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Saarbrücken State Theatre: New General Music Director

Yura Yang will be the new General Music Director of the Saarland State Theatre. The South Korean will assume the position in 2027, the theatre announced on Tuesday. Yang is the first woman to hold the post in Saarbrücken. Her contract is set to run until summer 2031. She succeeds Sébastien Rouland, who will leave the theatre in summer 2027 after nine years.

Yura Yang

Born in 1990, Yang is "one of the most exciting and inspiring conductors of her generation," said General Director Michael Schulz. He added that her energy, personality, and musical talent will be a valuable asset to the Saarland State Orchestra and the Music Theatre. The conductor enjoys great esteem among the orchestra's musicians. "With her international experience, clear artistic profile, and ability to inspire and develop an orchestra, she brings the best qualifications to the position of General Music Director," explained Saarland's Minister of Culture, Christine Streichert-Clivot (SPD).

Yang has been First Kapellmeisterin at the Leipzig Opera since 2024. She studied conducting at the music academies in Detmold and Munich. She began her career as a solo répétiteur with conducting duties at the Musiktheater im Revier (2012-2018). She then served as Kapellmeisterin at the Theater Kiel and, in 2019/20, as First Kapellmeisterin and Deputy General Music Director at the Theater Aachen. From 2020 to 2024, she was Kapellmeisterin at the Staatstheater Karlsruhe.

At the Saarland State Theatre, Yang has already conducted a symphony concert with the State Orchestra this season. A year earlier, she stepped in for the opera production "Aida." "Even during my first encounter with the orchestra two years ago, I sensed something special," she explained. "When we performed together again in January, this impression was confirmed: The great joy of making music, the openness, and the shared artistic ambition deeply touched me."

Streichert-Clivot and Schulz thanked the outgoing General Music Director Rouland for his work. "With his outstanding quality, he has decisively shaped musical theatre and made the State Orchestra a renowned ensemble far beyond the borders of Saarland," they emphasized.

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