Vita

General Music Director of the Theatre in Kiel from the beginning of the 2019/2020 season

The word has been out among critics and public alike since August 2019: “he’s the new man!” Benjamin Reiners is General Music Director of Kiel, the regional capital of Schleswig-Holstein. And according to Christian Strehk, writing for the Kieler Nachrichten newspaper, he is generating “pure euphoria.” With his wide stylistic range, his wealth of ideas and his love of adventure he finds stunning new focus points in the fields of opera and concert. “We are the orchestra for all the people of Kiel,” says the young conductor, who arrived there with a veritable kaleidoscope of innovative recital and presentation formats and has already conducted acclaimed new stagings of Verdi’s Aida and Otello, Bizet´s Carmen, Korngold’s Die tote Stadt, Mozart’s La finta giardiniera and The Magic Flute and Mendelssohn’s Elijah.

Benjamin Reiners studied conducting and church music at the music colleges in Detmold and Cologne. In 2009 he began his stunning stage career, which has so far taken him to several tradition-rich theatres, where he developed a repertoire spanning many artistic eras alongside the ability to take on works of musical theatre without rehearsal or with a minimum of preparation and to deliver performances of the highest quality.

After an engagement as solo répétiteur and kapellmeister at the State Theatre on Gärtnerplatz in Munich, in 2011 he was appointed deputy kapellmeister with the State Opera of Lower Saxony in Hanover. Just two seasons later he was promoted to principal kapellmeister. From 2016/17 to 2018/19 he was deputy GMD and principal kapellmeister at the National Theatre in Mannheim. In 2018 Benjamin Reiners was appointed GMD and a member of the Board at the municipal theatre in Kiel from the 2019/20 season.

What is more, as an “extraordinarily talented conductor” (according to Gabor Halasz, writing for the newspaper Die Rheinpfalz) Benjamin Reiners is also a highly popular guest conductor at renowned opera and concert houses, taking to the rostrum before famous symphony orchestras. Engagements have so far taken him to venues such as the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the opera house in Graz, the state theatres of Nürnberg and Darmstadt, Duisburg Philharmonic, the state philharmonic of the Rhineland Palatinate and, recorded by ARD-alpha TV, the Munich Radio Orchestra. His premiere at the Rheingau Music Festival in summer 2020 with the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra of Heilbronn was broadcast on Magenta TV.

In the 2022/23 season he made his debut with the Staatskapelle Weimar. He also conducted concerts with the Wuppertaler Sinfonieorchester and with the Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock. He conducted the new productions of Puccini’s “Manon” and Stravinsky’s “Firebird” and “Le sacre du printemps” at the Theater Kiel. Highlights of the last concert season were Mahler’s 5th Symphony, Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, Beethoven’s Ninth and a concert performance of Bernstein’s “Candide”.

In the 2023/24 season, he will contuct the new productions of »La Bohème«, »Falstaff«, »Freischütz« and the world premiere of »Die Buddenbrooks« by Ludger Vollmer in Kiel.
Upcoming engagements include his debuts at the Aalto Theater in Essen and the Beethoven Orchestra in Bonn, as well as his return to the Oper Frankfurt.

Furthermore, the young GMD can already look back on successful collaborations with famous soloists and composers including Frank Peter Zimmermann, Angela Denoke, Anja Harteros, Sondra Rodvanovsky, Norbert Ernst, Michael Volle, Ana de la Vega, Bomsori Kim, Nils Mönkemeyer, Fabian Müller and Hindemith Prize winner S.J. Hanke.

Benjamin Reiners makes a special effort to promote and encourage music education and awareness, as witness his role as Chairman of the Academies at Theater Kiel and guest conductor with the state youth orchestras in Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein.

2023-08-01

Media

theaterKIEL* | MANON LESCAUT

theaterKIEL* | DIE TOTE STADT

Deutsche Oper am Rhein | DIE FLEDERMAUS

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