Walter Kobéra, Conductor & Artistic Director
Began his violin studies at the age of 7 at the "Konservatorium der Stadt Wien". After completing secondary school, studied German language and literature and theology at the University of Vienna. Member of the "Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria" till 2001, serving later as conductor and musical assistant to I. Karabtchevsky and Fabio Luisi. 1986 founding of the "Amadeus Ensemble-Wien": in addition to numerous concert and opera appearances in venues including the Wiener Konzerthaus, radio and & CD-recordings such as "Mozart & Salieri: Motets and Arias", "Johannes Brahms: A German Requiem" and "G. Verdi: Macbeth".
Since 1991 musical director, since 1993 also artistic director of the "Neue Oper Wien". Celebrated by the press and audiences were, among others, renditions of W.A. Mozart's "Idomeneo", G. Verdi's "Macbeth", G. Donizetti's "Don Pasquale", K.A. Hartmann's "Simplicius Simplicissimus", A. Berg's "Lulu". L. Bernstein's "Candide" and W. Rihm's "Jakob Lenz".
The Austrian premieres of K. Weill's "Silbersee", B. Britten's "Billy Budd", M. Brand's "Machinist Hopkins", A. Reiman's "Lear", M. Trojahn's "Enrico", Tan Dun's "Marco Polo" and Schnittke's "Historia von D. Johann Fausten" were all realized under the direction of Walter Kobera.
Walter Kobéra has directed numerous concerts with Austrian and international symphony orchestras. Among them are the "Bruckner Orchestra Linz", the "Wiener Volksoper Orchestra", the "Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria", the "RSO-Bratislava" and the "Baltic Philharmonie". He is a regular guest conductor at domestic and international festivals - the "KlangBogen Festival Wien" for example - and is associate lecturer for New Music at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.
Since 1994 Walter Kobéra is also the principal conductor of the "Ensemble Johann Strauss-Vienna"; since its founding he has numerous appearances at home and abroad with this ensemble to his credit; radio & TV-recordings of the concerts in the Warsaw Philharmonie in 1993 and 1999 were among the musical high points with this ensemble.
With the "Amadeus Ensemble" whose repertoire ranges from sacred music to the Baroque and beyond, the "Ensemble Johann Strauss-Vienna" whose musical emphasis is the composers of the Strauss dynasty and its contemporaries and the "Neue Oper Wien" which is considered to be a trail-blazer of modern music theater in Austria, Walter Kobéra spans a broad musical spectrum.