DOMINIQUE MEYER
President
The son of a diplomat, Dominique Meyer was born in Alsace, France, in 1955 and spent his childhood in France and Germany.
In September 2010 he became Director of the Vienna State Opera.
Between 1980 and 1984 Dominique Meyer worked as a commissioner at the French Ministry of Industry, where he was in charge of the departments of electronics and computer industries; he was also involved in the planning and foundation of France’s first CD-factory (the second in the world), the MPO in Averton. From 1984 to 1986 he was an advisor in the cabinet of the Minister of Culture Jack Lang, where he was responsible for the film and cultural industries.
From 1986 to 1988 Dominique Meyer was an advisor to the presidents of the Paris Opéra Pierre Viot and Raymond Soubie.
In 1988 he joined the cabinet of the Minister of Culture and Communication with responsibility for film and television.
From 1989 to 1990 he was general director of the Paris Opéra (Palais Garnier and Opéra Bastille).
In 1991 he became a director in the cabinet of the Ministry of Communications and Media under Minister Catherine Tasca.
From 1991 to 1993 he worked as an advisor in the cabinets of Prime Minister Edith Cresson and Pierre Bérégovoy with responsibility for the areas of cultural affairs and communications, youth affairs, education and sports.
He subsequently held the position of general director of the Lausanne Opera from 1994 to 1999. From 1999 until the end of the 2009/2010 season he was general and artistic director of the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris.
In the field of dance Dominique Meyer was from 1991 to 2007 president of the Ballet Angelin Preljocaj and was appointed honorary president in 2007.
From 1995 to 1999 he was a member of the board of the Maurice Béjart Ballet in Lausanne as well as of the Prix de Lausanne dance competition. From 2006 to 2010 he was cashier on the board of the Foundation Nureyev.
In the field of music he was president of the French Youth Orchestra from 2001 to 2010, since 2010 he has been the orchestra’s honorary president. From 1995 to 1999 he was a member of the board of directors of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. As treasurer of the ProQuartet he organized chamber music concerts and string quartet performances. He was artistic consultant to Riccardo Muti during the founding of the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini in Piacenza.
He is currently on the board of directors of the European Music Theatre Academy (EMA) of the University of Vienna as well as of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP).
In the fields of film and television Dominique Meyer was president of the committee “Television, drama and music” at the Centre National de la Cinématographie from 2000 to 2003 and is the author and director of the documentary film Eclats de Voix – Schallende Stimmen (Resonant Voices) about Wagner’s Ring-tetralogy, with Pierre Boulez, Patrice Chéreau, Jeffrey Tate, etc.
Furthermore Dominique Meyer was researcher at the Institute of Science and Research at Paris IX Dauphine University from 1979 to 1980, assistant in market economy at Paris XIII University from 1979 to 1982, professor and historian of economics and economic concepts at Paris III University – INALCO from 1980 to 1988, professor of economics at Lyons II University from 1986 to 1988 and lecturer for the course Master Professionel Administration de la musique et du spectacle vivant at the University of Evry, Paris until 2010.
EVAMARIA WIESER
Evamaria Wieser was born in Vienna. She studied piano, singing and languages.
After a few years at the Holender Agency in Vienna, she worked from 1980-1988 in the artistic direction of the Bavarian State Opera, Munich.
In autumn 1989 she was appointed artistic administrator of the Salzburg Festival under the direction of Gerard Mortier, a position she then hold until 2001.
From 2002-2004 Ms. Wieser was working with Gerard Mortier for the newly founded Ruhr Triennale (Germany) as well as preparing his season programs as director of the Paris Opera.
Since 2003 she has been head of opera production for the Salzburg Easter Festival under the artistic directions of Sir Simon Rattle and Christian Thielemann.
From October 2004 to 2011 Ms. Wieser returned to the Salzburg Festival as director of artistic administration under artistic directors Peter Ruzicka, Jürgen Flimm and Markus Hinterhäuser.
Since 2008 she is European casting consultant for Lyric Opera Chicago.
She was Artistic Consultant for Rome Opera from 2011-2013.
She returns to the Salzburg Festival in 2015 and 2016 for the YSP (Young Singers Project), and in 2017 as director of artistic administration, together with artistic director Markus Hinterhäuser.
LAURENT BRUNNER
Since September 2007, Laurent Brunner is director of Chateau de Versailles Spectacles. He has developed the company significantly in the last ten years, increasing the number of paying visitors by 100% with 1.600.000 tickets in 2016, reopening the Opera Royal, which has been offering a season of around 80 performances every year since 2009 and producing the major Versailles contemporary art exhibitions: from Jeff Koons in 2008 to Olafur Eliasson in 2016. The musical season offers concerts and operas with stars of classical music (Cecilia Bartoli, Philippe Jaroussky, Jordi Savall, John Eliot Gardiner, Raphael Pichon, William Christie….) in the most prestigious venues of the chateau: the Opera Royal, the Chapel and Hall of Mirrors.
Chateau de Versailles de Spectacles today is a company with an annual budget of 16M€ which receives no subsidies from the government. It has 30 permanent employees and 400 summer season staff.
Born in Lorraine in the east of France, Laurent Brunner grew up in Verdun, a landmark city where history and the French-German axis are deeply rooted. He chose Strasbourg for his history and history of art studies. This is where he discovered ancient music and the opera and he launched a festival in Verdun in 1990. Its success led him to the organization of a full season in 1991 and ultimately to a merger with the Theatre Municipal, which became an official state supported stage in 1992.
In 1996, Laurent Brunner became director of the Scène Nationale de Forbach et de l’Est Mosellan (national stage of Forbach and East Moselle), covering 23 cities of the Lorraine coal basin, which he modernised and renamed Le Carreau (The Pithead). The Scène Nationale set up camp in a former pithead (Carreau Wendel in Petite Rosselle) to present shows and performances, strongly developing the offer of classic music in very diverse settings. He developed a project for Mission 2000 en France, with the renovation of an industrial building for the exhibition L’Aventure du travail (The Adventure of Work), coproduced by the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie (Paris) and the Centro de Cultura Contemporanea (Barcelona), with a budget of 3 million euros and 5 million euros renovation works. In 2002 he became also director of the Festival Perspectives in Saarbrücken (Germany).
In May 2002, he joined the cabinet of the French Minister for Culture Jean Jacques Aillagon, as the minister’s technical adviser for performing arts. He was then appointed Cultural Attaché to the French embassy in Berlin (Germany), before moving to Versailles.
PAOLO PINAMONTI
Paolo Pinamonti (1958) graduated in Philosophy at the University of Venice (1982) and in piano at the Conservatory of Padua (1981). He also studied composition at the Conservatory of Venice.
Since 1992, Pinamonti has been a researcher at “Ca ‘Foscari” University of Venice and there he teaches “Theory and Techniques of Contemporary Music” and “History of Contemporary Music”.
Between 1997 and 2000, he was Artistic Director of Teatro La Fenice in Venice and from 2001 to 2007, he worked as General Manager and Artistic Director at Teatro Nacional de São Carlos of Lisbon.
In 2007, Pinamonti moved to Spain and there became Artistic Director of the Festival Mozart in La Coruña.
From 2011 to 2015, he was the Manager of Teatro de la Zarzuela of Madrid while in November 2015, he was appointed Artistic Director of Teatro San Carlo of Naples.
In 2006, Pinamonti was awarded the Ordine Infante Dom Enrique by the President of Portugal, and in 2014, he was made Official of the Order of the Italian Star by the President of Italy. In 2015, Paolo Pinamonti was granted the “Encomenda con Placa” of the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise by the Spanish Royal House.
NICOLA PASZKOWSKI
Nicola Paszkowski graduated in conductorship with full marks at Luigi Cherubini Conservatory in Florence and attended specialization courses with Ferdinand Leitner, Carlo Maria Giulini and Emil Tchakarov.
He has collaborated with several orchestras and institutions including: Orchestra della Toscana, Teatro Verdi of Pisa, Orchestra dei Pomeriggi Musicali of Milan, Orchestra Regionale del Lazio, Filarmonica di Torino, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Orchestra Haydn of Bolzano, the orchestras of Teatro Lirico of Cagliari and Teatro Massimo of Palermo, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Krakow.
From 2000 to 2012, Paszkowski was conductor of the Italian Youth Orchestra.
In 2009, he conducted Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra and the Italian Youth Orchestra at Ravenna Festival upon invitation of Riccardo Muti.
In 2010, he conducted Cherubini Orchestra in Il Trovatore, directed by Cristina Mazzavillani Muti, and on the following year, he conducted the Orchestra and Choir of Teatro dell’Opera di Roma in Nabucco at Mariinskij Theatre in Saint Petersburg.
In 2012, as the closing event of the XXIII edition of Ravenna Festival, Paszkowski performed in the Verdi’s “popular” trilogy: Rigoletto, Trovatore and Traviata at Teatro Alighieri and, in the same year, he conducted Arturo Toscanini Philharmonic Orchestra at the Kissinger Sommer International Musikfestival. In 2013, again under the direction of Cristina Mazzavillani Muti, he conducted “Verdi & Shakespeare” Trilogy: Macbeth, Otello and Falstaff.
In 2015, Nicola Paszkowski staged Il Barbiere di Siviglia for Opera Studio. Then, he inaugurated the summer season of Teatro dell’Opera of Florence with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale and in September, he performed in the concert to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra.
At Ravenna Festival 2015, Paszkowski conducted La Bohème, from Puccini’s Trilogy, directed by Cristina Mazzavillani Muti.
In 2016, he staged in La Vedova allegra for Opera Studio and in April, he conducted Verdi’s Macbeth at Teatro Alighieri of Ravenna, as well as a symphony concert with the orchestra of Teatro Petruzzelli of Bari, and Falstaff and Macbeth at the Savonlinna Opera Festival.
In the same year, he was invited by Raina Kabaivanska to conduct Turandot at the Sofia Opera House. In April 2017, Paszkowski staged La Bohème in Saint Petersburg at the 2nd edition of the festival named after Elena Obrazcova.
He is a member of the jury at M° Riccardo Muti’s Italian Opera Academy.
