Sebastian Baumgarten

Born in East Berlin in 1969, he trained as an opera director at the Hochschule für Musik «Hanns Eisler» Berlin. From 1999 to 2002 he was Resident Director for Music Theatre at Staatstheater Kassel and from 2003 to 2005 he was Principal Director at the Meininger Theater. Baumgarten has won numerous awards for his work spanning the boundaries between spoken and music theatre. For his production of «Orestes» in 2006 at the Komische Oper Berlin he was voted Director of the Year by the critics in the annual poll for «Opernwelt» magazine. In 2011 he opened the 100th Bayreuth Festival with Wagner’s «Tannhäuser». In 2013 his Zurich production of Brecht’s «St. Joan of the Stockyards» was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen. Sebastian Baumgarten directs at leading opera houses and theatres in Berlin, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Zurich, Copenhagen, Leipzig, Hamburg, Cologne, Dresden, Basel and Stuttgart. Since 2013 he has led the Directing course at the «August Everding» Theatre Academy in Munich. With «Danton’s Death» he will be directing his debut production in Munich.