Johannes Wildner

The Austrian conductor Johannes Wildner, active across symphonic and operatic repertoires in nearly every corner of Europe, followed an uncommon path that began with years as an orchestral violinist before he took up the baton. Born in 1956 in Mürzzuschlag, he pursued studies in conducting, violin, and musicology at universities in Vienna and in Parma, Italy. He first performed as a violinist, serving for several seasons in the violin sections of both the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. His initial chief conductor post came with the Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Košice, where he remained from 1990 to 1993. Subsequent appointments took him to the Prague State Opera (1994–1995) and the Leipzig Opera (1996–1997). Between 1997 and 2007 he served as general music director of the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Westphalia in Germany. From 2010 to 2014 he held the title of principal guest conductor with the BBC Concert Orchestra in London, and since 2014 he has directed the Opera Burg Gars Festival in Austria, conducting Weber’s Der Freischütz, Verdi’s Don Carlos and Otello, and Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte in 2017. He has maintained ongoing ties with the Johann Strauss Orchestra of Vienna, including a tour of Mexico with that ensemble.

Wildner has appeared frequently as a guest conductor with the Royal Philharmonic and London Philharmonic in London, the Russian State Symphony Orchestra and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic in Russia, and orchestras in Italy, Japan, Denmark, the Netherlands, Ireland, Croatia, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, as well as throughout Germany and his native Austria. His extensive discography, exceeding one hundred releases, has appeared chiefly on the Naxos, Dutton Laboratories, and CPO labels; for CPO he led the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien in a 2018 recording of Johann Nepomuk David’s Symphony No. 2 and Symphony No. 4. Since 2014 he has also taught as professor of conducting at the Music University of Vienna.