Sebastian Weigle

Since the 2019 season, Sebastian Weigle has been the principal conductor of the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. In the 2024/25 season, he conducted concert performances of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck as well as a major European tour featuring works by Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, and Beethoven. He recently made his debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony. Further invitations took him to the Copenhagen Philharmonic and the Graz Philharmonic.

At the Bavarian State Opera, he returned to the podium for a new production of Strauss’s Die Liebe der Danae. In spring 2025, he will also conduct revivals of Pique Dame and Lohengrin at the same house.

Engagements have brought him to many of the world’s leading opera houses, including Berlin, Munich, Dresden, Hamburg, Vienna, Zurich, Tokyo, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. As a concert conductor, he has led renowned ensembles such as the radio orchestras of Berlin, Munich, Vienna, and Stuttgart, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, major Scandinavian orchestras, as well as internationally in Tokyo, Chicago, and Melbourne.

From 2008 to 2023, Sebastian Weigle served as General Music Director of the Frankfurt Opera. Prior to that, he was Chief Conductor at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona (2004–2009). He made his debut at the Bayreuth Festival in 2007 with a new production of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

He is featured on numerous CD and DVD recordings, including works by Beethoven, Mozart, and Rott, as well as the acclaimed Ring des Nibelungen from Frankfurt (directed by Vera Nemirova), released in 2012 by OehmsClassics.

Born in Berlin, Sebastian Weigle studied horn, piano, and conducting at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music. In 1982, he was appointed Principal Horn of the Staatskapelle Berlin. In 1987, he founded the Berlin Chamber Choir and took on the artistic direction of Neues Berliner Kammerorchester. In 1993, he became Chief Conductor of the Junge Philharmonie Brandenburg, and from 1997 to 2002, he served as Staatskapellmeister at the Berlin State Opera.

As of March 2025

(This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unless expressly authorized by ARSIS Artist Management.)