Hamburg, 24 February 2023 – Omer Meir Wellber will become Hamburg General Music Director of the Philharmonic State Orchestra as well as General Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Hamburg State Opera as of the 2025/2026 season.
The press release of the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media can be here.
In January, the monodrama “The Eternal Stranger” by Ella Milch-Sheriff will be performed in Boston and Zurich under the musical direction of Omer Meir Wellber and with speaker Eli Danker.
“The Eternal Stranger” was written on the occasion of Beethoven’s 250th birthday on Omer Meir Wellber’s initiative and takes as its starting point an astonishing and relatively unknown dream of Beethoven’s, which he reported to his friend and publisher Tobias Haslinger in a letter on September 10, 1821. In this dream, Beethoven travels as far as the Middle East and India and back again, finally reaching Jerusalem. There, his friend Tobias and a canon come to his mind, which he notes down in the letter. This letter inspired the Israeli playwright Joshua Sobol to write The Wanderings of the Eternal Refugee and the Struggle Against Despair, which in turn inspired Ella Milch-Sheriff’s The Eternal Stranger. The work reflects on the various facets of strangeness and asks who can be considered a stranger in the first place. The world premiere took place in Leipzig in 2020, and further performances have already taken place in Palermo, Manchester, Hamburg and Tel Aviv. More information about the work here.
With the Boston Symphony Orchestra on 5, 6 and 7 January, more information here. Other program highlights include Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with renowned violinist Midori.
With the Tonhalle Zurich Orchestra on 12 and 13 January, more information here. In addition, Daniel Ciobanu will perform Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3.
On 17 December, Omer Meir Wellber conducts “The Creation” by Haydn at the Volksoper in Vienna. In the video, he explains what is particularly interesting about this piece for him. More information can be found here.
The Kaiserrequiem live on Teatro Massimo TV on 8 November at 20:15 CET – the joint creation by Music Director of Teatro Massimo Omer Meir Wellber and director Marco Gandini combines Viktor Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis with Mozart’s Requiem. More information here.
Omer Meir Wellber began his tenure as Music Director of the Volksoper Wien on 1 September. With Jolanthe and the Nutcracker, a musical theater based on the opera and ballet by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Wellber will present his first new production at the house on 9 October, together with the Artistic Director Lotte de Beer directing. Prior to this premiere, he conducts his symphonic debut with the Volksoper Orchestra and violinist Midori at the Vienna Konzerthaus on 13 September and his first opera performance at the Volksoper with Mozart’s Magic Flute on 14 September.
Omer Meir Wellber’s novel was published in French by Éditions du sous-sol in August, Les Absences de Haïm Birkner tells the story of Chaim Birkner, a tired and broken man who is forced by his daughter to face life one last time. The novel was also published in German (BerlinVerlag) and in Italian (Sellerio Editore).
Tonight’s concert on June 29 will be broadcast next Friday, July 1, starting at 8:05 p.m. on MDR Kultur & MDR Klassik. Further information can be found here.
Interesting details about the concert program as well as artists can be found in the digital program booklet here.
With the CD release The Mandolin Seasons, Omer Meir Wellber and mandolinist Jacob Reuven fulfill a long-held wish.
Jacob Reuven and Omer Meir Wellber grew up together in the Israeli desert city of Be’er Sheva – Reuven with Iraqi Jewish roots and Wellber coming from a western Jewish community. United since childhood by an irrepressible joie de vivre, they have a shared passion for music and, more specifically, for the instruments of their homeland, learned as schoolboys: mandolin and accordion… (more in the booklet)
And it is with these instruments that the two musicians together with the Sinfonietta Leipzig (musicians of the Gewandhausorchester) completely rediscover the seasons of Vivaldi and Piazzolla in The Mandolin Seasons.
With Omer Meir Wellber in the role of conductor and continuo player on harpsichord and accordion – meaning he is improvising in both “Seasons” – and Jacob Reuven’s desire to reshape the works for mandolin, both explore and create a new exotic sound world with it.
The recording will be released by Hyperion on 6 May.
Jacob Reuven– mandolin Omer Meir Wellber – accordion, harpsichord, conductor Sinfonietta LeipzigVivaldi: Violin Concerto in F minor “Winter” RV297 Piazzolla: Invierno porteño (No. 2, “Winter for the people of Buenos Aires” from Las cuatro estaciones porteñas) Vivaldi: Violin concerto in E major “Spring” RV269 Piazzolla: Primavera porteña (No. 3, “Springtime for the people of Buenos Aires“) Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in G minor “Summer” RV315 Piazzolla: Verano porteño (No. 4, “Summer for the people of Buenos Aires“) Vivaldi: Violin concerto in F major “Autumn” RV293 Piazzolla: Otoño porteño (No. 1, “Autumn for the people of Buenos Aires“)
On 15 April, Omer Meir Wellber will be awarded the Rudi Häussler Prize in the course of the performance of Don Giovanni. Omer Meir Wellber was already awarded the prize in 2020, but due to the pandemic the award ceremony could not take place until this year.
With this prize, the Stiftung Semperoper honours artistic personalities who have contributed to the reputation of the Semperoper Dresden. The main aim is to promote artists with “extraordinary ambitions and talents” and Omer Meir Wellber “manages like no other to turn conducting into special experiences for the audience”, according to the founder of the foundation, Senator h. c. Rudi Häussler.
Omer Meir Wellber’s novel was published in French by Éditions du sous-sol in August, 