Whether as an opera conductor, orchestra leader, festival director, or book author, Ingo Metzmacher is consistently committed to music, especially of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Making the new sound familiar and the familiar sound new has been his focus since the beginning of his career.
Ingo Metzmacher was General Music Director of the Hamburg Staatsoper from 1997 to 2005, subsequently Chief Conductor at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, and from 2007 to 2010 Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. From 2016 to 2025, he served as Artistic Director of the KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen.
Ingo Metzmacher is a frequent guest with major orchestras and opera houses and is the author of two books: Keine Angst vor neuen Tönen [Don’t Be Afraid of New Sounds] and Vorhang auf! Oper entdecken und erleben [Curtain Up! Discovering and Experiencing Opera].