Photo: Kiermeyer

Karl-Heinz Steffens

Representation: Australasia, North America, Scandinavia, UK and Ireland

Music Director: Halle Opera and Staatskapelle
Music Director: Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz

Karl-Heinz Steffens relinquished his post as Principal Clarinet of the Berlin Philharmonic and his international solo career in 2007 to devote himself to conducting and to take up his position as General Music Director of the Staatskapelle and Opera Halle. At the time, the Berlin Tagesspiegel wrote that “The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra has lost one of its most significant instrumentalists – but the music world has gained a Maestro burning for action” and indeed Karl-Heinz Steffens’ conducting career has developed at a remarkable speed. At the start of the 2009/10 season, he took up a further appointment as Music Director of the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz in Ludwigshafen.

Meanwhile Karl-Heinz Steffens appears throughout Germany with orchestras such as the Bamberg Symphony, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Hamburg Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic and the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig and Stuttgart.  This season Karl-Heinz Steffens makes his debut in Japan with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and has guest appearances with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester München, the Bern Symphony, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo; he returns for the third consecutive season to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.  Future engagements include concerts with the Danish National Radio Symphony, the Hallé Orchestra and the Helsinki Philharmonic.

Additionally, Karl-Heinz Steffens is also a prolific operatic conductor. He made his debut in 2008 at the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden with performances of Fidelio, leading to regular annual appearances there with performances of Tosca, La Traviata and this season The Bartered Bride.  In January 2012 he makes his debut at La Scala Milan conducting Don Giovanni.

With the Staatskapelle Halle and the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Steffens has invited the German director Hansgünther Heyme to stage a new Wagner Ring.  Performances commenced last season with Das Rheingold to press acclaim; the Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung commented: “What he drew out of the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz throughout the evening was astonishing, not just in terms of stylistic clarity and judiciously formed climaxes, but also tone colour and luminosity.  Karl-Heinz Steffens conducts like a man possessed.” The project will culminate in spring 2013 with performances of the complete cycle in both Halle and Ludwigshafen.

Promoters please note: if you wish to include this biography in a concert programme etc, please contact Hazard Chase to ensure that you receive the most up to date version.
Email: James Leakey