Erik Nielsen
Conductor
© Michael Novak
Erik Nielsen is back at Oper Frankfurt, where he worked for many years as a coach and Kapellmeister, and where he returned in recent seasons for new productions of Guilio Cesare in Eggito and Lachenmann’s Little Matchgirl, the first performances in Germany of Reimann's Medea (available on CD - OehmsClassics), Billy Budd and Norma, for the first new production of Aida in Frankfurt for many years. Born in America he has been chief conductor of the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra since 2015 and the Tirol Festival in Erl since 2022, where the first cycles of the wonderful new Ring des Nibelungen can been seen in the summer of 2024. He conducts a new Oedipus Rex / Antigone double bill at the Nationale Opera in Amsterdam. Engagements in recent seasons have included Rusalka, Norma and Pelléas et Mélisande at the Semperoper in Dresden, Salome, Peter Grimes and Trojahn’s Orest at Zurich Opera, the world premiere of Manfred Trojahn’s Eurydice – Die Liebenden blind (The Blind Lovers) at the Nationale Opera Amsterdam, Peter Grimes, Das Rheingold and Křenek’s Karl V at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and The Rake’s Progress in Budapest. He was also Music Director of Theater Basel from 2016 - 2018. Concert work has taken him to places including Oslo, Manchester, Stockholm, Madrid, Strasbourg, Lisbon, Basel, the Aspen Music Festival and the Interlochen Center for the Arts. He joined the Berlin Philharmonic’s Karajan Academy as a harpist after studying harp, oboe and conducting in New York and Philadelphia.