Gerd Amelung

Biography

From the beginning of his career in 2005, Gerd Amelung has been working baroque and classical vocal music as a conductor, vocal coach and historical keyboard player. He studied harpsichord, clavichord, and basso continuo practice in Weimar and Basel.

Following his direction of Hasse’s Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra at the 2018 Ekhof-Festival Gotha, he stepped up to direct Bastien und Bastienne at the Brandenburger Theater, the first opera production to be staged there in ten years.

He conducted Monteverdi’s Ulisse at the Deutsches National Theater Weimar (2021/22) as well as Giuseppe Scarlatti’s Amor Prigionero (2021-23), followed by Georg Anton Benda’s Ariadne auf Naxos (2024/25) at the Schloss Kochberg Liebhabertheater – Theater an der Klassik Stiftung Weimar. His 2024 production of Johann Friedrich Agricola’s Achille in Sciro at the Theater Altenburg-Gera was a widely acclaimed modern times’ world premiere, recorded on CD (Rondeau 2025).

Official Website

www.gerd-amelung.de

Personal Social Networks

Having already provided consultation for the production of Giuseppe Scarlatti’s I portentosi effetti della madre natura (direction: Emmanuel Mouret, musical direction: Dorothee Oberlinger) at the Musikfestspielen Potsdam-Sanssouci 2022, he assisted Dorothee Oberlinger in Keiser’s Nebucadnezar (Winter in Schwetzingen 2023/24, three conducted performances) and Handel’s Alcina (Oper Bonn 2024/25, one conducted performance).

Beyond performing, he is also active as a festival organizer. During 2018-2024, he was appointed artistic director of GÜLDENER HERBST – Festival alter Musik Thüringen, and he acted as interim director of the Händel-Festspiele Halle (Saale) 2024 before taking the direction of the Heinrich Schütz Musikfest 2026.

He has been invited several times to provide coachings and preparation assistance to the chorus at the Semperoper, most recently for productions of Gluck’s Iphigenie in Tauris (choreography: Pina Bausch; musical direction: Jonathon Darlington) and Purcell’s Funeral Sentences for Queen Mary (musical direction: Daniel Harding).

From 2012 until 2019, he acted as artistic assistant to Wolfgang Katschner, in which capacity he also occupied the conductor’s podium of the Philharmonic Orchestra Heidelberg (N. Jommelli: Fetonte und L. Vinci: Didone abbandonata).

Amelung has tought baroque style for singers at the Weimar Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt (2005-2018 and 2020-2023), and was a faculty member of the Weimarer Meisterkurse 2012 – 2014, 2017 and 2019. In 2019, he gave a Baroque opera repertoire masterclass with Vivica Genaux at Barocco Europeo in Italy, 2024 a Baroque masterclass with Emmanuelle de Negri in France, and since 2020, he is working as an accompanist for the first two rounds of the Cesti Competition in Innsbruck.

He is a laureate of the Konzertgesellschaft München and a DAAD grantee.

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