Ralf Weikert

Ralf Weikert was born in St.Florian (Austria) and received his first musical training at the Bruckner-Konservatorium in Linz. He completed his studies at the Vienna Music Academy under the famous Professor Hans Swarowsky.

In 1965 Weikert won the First Prize at the „Nicolai Malko Competition” in Copenhagen. One year later he was granted the „Mozart Interpretation Prize” by the Austrian Minister of Culture. In 1975 the „Karl Böhm-Award” was presented to him from the great conductor himself.

Until 1977 Maestro Weikert was Music Director of the Bonn Opera. He was then appointed executive General Music Director at the Frankfurt Opera and in 1981 he became Principal Conductor of the Mozarteum Orchestra and the Landestheater in Salzburg.

In 1974 Ralf Weikert made his debut at the Vienna State Opera and in 1975 at the Hamburg State Opera. His first appearance at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1979 was followed by performances at the Bavarian State Opera Munich from 1981, at the Metropolitan Opera New York from 1987 and at the San Francisco Opera from 1997.

Since 1971 Maestro Weikert has been a regular guest at the Salzburg Festival, the Festival of Aix-en-Provence, the Bregenz Festival, the Festival of the Arena di Verona and the Puccini-Festival in Torre del Lago.

Ralf Weikert has conducted opera and concert in all important music centres of Austria, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Netherlands, Scandinavia, USA, South America, China and Japan. Numerous LP and CD recordings of opera and concert repertoire as well as radio and TV- productions in Europe and in the USA took place under his baton. His recording of Rossini’s “ Barber of Seville” with Edita Gruberova got the “Echo Classic-Award 2005”.

From 1983 until 1992 Ralf Weikert was Music Director of the Zurich Opera. Since then, he has been working as a freelance conductor with almost every important orchestra, such as Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique Paris, Helsinki Philharmonic, Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Orchestra Stockholm, English, Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Academy of St.Martin’s in the Field, Vienna Symphony, Czech Philharmony, Hungarian State Philharmony, NHK-Philhjarmony Tokyo, Tokyo Symphonic, Tokio Philharmonic, New Japan Phiharmony etc.

Since 2006 Ralf Weikert has been music director at the Wagner-Festival Wels for eleven years, where he conducted “Parsifal”, “Tristan und Isolde”, “Flying Dutchman” and “Lohengrin”. In the season 2011/12 he conducted “Walküre”,”Elektra” and “Capriccio” at the Royal Opera Stockholm and “Salome” at the New National Opera Tokyo and in Florence, as well as concerts in Europe and Japan. In 2012/13 he was invited to conduct Mozart’s “Magic Flute” at New National Opera Tokyo, Fr.Lachner’s “Catharina Cornaro” in Munich and Wagner’s “Tannhäuser” at the Wagner-Festival in Wels and “Der Fliegende Holländer” at Staatsoper Budapest. In 2014 he conducted “Don Giovanni at the New National Opera Tokyo an a concert-tour in 7 cities of Japan with the NHK-Symphony orchestra. Concerts brought him all over Europe, performances of “Arabella” to the Teatro Liceu in Barcelona. The season 2015/16 started with a production of “Flying Dutchman” at the Korean National Opera Seoul and several concerts. In 2016/17 Weikert conducted a new production of Mozart’s “Nozze di Figaro” at Teatro San Carlo in Naples and performances of “Lohengrin” at the Royal Opera-House of Oman and a production of “Rosenkavalier” in Japan. In 2017 he led concerts in Ljublana, Bratislava, Tokyo and Nagoya. In 2018, after some concerts in Europe, he starts an new “Ring of the Nibelungen” by Wagner at the National Opera Seoul and “Elisir d’amore” in Macao.

In 2017 his book BERUF DIRIGENT was published by Boehlau-Verlag.

Source: Hilbert.de