Peter Heilker will be the new artistic director of the Leipzig Opera. The Leipzig City Council confirmed the appointment of the Mülheim native on Wednesday, as announced by the Leipzig Opera. Heilker will thus assume the artistic leadership of the house on August 1, 2028. His contract initially runs for five years.

Lydia Schubert and Peter Heilker

The designated artistic director said he looked forward to helping shape the future of the Leipzig Opera in dialogue with artists, audiences, and the city. "Even under the challenging conditions of municipal cultural funding, I am confident about the opera house's development potential and will advocate for a clear artistic positioning and stable structural framework." Leipzig's great tradition as a city of music serves as his guide and benchmark.

Born in 1972, Heilker comes from the MusikTheater an der Wien, where he has served as Program and Casting Director and Deputy Artistic Director since 2022. At the Leipzig Opera, he succeeds Tobias Wolff, who will become General Director of the Braunschweig State Theatre in the summer of 2026. In addition to the Artistic Directorship, Heilker will also assume the role of Opera Director. Until 2028, Administrative Director Lydia Schubert and General Music Director Ivan Repusic will lead the opera house. Heilker is scheduled to begin preparations for his new position as Artistic Director in August 2027.

Heilker studied theatre studies, modern German literature, and psycholinguistics in Munich and worked at the Munich Biennale for New Music Theatre from 1994. From 1998 to 2008, he was a dramaturge, and from the 2006/07 season, head dramaturge at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. From 2008 to 2021, Heilker was opera director at the Theater St. Gallen, where he oversaw a music theatre program encompassing a broad spectrum of opera, operetta, musicals, and dance.

The Leipzig Opera, with over 325 years of history, is the third oldest opera house in Europe.

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