DOMINIQUE MEYER
President
Dominique Meyer was appointed Director of the Vienna State Opera in 2007, beginning his tenure in September 2010.
Originally from Alsace in France, Dominique Meyer worked in the cabinets of the French Ministry of Culture and Communication and of the Prime Minister for several years, and held positions as general director of the Opéra de Paris (Palais Garnier and the newly opened Opéra Bastille), the Lausanne Opera and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris among others.
Mr. Meyer’s contract in Vienna has got extended to run through the summer 2020.
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.
JORMA SILVASTI
Jorma Silvasti is today’s most successful Finnish tenors on the world stage.
His breakthrough came when he won the Timo Mustakallio Singing Competition in 1982.
He has been a soloist with the Krefeld-Mönchengladbach Opera and the Baden State Opera, and, from 1991 to 2014, he was with the Finnish National Opera.
He has sung key roles in the Classical-Romantic repertoire, 20th century opera and Finnish contemporary opera.
Silvasti has made guest appearances singing major parts at many of the world’s top venues, including New York’s Metropolitan, the Vienna State Opera, London’s Covent Garden, the Berlin State Opera, Deutsche Oper, the Hamburg State Opera and the Bayreuth Festival.
He has also performed on many complete recordings of operas, of which that of Janáček’s Jenufa won a Grammy Award in 2004.
Silvasti has regularly appeared as a guest performer at the Savonlinna Opera Festival.
In September 2013 he began as Artistic Director of the Festival.
In addition to the Mustakallio Competition, he served as chairman of the jury in the Mirjam Helin competitions in 2009 and 2014.
GUIDO BARBIERI
Guido Barbieri, a music critic for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, teaches history and aesthetics of music at the “G. Rossini” Conservatory of Music of Pesaro.
For thirty years he has been a presenter and an advisor for Radio 3 and presently he is working on the programme called “Lezioni di musica” (Music lessons).
In 2006, Barbieri founded the “Contemporanea” festival taking place at the Auditorium Parco della Musica of Rome and last year he created an association called “She Lives” for the diffusion of contemporary musical culture.
Barbieri has been the artistic director of the “B. Barattelli” Concert Society of L’Aquila and the consultant for the artistic activities of the Petruzzelli Theatre in Bari. At present, he is the artistic director of the Teatro delle Muse and of the “Guido Michelli” Concert Society of Ancona.
Barbieri has written several musicology essays and plays for the theatre.
The latest one is a libretto for the opera “Il viaggio di Roberto” (Roberto’s journey), with the music by Paolo Marzocchi, staged last year in Ravenna, Modena and Piacenza.
In 2006, Barbieri was awarded the “Feronia” prize for musical criticism.
MATTEO BELTRAMI
Matteo Beltrami graduated in violin at the “N. Paganini” Conservatory of Music of Genoa and in orchestra conducting at the “G. Verdi” Conservatory of Music of Milan.
He had his debut at the age of 20 in Genoa conducting Il Trovatore of G. Verdi.
In his seventeen-year-long career Beltrami has performed in over thirty operas ranging from Baroque repertoire to premieres of contemporary works conducting them in most Italian theatres (San Carlo in Naples, Massimo in Palermo, Bellini in Catania, Carlo Felice in Genoa, Filarmonico in Verona, La Fenice in Venice, Verdi in Trieste, Coccia in Novara, Sociale in Como, Fraschini in Pavia, Grande in Brescia, Ponchielli in Cremona, Comunale in Treviso, Sociale in Rovigo, Verdi in Pisa, Giglio in Lucca, Goldoni in Livorno, Alighieri in Ravenna, Verdi Festival in Parma, Politeama Greco in Lecce, Della Fortuna in Fano, Pergolesi in Jesi, De Carolis in Sassari, Dal Verme in Milan, Comunale in Vicenza, Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, Stabile in Potenza and Civico in Vercelli).
Beltrami has also worked in prestigious events and with eminent orchestras abroad (the Staatstheater in Stuttgart, the Semperoper in Dresden, the Aalto-Theater in Essen, the Staatsheater in Darmstadt, the Staatstheater in Lübeck, the Opera Theatre in Montpellier, the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Spoleto/Charleston Festival (U.S.A), the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, the State Hermitage Orchestra, the Goiania Symphony Orchestra and the Teatro Arriaga in Bilbao).
From 2007 to 2013, Beltrami worked as a teacher at the “G. da Venosa” Conservatory of Music in Potenza.
He is frequently invited as a member of the jury in international opera competitions.