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The German conductor, Michael Hofstetter, studied organ, piano and conducting at the Richard-Strauss-Konservatorium in Munich. He began his career at the theaters in Wiesbaden (Kapellmeister) and in Gießen (General Music Director). He was Professor of Orchestra Conducting and Early Music at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz. Today he is considered one of the most sought-after conductors with an international reputation as an expert in authentic performance practice and as a Baroque specialist.
Michael Hofstetter's artistry is informed by his innate feeling for the human voice and its relationship to the natural flow and subtle nuances of musical phrasing. His interpretations draw on a broad knowledge of historically informed performance practices and the cultural milieus in which composers created their works. While studying organ, piano and conducting at the Munich Conservatory, he fell in love with opera while working with a touring theatre company. He launched his professional conducting career at the opera house in Passau. He held the post of Music Director at Wiesbaden Opera from 1991 to 1996 and subsequently relocated to Giessen for his first term as General Music Director (GMD), Germany’s youngest at the time. From 2001 until 2007, he was Chief Conductor of L’orchestre de chambre de Genève. He was also Chief Conductor of the choir and orchestra of the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele from 2005 to 2012. He transformed the Ludwigsburg Festival with performances of rarely heard works by Salieri, Gluck, Cimarosa and Hasse and the world premiere of E.T.A. Hofmann’s Liebe and Eifersucht. From 2006 to 2013, he also served as Principal Conductor of the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester. During his career’s early years, he received generous advice and encouragement from Nikolaus Harnoncourt. He also gained from the experience of working closely over many years with the opera director and designer Herbert Wernicke at Theater Basel.
With his interpretations of operas such as George Frideric Handel's Alcina and Giulio Cesare in Egitto, both staged by Herbert Wernicke, Michael Hofstetter was able to set standards. With the new production of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Opernhaus Dortmund in 2000, he was nominated in the annual critics survey of the journal Opernwelt as Conductor of the Year. Further nominations were made in 2011 for the production Didone abbandonata by Johann Adolf Hasse at the Prinzregententheater München and most recently in 2013 for Agrippina by G.F. Handel and Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber at the Stadttheater Gießen. For his mature understanding and personal commitment to the art of operetta he was honored with the Robert Pride Medal. In May 2008, he received the Horst-Stein-Preis, which was awarded to him for his "hervorragende Arbeit als Leiter der Ludwigsburger Festspiele" (outstanding work as director of the Ludwigsburg Festival).
In 2012 Michael Hofstetter returned to Giessen as General Music Director (GMD), enhancing the Stadttheater’s reputation since with pioneering productions and a determined commitment to fine singing. He has twice been nominated by Opernwelt as Conductor of the Year, while his Giessen theatre has also been nominated for the esteemed magazine’s Opera House of the Year award. Since 2012, he is also Chief Conductor of the recreated Großes Orchester Graz. His music making hallmarked by profound insight and intensity, has attracted keen critical interest and audience acclaim. As GMD in Giessen, he has raised the profile of the town’s Stadttheater and reinforced its position as one of Germany’s most creative and compelling opera venues. He has also achieved distinction as Chief Conductor of ‘recreation’ – Grosses Orchester Graz and recreationBarock, and of the Austrian city’s recently founded Styriarte Festival Orchestra.
Despite his specialization in Baroque music, Michael Hofstetter is considered one of the most versatile German conductors of recent times. His strong progress is clearly reflected in his record of work as a guest conductor. He has been a guest at many internationally renowned opera houses, orchestras and festivals, including the Staatsoper Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper, Staatsoper Hamburg, Oper Stuttgart, Komische Oper Berlin, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatstheater Hannover, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Welsh National Opera, English National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Canadian Opera Company Toronto, Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen, Den Norske Opera in Oslo; Styriarte Graz, Salzburger Festspiele; Concerto Köln, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Orchestre national d’Île de France, Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Noord Nederlands Orkest, among many others. Since 1998 he conducts regularly at the Händel-Festspielen in Karlsruhe. There he appeared with great recently in the beginning of 2011 in Partenope. In the fall of 2008, he conducted a production of Berlioz's opera Béatrice et Bénédict at the Houston Grand Opera, where he returned in 2012 for the conducting of L.v. Beethoven's Fidelio; In the spring of 2009, he conducted W.A. Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Welsh National Opera in Cardiff with an extraordinary success; in 2013 Verdi's La Traviata in a production by Peter Konwitschny at the English National Opera in London.
Many of Michael Hofstetter's performances have been released on CD and DVD by labels such as Oehms Classics, CPO, Deutsche Grammophon, Virgin Classics, Berlin Classics and Naxos, creating a discography that spans everything from rarities by Gluck, J.A. Hasse and Salieri to G.F. Handel's Giulio Cesare, Felix Mendelssohn’s symphonies for strings and Verdi’s Oberto. Highly praised by the press, are his recordings of Schlossfestspiel opera productions from 2005 to 2007 published on the label Oehms Classics. He has also made numerous DVD recordings by ArtHaus, Sony and Deutsche Grammophon. His extraordinary recording of Rossini's Arias and Overtures, which was published in April 2008, has been awarded by the French Academy of Disque Lyrique. A CD with arias from operas by J.A. Hasse, which was recorded by Hofstetter with the Neue Hofkapelle München and the Romanian counter-tenor Valer Sabadus, was elected to the Best of the German Record Critics' Prize in 2012. He conducted several musical programs for German television.
Michael Hofstetter's many awards and honours include the Robert-Stolz-Medaille for his contribution to operetta and the Horst Stein Prize for his achievements at the Ludwigsburg Festival. His album Rossini – Arias and Overtures was awarded the Orphée du meilleur inteprète by L’Académie du Disque Lyrique in France, while Hasse Reloaded received a prestigious Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik in 2012. |
