Wolfgang Katschner

Wolfgang Katschner first attracted notice through his lute playing and later expanded his profile as a conductor and leader of ensembles. His expertise centers on Baroque performance conventions and operatic repertoire, particularly the works of Handel.

Born in 1961 in Kyritz within Brandenburg, then part of East Germany, Katschner trained at the Academy of Music Hanns Eisler Berlin, where he concentrated initially on guitar. He later became one of the few musicians from the East permitted to continue studies in the West, enrolling as a lutenist at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt. In 1984 he and fellow lutenist and guitarist Hans-Werner Apel established Die Lautten Compagney. The ensemble focused early on Baroque opera, an area in which Katschner carried out substantial research. Growing interest in the genre, together with a deeper appreciation of plucked-string ensembles, helped the group flourish under his direction. He simultaneously led the vocal ensemble Capella Angelica.

The company’s 1995 recording Lieben und geliebet werden presented selections from operas by Johann Philipp Krieger. Appearances at major German festivals such as the Rheingau Music Festival, Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, and Kissinger Winterzauber increased its visibility. Alongside its concert work, Katschner began directing complete operas, often reviving seldom-heard scores; one example was Baldassare Galuppi’s La diavolessa, staged at the Hans Otto Theatre in Potsdam in 2002. In 2004 he led Cape Town Opera in Handel’s Alcina and subsequently conducted several Handel productions at the Handel Festival in Halle. Although widely acknowledged as a Handel specialist, he has also directed other Baroque pieces and collaborated with the Philip Glass Ensemble on works by Philip Glass. His 2010 release Timeless juxtaposed Glass’s music with compositions by Renaissance composer Tarquinio Merula. For Theater und Orchester Heidelberg he has led operas by Nicola Porpora, Tommaso Traetta, and Leonardo Vinci.

Katschner has taught masterclasses at the University of Music in Mainz and the Academy of Music Franz Liszt in Weimar. His recordings appear on Carus, Berlin Classics, and Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, among other labels; the last of these issued War & Peace - 1618:1918, featuring Die Lautten Compagney and soprano Dorothee Mields, in 2018.