Dorian Keilhack

Chairman of the Richard-Wagner-Verband (Richard Wagner Association), Nuremberg

Dorian Keilhack

Conductor and pianist Dorian Keilhack comes from a musical family, whose roots are in Austria, Bohemia, England, Germany and Israel.

After studying piano and conducting at universities in Nuremberg, Freiburg and at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York (among others with Werner Andreas Albert, Otto Werner Müller and Ulrich Weder), Leon Fleisher, Christoph Eschenbach and Georg Schmöhe gave further artistic impulses.

Having received several international awards at piano competitions, Keilhack initially launched a piano career that took him from Europe to North and South America. As a soloist he has performed with such orchestras as the Leipzig Gewandhaus, MDR Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Welsh Symphony, Krakow Philharmonic, Jena Philharmonic and Dortmund State Orchestra.

In the 1998/1999 season, Keilhack was individual coach at Nuremberg Theater. In autumn 1999, director Brigitte Fassbaender and musical director Schmöhe brought him to the Tiroler Landestheater in Innsbruck as individual coach with conducting responsibility (since 2003 as music director). There he conducted several operas, operettas and musicals. As specialist in contemporary music, he was often used as musical director of contemporary opera productions, conducted numerous world premieres and made guest appearances in Salzburg and Vienna. During the 2005-2008 seasons, Dorian Keilhack was Music Director and Director of Studies at the Erfurt Opera.

In 2003, the Tyrolean Ensemble for Contemporary Music chose Keilhack as its new Artistic Director. By Augenspieltheater Hall, he was invited with his ensemble in 2004 as Musical Director to participate in a theater production of Oedipus Rex by Stravinsky, which was awarded the prize of the best opera production on a free stage in 2004 by the Austrian Cultural Ministry in Vienna.

Since his acclaimed debut with Orchesterakademie Collegium Musicum Pommersfelden 2001 with Shostakovich's 6th Symphony, he has been guest there every year and has conducted among others Mahler's 1st and 5th Symphonies, Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra and Beethoven's 7th Symphony. In addition, he has conducted orchestras in Bonn, Coburg, Chemnitz, Lübeck, Mainz, Mannheim, Meiningen, Regensburg and Schwerin.

In July 2008, Dorian Keilhack debuted with "Collegium Novum Zurich" at the Zurich Music Festival. Then he became Stattheater Bern's First Music Director. There he conducted in addition to his own musical rehearsals the entire opera repertoire including La Boheme, Onegin, Rosenkavalier and Tosca. The production of "The Divine Tivoli" by Per Norgard under Dorian Keilhack's musical direction was published on CD in 2010.

In 2009 and 2010, there were, inter alia, concerts at the Pommersfeld International Orchestra Academy (Mahler's 4th Symphony), Würzburg Philharmonic Orchestra and Lower Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra in Poland.

In 2011/2012, Dorian Keilhack appeared as guest in Mönchengladbach with Mozart's Le Nozze de Figaro and in Chemnitz with Kalman's Countess Maritza and Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore. A special highlight was his guest performance at the Collegium Musicum Schloss Weissenstein under his direction at the Prinzregententheater Munich in July.

In May 2013, Dorian Keilhack debuted at the Neue Philharmonie Munich and accompanied the orchestra on a trip to Italy with, inter alia, Beethoven's 7th Symphony.

Since 2000, he has been holding master classes on his knowledge for young singers and musicians and teaching during the summer at Miami Frost University as a visiting professor.

Since 2012, Keilhack has been Artistic Director of Camerata Franconia: A 30-member chamber orchestra consisting of top musicians from Europe.

In February 2014, Dorian Keilhack followed a call of the State Conservatory Innsbruck by taking over the management of the opera school there. There have been concerts with the Vogtland Philharmonic Orchestra, Collegium Musicum Pommersfelden and the Orchestra der Gautinger Musikfreunde, which has chosen him since 2013 as successor to its longtime conductor Ulrich Weder.