 

He won 1st prizes at the 10th Competition for Opera Conductors in Orvieto (Italy), at the International Conducting Competition at the University of Almería in Spain, and at the Conducting Competition of the Central German Music Academies with the MDR Symphony Orchestra.

He also won 2nd prize at the "Campus Conducting" competition of the German music academies and became a semi-finalist at the "Siemens Conductors Scholarship" for the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Practical collaboration has already taken him to the MDR Symphony Orchestra, the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Jena Philharmonic, the Stuttgart Philharmonic and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi.

He received further impulses through master classes with Christian Thielemann, Johannes Schlaefli, Ole Kristian Ruud, Arthur Fagen, Stefan Blunier, Johannes Klumpp and Georg Christoph Biller. Since 2021 he is supported by the "Forum Dirigieren" of the German Music Council.

[31 January 2023]