Discover our CONDUCTORS spring 2025

Guided by the conductors’ baton wizardry, the Royal Swedish Orchestra achieves amazing performances – be it opera, symphonic or ballet scores. Discover the conductors who will be gracing the Royal Swedish Opera with their presence this coming spring!

In opera the conductor is as important as the director, and in ballet they’re as important as the choreographer. The conductor is involved in the artistic process from the word go, and plays a major part in shaping the work being performed.

At the same time as an opera or ballet is selected – two or three years before the premiere or revival – a conductor is also appointed. They then start their preparation by studying the opera or ballet score and familiarising themself with the music: its content and language, and what is to be highlighted.

The conductor thereby builds up their own interpretation, giving it musical shape. Their dialogue with the director or choreographer – who are responsible for the visual content – is thus extremely important. So the conductor’s not just a musician who guides the orchestra through a performance but someone who decides on how the music is to sound and feel.

ALAN GILBERT

Alan Gilbert has been Operan’s music director since 2021, and in 2022 the King of Sweden appointed him as Royal Court Kapellmeister. He’s also the chief conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Hamburg – a post he took up in 2019 after eight years as the New York Philharmonic’s music director. In spring 2025 Alan will be conducting Le nozze di Figaro – his first Mozart opera at the Royal Swedish Opera – and Wagner’s Die Walküre. Alan also conducts the Royal Swedish Orchestra’s big Early Summer Concert on Operan’s main stage, which rounds off the entire season with a sumptuous Mahler symphony.

JAMES HENDRY

The young British musician James Hendry is Hanover State Opera’s principal conductor. He’s conducted at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opéra National de Lyon, Finnish National Opera, English National Opera and Oper Frankfurt. Spring 2025 will see his first appearances at Operan, with Le nozze di Figaro, for which he will be working in tandem with Alan Gilbert and will be taking the podium for a number of performances.

NIR KABARETTI

The Israeli conductor Nir Kabaretti is the Santa Barbara Symphony’s music director. He’s conducted opera at Teatro Real in Madrid, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino festival in Florence and the opera houses in Tokyo, Israel and Lausanne. Having conducted Mats Ek’s Juliet & Romeo at the Royal Swedish Opera in 2023 he is once again collaborating with the Swedish master choreographer in the new dance work A Cup of Coffee (En kopp kaffe) – the second half of the double bill McGregor/Ek.

VINCENZO MILLETARÌ

Vincenzo Milletarì, from Italy, is a regular visitor to Operan – since 2019 he’s conducted Rigoletto, La Traviata, Carmen, Madama Butterfly, Ariadne auf Naxos and Il barbiere di Siviglia here, as well as the 2022 New Year’s concert. He’s now returning to the helm to work with the Royal Swedish Orchestra in Puccini’s La bohème, which he’s previously conducted at Göteborg Opera. He’s also worked at Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, Norwegian National Opera in Oslo and Bergen National Opera. He’s basically a real Scandophile, and this is ideal for the current Bohème staging. 

PHILIPPE BÉRAN

The frequently returning Swiss ballet conductor Philippe Béran is a force of reliability and stability to the Royal Swedish Ballet. This maestro conducts both opera and ballet, though the latter is his favourite genre, and he’s worked with dance companies such as New York City Ballet and Paris Opera Ballet. Since 2009 he’s taken the podium at the Royal Swedish Opera for a number of ballets: Coppélia, The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, the double bill Dancing Forward, Swan Lake and Manon. He’s now back for another classical ballet: Giselle.

TOBIAS RINGBORG

Tobias Ringborg is one of the foremost Swedish opera conductors of our time, as well as being a busy solo and ensemble violinist. Unsurprisingly for someone of his talents, his career has taken him to many countries, including the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Denmark, but the core of his work is in Sweden. His first job at the Royal Swedish Opera was for the 2001 production of La bohème, since when he’s conducted the operas Rigoletto, Tosca, Turandot, Carmen, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Fedora and The Promise (Löftet) and the ballets Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty in much-loved performances on our main stage. In 2025 he’s taking over the baton from Vincenzo Milletarì for Linus Fellbom’s staging of Il barbiere di Siviglia.

EWA STRUSIŃSKA

The Polish/British musician Ewa Strusińska is the general music director of the Gerhart Hauptmann Theatre Görlitz-Zittau and the chief conductor of the Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie. She’s built up a sizeable opera and ballet repertoire as assistant conductor at Polish National Opera in Warsaw, and has conducted a host of orchestras worldwide – from Wales to Johannesburg to Norrköping. Ewa was at Operan’s orchestral helm for many performances of the ballet Cinderella in 2022 and 2023, and is now returning for another ballet with a languorous score by Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet, with Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s legendary choreography.

INES KAUN

Operan’s chorus master is the German musician Ines Kaun, who has focused on choral conducting but has also conducted operas and orchestral concerts. She arrived here with several prestigious jobs already under her belt, namely chorus-master positions at Theater und Orchester Heidelberg, Salzburg State Theatre and Staatstheater Darmstadt. In 2025 she’ll be musical director for our triple bill of shortformat operas, Short Stories V, for which all the soloists will be Operan chorus members.

MATTIAS BÖHM

Mattias Böhm is engaged at Operan as a repetiteur, but also conducts. A repetiteur is someone who rehearses with the singers at the keyboard, in preparation for rehearsals with orchestra and conductor – a sort of link between conductor and soloists before they meet face to face. The dialogue between repetiteur and conductor is important, as the repetiteur must convey the conductor’s musical vision to the singers. Mattias Böhm’s most recent appearance on the podium was Short Stories III (2022). Prior to that he conducted Salome in 2014, The Performance (Föreställningen) in 2019 and a number of Young Opera productions: My Brother is Don Juan (Min bror är Don Juan), Dido and Aeneas, The Way Back Home (Vägen hem), When, then? (När då då) and Orlando. In Julius Caesar, Mattias Böhm is once again leading a Royal Swedish Orchestra chamber ensemble in an exciting new Young Opera production on the Rotundan stage.

SOFIA WINIARSKI

Sofia Winiarski is one of Sweden’s rising stars. Norma and the operetta Im weißen Rößl were conducting triumphs for her at Folkoperan, as was the musical Wicked at Gothenburg Opera, and she has also conducted the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. She will be making her Operan debut in spring 2025 – taking up the baton for a number of performances of the ballet Giselle.

SERGEJ BOLKHOVETS

Sergej Bolkohovets, who was born in St Petersburg, grew up in Täby and now lives in Berlin, is an exciting conductor with a background as a violinist. He was an assistant conductor at Gothenburg Opera from 2020 to 2022, and has also been at the helm at Folkoperan, Konserthuset in Stockholm and Malmö Live. He has worked abroad conducting prestigious orchestras such as the Hallé in Manchester, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the Bavarian State Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic. The Royal Swedish Opera is hiring him to conduct our annual summer concert in Haga on Sweden’s National Day, 6th June.