Max Koch
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Max Koch studied directing at the University for Music and Theatre in Hamburg and musicology at Bayreuth University. After graduating he has worked as a director's assistant, director, and stage manager for houses including the Bayerische Staatsoper, Oper Frankfurt, the Bregenz, Erl in Tirol and Castle Ettlingen festivals and the Lautten Compagney in Berlin with directors including Nadja Loschky, Philipp Stölzl, Claus Guth, Johannes Erath, Nico and the Navigators, Stefan Herheim, Simon Stone, Lydia Steier and Brigitte Fassbaender. Productions directed by him include Birkenau 18/10 at the Staatstheater in Nürnberg and the first performances in Germany of Moritz Eggert's chamber opera Caliban, which was also performed at the 2019 Tirol Summer Festival in Erl. His production of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with the Lautten Compagney Berlin toured through Germany and Switzerland with great success. He staged Verdi's La Traviata for Baden-Württemberg Youth Opera in 2022 and the 2022 annual Stage Dinner and an opera studio production of Songs of Love and War for the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. He worked with the Ensemble Modern and composer Cong Wei on the world premiere of no-mads and a production of Hänsel und Gretel adapted for childred for Oper Frankfurt and a music theater installation of Hell ist die Nacht, for the 2024 Mozartfest in Würzburg, which was awarded an Opus Klassik for the most innovative concert of the year. During the 2025/2026 season he directed a successful production ofThe Rake’s Progress at the Stadttheater in Gießen and, in co-operation with Oper Frankfurt and the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt, Ein Mann wie Sie! Max Koch took over running opera and working as house director at Theater Heilbronn at the beginning of 2026/27 season, where he has directed a play, Meisterklasse, and Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, newly adapted by the cabarettist Bodo Wartke. He returns to Oper Frankfurt this season for the world premiere of Sebastian Schwab's A Skateboarder's Heart. He was awarded scholarships by the Ruhrtriennale, the Richard-Wagner-Verband Bayreuth, the Mozartfest in Würzburg's Mozartlabor, the Reggio Parma Festival and Akademie Musiktheater heute.