With his Teatro Real Madrid debut in May 2018, Michael Zlabinger made history as the youngest conductor of Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten. This career milestone continued his consistent engagement with the opera of the 20th century, which had already been refl ected in his work on Moses und Aron (Zurich Opera House), Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Vienna State Opera), Salome (Teatro Carlo Felice) and Elektra (Greek National Opera) and The Lighthouse (Kammeroper Wien & Nationaltheater Mannheim). Furthermore, his core repertoire includes music of the Wiener Klassik and the Strauss family as well as the operatic oeuvre of Richard Wagner. After the world premiere of Marius Felix Lange’s opera Das Gespenst von Canterville, he worked through several seasons as a guest conductor at Zurich Opera House where he also demonstrated his experience in working with choirs as interim chorus master in 2016. A busy concert schedule has taken the conductor to Belgium, Holland, Italy, South Korea, Romania, Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Ecuador, Switzerland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. Since 2018 he is also in close collaboration as guest conductor with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional del Ecuador. Engagements include the Salzburg Festival, the Holland Festival, Klangforum Wien, the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Odense Symphony Orchestra, the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, the Tonkünstler Orchestra, Staatskapelle Weimar and Theater an der Wien. Since May 2022, Michael Zlabinger is Chief Conductor of the festival:philharmonie westfalen.
