The radioeins storytelling concert – “The Magic Mountain”

“Tchaikovsky has never been more modern, and conductor Valentin Uryupin lives this out consistently and rather stunningly.” – Süddeutsche Zeitung

Valentin Uryupin feels equally at home conducting both symphonic and operatic repertoire. In recent years, he has established close artistic partnerships with various orchestras and opera houses in both areas. This season, in addition to several debuts, he has several return invitations, including with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (where he made his debut in a CDD production for Sony Classical), and the Teatro Regio Torino, where he will lead a new production of Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades. He will also make his first regular season appearance with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra following a successful substitute engagement in spring 2024.

Notable debuts this season include performances with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, where he will conduct concerts with cellist Julia Hagen in Antwerp and Ghent, at the Berlin State Opera (in Carmen), and at the Bavarian State Opera (conducting Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Schönberg’s Erwartung). He has developed a close collaboration with the Frankfurt Opera, where he will return to conduct a new production of Tchaikovsky’s The Enchantress this season, having previously achieved great success with Oedipus Rex and Jolanthe.

As a guest conductor, he has also worked with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, Tapiola Sinfonietta, SWR Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra della Toscana, Orchestra Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, German Radio Philharmonic Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. In the realm of opera, he has led highly praised productions at the Stuttgart State Opera, New National Theatre Tokyo, Hanover State Opera, Nuremberg Theatre, and the Bregenz Festival (including Eugene Onegin in 2021 and Siberia in 2022). He has also been a frequent guest at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl. Uryupin has collaborated with soloists such as Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Lars Vogt, Thomas Hampson, Bryn Terfel, Barbara Hannigan, Pepe Romero, Asmik Grigoryan, Vadim Gluzman, Vadim Repin, Yuri Bashmet, Denis Matsuev, Nikolai Lugansky, Sergei Khachatryan, and Marc-André Hamelin. His repertoire spans all periods, from Joseph Haydn and Jan Dimas Zelenka to Thomas Adès, Jörg Widmann, and Kaija Saariaho.

In autumn 2021, Valentin Uryupin became Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Novaya Opera in Moscow, where he presented major productions of Korngold’s Die tote Stadt and Massenet’s Cendrillon before stepping down. As Artistic Director of the Rostov Symphony Orchestra from 2015 to 2021, he developed the orchestra into one of Russia’s most prestigious ensembles. Uryupin has also made regular guest appearances with leading Russian orchestras, including the State Academic Symphony Orchestra “Evgeny Svetlanov,” the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Mariinsky Orchestra, the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra, with whom he most recently performed at the Lucerne Festival in 2021. He also worked closely with the MusicAeterna Orchestra at the Perm Opera for several years.

Born in Losova, Ukraine, in 1985, Valentin Uryupin first gained recognition as a clarinetist, winning over 20 international competitions and performing worldwide before finding success as a conductor. The winner of the 8th Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition (2017), he completed his studies in both clarinet and conducting at the Moscow State Conservatory. His mentors include Gennadi Rozhdestvensky and clarinetist Evgeny Petrov. He also assisted Valery Gergiev, Teodor Currentzis, and Vladimir Jurowski, and received important guidance from Kurt Masur in his final master class. While his soloist career has now taken a back seat to his conducting engagements, he occasionally performs as both a conductor and clarinetist in play-conduct concerts and remains a passionate chamber musician.

The actress and publisher Meike Rötzer, born in Bünde in 1971, completed her acting training at the Otto Falckenberg School in Munich. She made her debut at the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe in 1996 and performed at the Städtische Bühnen Kiel from 2000.
Further freelance productions followed, including at the Berlin theatre Berliner Sophiensæle. Her debut in front of the camera began directly on the big screen in cinema films such as ‘Einer meiner ältesten Freunde’ (1994) and ‘Ab nach Tibet! Meike Rötzer has been recording for radio plays and audio books since 2007, such as ‘Wir müssen die Liebe neu erfinden’ (2023) by Mona Chollet or ‘Eva’ (2023) by Verena Keßler.
For her work on Katja Petrowskaja’s ‘Vielleicht Esther’, she was nominated for the German Audiobook Award for Best Interpreter in 2023. In the podcast ‘NATURerKUNDEN’, which she produced, she has been discussing the topics of nature and animals with changing dialogue partners since 2021.
From 2008 to 2022, she worked as an editor for fiction at the publishing house Matthes & Seitz Berlin.
Rötzer founded Erzählbuchverlag in 2022, through which she publishes audiobooks. The dramas and novels of world literature are condensed and told in contemporary language. She performs with the narrative solos at the Deutsches Theater Berlin, Literaturhaus Frankfurt, among others, and radioeins has been broadcasting the narrative lounge “Richtig gutes Zeug!”, which she co-founded, since 2022.

Photo © Nik Konietzny