It is in his native town,
Lyons, where the French conductor Laurent Wagner begins his musical
education studying bassoon, piano, composition and chamber music.
After several years as orchestra musician he joins the Kapellmeister
class of Prof. Karl Österreicher at the Vienna Music Academy
in 1982. He graduates with honours both in conducting and coaching
practice.
First engagements as Kapellmeister and coach
take him to various German theatres (Heidelberg, Gelsenkirchen,
Wuppertal). In 1989, he is named assistant conductor at the Gran
Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, and from 1990 to 1994, he works
as first Kapellmeister and Deputy Principal Conductor at the Opera
Dortmund. In 1994, Laurent Wagner becomes the youngest Generalmusikdirektor
(GMD) of Germany at the Saarländisches Staatstheater Saarbrücken
where he conducts many interesting concerts and opera productions,
among them Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphony, Berg's entire
symphonic opus, his operas Wozzeck and Lulu and Schoenberg’s
Moses und Aron as part of a cycle Wiener Moderne. From 1998 to
2001, he is Opera Director in St.Gallen where he conducts the
remarkable new productions of Verdi's Don Carlo and Les Vêpres
Siciliennes (in the original French version) which are highly
acclaimed by the audience and the international press. His musical
career leads him then to Ireland where he is from 2003 to 2006
Principal Conductor of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra (Radio
Telefís Eireann) in Dublin. There he sets a benchmark with
a Beethoven-cycle and a concert series focusing on both Viennese
Schools. In Dublin, he conducts as well many opera productions
for Opera Ireland (the Irish premiere of Salome and Katia Kabanova,
Der fliegende Holländer, Jenufa, Orfeo ed Euridice, Imeneo
in Handel's Dublin version of 1742 and La Cenerentola).
In concert Laurent Wagner worked with numerous
orchestras like the Bamberger Symphoniker, Orchester der Beethovenhalle
Bonn, Philharmonisches Orchester Erfurt, Münchner Symphoniker,
Nürnberger Symphoniker, the Irish National Symphony Orchestra
(RTÉNSO), at the Westcork Chamber music Festival in Bantry,
with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Orchestre du
Capitole de Toulouse and in Freiburg, Magdeburg, Osnabrück,
Plauen, Zwickau, Graz, St.Gallen, Bordeaux, Porto, Verona, Tallinn,
Sao Paulo, Peking and Tokio.
He appeared as a guest conductor at the Deutsche
Oper Berlin (Aida), the Oper Chemnitz (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg),
in Basel (Swiss premiere of Il viaggio a Reims and Carmen), in
Cosenza (Carmen) and in Maastricht at Opera Zuid (Un ballo in
maschera, La Bohème).
His passion for voices and his undeniable
success in this field led him to devote himself to the education
of young singers. In July 2006, he taught at the International
Vocal Arts Institute (IVAI) in Tel Aviv, prepared and performed
Mozart's The abduction from the Seraglio with up-and-coming young
singers. He was invited to work there again in 2007 (Le nozze
di Figaro).
Recently, Laurent Wagner was conferred as
a Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite for having been
for more than 20 years an ambassador of French music abroad.
Laurent Wagner speaks German and French perfectly
and also English, Italian and Spanish.
2007
