Axel Kober

Axel Kober’s interpretations of a wide opera and concert repertoire grow on the basis of profound knowledge, enormous experience and a comprehensive musical sense into spheres of inspiring emotionality. From 2009 to 2024 Axel Kober has been General Music Director of Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf/Duisburg, where he set a distinctive course in a wide repertoire and continuously developed the house, orchestra and ensemble through his ideas and tireless commitment. Outstanding productions include Wozzeck, Der Kaiser von Atlantis, Peter Grimes, Castor et Pollux, Kat’a Kabanova, the world premiere of Jörg Widmann’s Gesicht im Spiegel, a newly edited production of Tristan und Isolde as well as the complete Der Ring des Nibelungen released on CD in Spring 2021. His work at Deutsche Oper am Rhein was also highly appreciated by the two orchestras which he also regularly conducted in concerts. The Duisburg Philharmonic further intensified the collaboration and appointed Kober as chief conductor in 2017 and GMD in 2019. As guest conductor, Axel Kober built a special relationship with the Vienna State Opera, where he made his debut in 2016. In addition to his euphorically received Ring cycle in 2019 and the immediate re-invitation to further Ring cycles in 2022, he conducted there Hänsel und Gretel, Der Rosenkavalier, Arabella, Fidelio, Mahler's 4th, Tosca and Turandot. In the 2024/25 season, he will conduct Macbeth, Hänsel und Gretel, Fidelio and Parsifal. Further recent invitations led him to Bayreuth Festival, Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Hamburgische Staatsoper, Semperoper Dresden and Opernhaus Zurich. In Tokyo he conducted Keith Warner’s Tannhäuser, at the Opéra National du Rhin he led a new production of Tristan und Isolde. In concerts Axel Kober conducted, among others, the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Bruckner Orchester Linz, Dortmunder Philharmoniker, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition to his engagements in Vienna and Duisburg, Axel Kober will return to the Royal Danish Opera Copenhagen, the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, the Semperoper Dresden and the Zurich Opera House in the 2024/25 season. On the concert platform, he will perform with the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, the Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe and the RSO Prague, among others. After studying conducting in Würzburg, first engagements took Axel Kober to Schwerin and Dortmund, before he became deputy, later acting GMD in Mannheim and music director of Oper Leipzig, where he also regularly conducted concerts of the Gewandhausorchester.