Wolfgang Katschner

studied the guitar at the Hanns Eisler School for Music in Berlin, as well as the lute at the School for Music and the Performing Arts in Frankfurt/Main. After working at Schwerin Theatre, he has been freelancing since 1984. From 1985-1992 he worked on the artistic and organisational direction of the "Schütz-Akademie", an ensemble for German and Italian music of the 17th century. It was during this time that his strong affinity for pieces from the period of the 17th century was sparked. He has taught the guitar and lute at the Schools for Music in Berlin and Dresden. Today, he realises the majority of his diverse activities with the LAUTTEN COMPAGNEY Ensemble in Berlin and BELLUM MUSICUM in Weißenfels. Since 1996 he has been busy re-performing Baroque operas. Under his direction, both Ensembles have performed concerts and operas at renowned festivals, such as the Berlin Bach Days, Bayreuth Baroque, the Dresden Music Festival, the Handel Festival in Halle, the Summer Music Festival in Potsdam's Sanssouci, the Hannover-Herrenhausen Festival Weeks, the Kissingen Summer, the Schwetzingen Mozart Festival and the Holland Festival for Ancient Music in Utrecht.

Wolfgang Katschner also took on the musical direction for counter-tenor Axel Köhler's directorial debut in a "Poppea" production by Monteverdi at the opera house in Halle. He staged unknown Dresden Court operas over a four year cycle at the Dresden Music Festival. In 2000, the Dresden Music Festival honoured him with their festival prize for his efforts on works by Bontempi, Peranda, Hasse and Pallavicino.
In June 2004, he was the recipient of the Handel Prize in the town of Halle in recognition of his efforts surrounding the works of George Frederick Handel.

Music by George Frederick Handel occupies a further central position in his artistic work. For the Handel Festival in Halle and the Musical Festival in Potsdam, he contributed a stage production of the dramatic cantatas "Clori, Tirsi e Fileno" and "Apollo e Dafne". In 2002, he directed the Messiah in a German version by J.G. Herder in a Goethe Theatre Bad Lauchstaedt with the Dresden Chamber Choir.

In 2003, he directed the production of the opera buffa "La Divolessa" by Baldassare Galuppi at the Hans Otto Theatre in Potsdam. And he was the director of productions of Handel's operas "Teseo" in 2003, "Amadigi die gaula" (2005) und of Purcell's "King Arthur" (2007) as a co-production of the Handel Festival in Halle, the Goethe Theatre in Bad Lauchstaedt, the Hannover-Herrenhausen Festival Weeks, the Bayreuth Baroque Festival and the Royal Theatre Bury St. Edmunds. In May 2004, Wolfgang Katschner has taken on the musical direction of "Alcina" at the opera in Capetown, South Africa.