Peter Sommerer

The Austrian conductor Peter Sommerer was General Music Director of the Schleswig-Holstein State Theatre until summer 2019 and he performs internationally as guest conductor. At the beginning of the 2019/20 season he made his celebrated debut in Mexico with the Orquesta Sinfónica de la Universidad de Guanajuato. His debut in South Korea with the Bucheon Philharmonic Orchestra marked the beginning of his regular activity in Asia.

In addition, invitations led him to the National Radio Symphony Orchestra Bucharest, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra and other orchestras in Europe. As a mediator between art and politics, Peter Sommerer, due to the corona virus pandemic will perform the Summer of 2021, with the support of the EU and numerous European embassies for the first time in the history of Iran with the Austrian Iranian Symphony Orchestra, expanded with musicians from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam , the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Polish National Radio Orchestra and other well-known European orchestras with Gustav Mahler's 1st Symphony. Peter Sommerer conducted the Schleswig-Holstein Symphony Orchestra for a CD production of Scandinavian music for the record label "hänssler", which was released in summer 2019. His versatility is also underlined by opera productions such as Ligeti's “Le Grand Macabre”, Puccini's “Manon Lescaut”, Donizetti's “Lucia di Lammermoor”, Hindemith's “Cardillac”, Verdi's “La Traviata”, Alban Berg's “Lulu”, Massenet's “Don Quichotte” or Bizet's "Carmen".

Innovative and varied concert programs, from classical-symphonic to "cross-over", have opened up new audience segments and are an expression of his extensive repertoire. The recently performed Symphony No. 1 (1920) by Eduard Erdmann generated a great national response. His moderation at performances of contemporary works, for example, is very popular and gives the audience better access to supposedly “difficult” music. Whereby the press attested him for his New Year's concert: "Peter Sommerer is not only a spirited conductor of his orchestra, but also a gifted speaker" (Shz. 01/2018) He has conducted the Royal Chapel in Copenhagen, at the Zurich Opera House, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Bucheon Philharmonic Orchestra, the Graz Philharmonic Orchestra, the Austro-Iranian Symphony Orchestra Tehran, the Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, the Lübeck, Magdeburg and Jena Philharmonics , the South Danish Philharmonic and also regular philharmonic orchestras in the USA and Canada.

His concern to promote young musicians is expressed in the assumption of artistic direction, as successor to Sebastian Weigle, of the “Brandenburg Youth Philharmonic Orchestra” at the beginning of the 2018/19 season. Peter Sommerer also teaches as a lecturer in conducting and ensemble leading at the Lübeck University of Music. From 2002 to 2005 he was the permanent assistant to Michael Boder, fact that led him to theaters such as the Vienna State Opera, Semperoper Dresden, German State Opera Berlin and the National Theater in Munich. He also worked as a musical assistant in 2004 at the Salzburg Festival. During this time, Peter Sommerer acquired an extensive repertoire of operas by Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss.

After several guest conductors, Peter Sommerer took over in January 2021 the position of the Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Saxon Wind Philharmonic as well as the position of the Artistic Director of the German Wind Academy.