Marc Niemann

Marc Niemann (born March 28, 1973) is a German conductor. He has been music director of the City of Bremerhaven and chief conductor of the Bremerhaven Philharmonic Orchestra since the 2014/2015 season.

Early life and education

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After studying piano with Prof. Evelinde Trenkner-Boie at the Musikhochschule Lübeck, Niemann transferred to the Universität der Künste Berlin to begin training as a conductor with Prof. Lutz Köhler.

He also received further inspiration from masterclasses with Paul Goodwin (historical performance practice), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (song interpretation), Peter Berne (interpretation of Italian operas) and Bernard Haitink.

Career

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After working at Lübeck theatre and the Eutin Opera Festival, he took up a position at the Braunschweig State Theatre in 2001. Here, Marc Niemann conducted a broad repertoire before being engaged as Principal Conductor at the Pforzheim Theatre for the 2005/2006 season, where he conducted works from the opera repertoire and worked on new concepts for music education.

Marc Niemann moved to the Cottbus State Theatre as Principal Conductor for the 2008/2009 season. In addition to numerous premieres and concerts, his productions of the opera Cosima.[1] by Siegfried Matthus and the interdisciplinary theatrical project Pückler's Utopia[2] by James Reynolds and Christoph Klimke, directed by Johann Kresnik, gained national recognition.

Marc Niemann has been General Music Director of the Stadttheater Bremerhaven and Chief Conductor of the Bremerhaven Philharmonic Orchestra since the 2014/2015 season.

He continues to develop the orchestra's spectrum through new concert formats and focuses on contemporary music by having a composer in residence (including Stefan Heucke, Siegfried Matthus, Lutz-Werner Hesse, Mauro Montalbetti, Detlev Glanert, Elena Kats-Chernin, Giorgio Battistelli and Lera Auerbach) work with the orchestra every season. In 2015, the Stadttheater Bremerhaven was awarded the German Federal Theatre Prize[3] for its performance of Sándor Szokolay's opera Bluthochzeit, which was conducted by Marc Niemann, and in 2016 it was named one of the best theatres apart from the metropolitan centres by the magazine Die Deutsche Bühne.

The ambitious programming of the symphony concert series and the innovative target group-oriented expansion of the programme, particularly in the area of children and youth work, was recognised in 2017 when the Philharmonic Orchestra was included in the german governmental funding programme Exzellente Orchesterlandschaft Deutschland[4]

In the critics' survey conducted by Opernwelt magazine in autumn 2018, Marc Niemann was nominated for the title of Conductor of the Year for his “expressive interpretation of Menotti's KONSUL”[5] and another nomination for Conductor of the Year was made for Opus Klassik 2023[6]

Marc Niemann has conducted the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra della Toscana Firenze, the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, the Berliner Symphoniker, the Sinfonietta Riga, the Rheinische Philharmonie Koblenz, the Staatskapelle Halle, the Loh-Orchester Sondershausen-Nordhausen, the Brandenburger Symphoniker, the Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie Chemnitz, the Bielefelder Philharmoniker, the Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal, the Philharmonic Orchestra Altenburg-Gera, the Staatskapelle Schwerin, the Kammerakademie Potsdam and the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, the Osnabrück Symphony Orchestra, the Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie, the Klassische Philharmonie Bonn and the Staatsorchester Braunschweig.He has also been a guest at various festivals such as the Beethovenfest Bonn,[7] the Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg, the Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte di Montepulciano and the Realtime Festival Bremen for contemporary music.In the 2022 season, Marc Niemann took over the position of direttore musicale at the Festival Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte di Montepulciano[8] and conducted several concerts and music theatre productions.

Discography

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His discography includes the complete recording of all Beethoven symphonies, recordings of Manuel Göttsching's film music for Murnau's ‘Schloss Vogelöd’, a recording of several works by the contemporary composer Prof. Dr Lutz-Werner Hesse.The world premiere recording of the sixth symphony by composer Emilie Mayer, which was released together with the third symphony on the Hänssler Classic label, caused a great stir.[9] This recording was nominated for the International Classical Music Awards [10] and for the Opus Klassik as Symphonic Recording of the Year 2023.[11] Most recently, a recording of works by Swiss composer Hans Schaeuble was released on the Solo Musica label [12]

Marc Niemann has been Chairman of the Bremen State Music Council since 2021[13] and acts as a juror for the German Music Council's Conducting Forum. He is married to the dramaturge and marketing manager Kristin Niemann [14].

Scholarships and grants

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  • Stipendium der Oscar und Vera Ritter-Stiftung (1996)
  • Stipendium der Richard-Wagner-Stiftung Bayreuth (2004)
  • Carl-Newmann-Preis der Max Grünebaum Stiftung (2011)

Recordings

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  • Manuel Göttsching Concert for Murnau, MG-Art 2005
  • Ludwig van Beethoven, Sinfonien Nr. 1 und 5, Stadttheater Bremerhaven 2015
  • Ludwig van Beethoven, Sinfonien Nr. 4 und 7, Stadttheater Bremerhaven 2016
  • Ludwig van Beethoven, Sinfonien Nr. 8 und 3, Stadttheater Bremerhaven 2017
  • Ludwig van Beethoven, Sinfonien Nr. 2 und 6, Stadttheater Bremerhaven 2018
  • Ludwig van Beethoven, Sinfonie Nr. 9, Stadttheater Bremerhaven 2022[15]
  • Lutz-Werner Hesse, Ich habe Dich gewahlt, Musicaphon 2020
  • Emilie Mayer, Sinfonien Nr. 6 und 3, Hänssler Classic 2022
  • Hans Schaeuble, Sinfonietta Riga, Oliver Triendl, Kai Frömgen, Solo Musica 2024
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References

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  1. ^ "Von Klaus Büstrin: Tod durch Parsifal-Musik". Der Tagesspiegel Online (in German). ISSN 1865-2263. Retrieved 2024-09-10.
  2. ^ "Staatstheater Cottbus". 2017-05-11. Archived from the original on 2017-05-11. Retrieved 2024-09-10.
  3. ^ NWZonline.de (2015-12-23). "Theaterpreis nach Bremerhaven". www.nwzonline.de (in German). Retrieved 2024-09-10.
  4. ^ "Geschichte - Stadttheater Bremerhaven". stadttheaterbremerhaven.de. Retrieved 2024-09-10.
  5. ^ "Stadttheater Bremerhaven als Opernhaus des Jahres nominiert!, Stadttheater Bremerhaven, Story - lifePR". www.lifepr.de. Retrieved 2024-09-10.
  6. ^ "Im Rennen um den Opus Klassik: Zwei Nominierungen für Bremerhaven". NZ-Online (in German). Retrieved 2024-09-10.
  7. ^ "Stummfilm mit Live-Orchester - 15.09.2018 - Beethovenfest Bonn". 2021-12-13. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13. Retrieved 2024-09-10.
  8. ^ Hetscher, Iris (2021-12-09). "Bremerhavener Generalmusikdirektor leitet Festival in Italien". weser-kurier-de (in German). Retrieved 2024-09-10.
  9. ^ Kultur, S. W. R. (2022-06-14). "Die CD "Symphonien Nr. 6 & Nr. 3" von Emilie Mayer unter der Leitung von Marc Niemann". swr.online (in German). Retrieved 2024-09-10.
  10. ^ "ICMA-Awards". NZ-Online (in German). Retrieved 2024-09-10.
  11. ^ "Im Rennen um den Opus Klassik: Zwei Nominierungen für Bremerhaven". NZ-Online (in German). Retrieved 2024-09-10.
  12. ^ GmbH, Solo Musica (2024-05-09). "Sinfonietta Riga / Oliver Triendl / Kai Frömbgen / Marc Niemann - Hans Schaeuble". Solo Musica (in German). Retrieved 2024-09-10.
  13. ^ "News | 20. Mai 2021 | GMD Marc Niemann wird neuer Vorsitzender des Landesmusikrats Bremen". miz.org (in German). Retrieved 2024-09-10.
  14. ^ "Stadttheater Bremerhaven macht sich fit für die neue Saison". NZ-Online (in German). Retrieved 2024-09-10.
  15. ^ "Philharmonisches Orchester: Herzensprojekt liegt auf CD vor" (in German). Retrieved 2023-04-10.