Felix Bender
conductor
© privat
Felix Bender has held the post of General Music Director of Theater Ulm since 2021/22, where new productions have included Le nozze di Figaro, Ariadne auf Naxos, Parsifal, Otello, Cavalleria rusticana / Pagliacci, Handel's Amadigi di Gaula, Donizetti's Anna Bolena and the internationally acclaimed world premiere of Tournemire's La Légende de Tristan. He was a regular guest at Oper Leipzig, where he conducted operas including Tannhäuser, Madama Butterfly, Faust, Turandot, Don Carlo, L’elisir d‘amore, La traviata, The Bartered Bride and Freischütz. He also led the Gewandhausorchester for ballets of works ranging from Bach's Magnificat to Stravinsky's Le sacre du printemps. Other recent guest engagements have taken him to the Staatsoper in Hannover forHänsel und Gretel and Cologne Opera forTurandot and Elektra, to Chemnitz for a new Ring des Nibelungen and performances of Rosenkavalier and Pique Dame, these were followed by Die Zauberflöte at the Aalto-Theater in Essen, The Flying Dutchman in Regensburg, Gounod's Faust in Darmstadt and La traviata in Kaiserslautern. He enjoys a busy concert career, conducting orchestras including the Staatskapelle in Dresden, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and MDR Sinfonieorchester. He recently made his debuts with the Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano on tour in North Italy, the Essen Philharmonic, Basel Sinfornieorchester and the Residentie Orkest in Den Haag. Born in Halle, he was a member of the Thomanerchor in Leipzig. He studied in Weimar and assisted Herbert Blomstedt at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. He won 1st prize and the Audience prize at the 2008 Ring Awards in Graz und joined the Conductor Forum's sponsorship programme's list of „Tomorrow's Maestros“ in 2011. He was 1st Kapellmeister and deputy GMD at Theater Chemnitz from 2013 - 2018, and interim GMD for the 2016/17 season.