In November 2007, Bernhard Kontarsky conducts Zemlinsky’s König Kandaules with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. The new production of this opera at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie as well as the Opéra National de Lorraine earned the German conductor international acclaim in the 2005/06 season. He also conducts concerts of Dusapin and Ravel at the Konzerthaus Dortmund and the Philharmonie Essen.
 
In the 2006/07 season Bernhard Kontarsky led the world premiere of the opera L’Autre Côté by Bruno Mantovani at the Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg as well as the world premiere of the opera Faust by Philippe Fénelon at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse. He also conducted Il Segreto di Susanna by Wolf-Ferrari and a Florentine Tragedy by Zemlinsky at the Opéra National de Montpellier. The press was jubilant at every performance.
 
In recent seasons, Bernhard Kontarsky was engaged at the Opéra National de Paris for the ballet Nosferatu by Dusapin, in Toulouse for Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov as well as Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Requiem for a young poet with the Holland Symfonia in Haarlem. Further engagements led him to the Grand Théâtre de Genève (Boris Godunov, Les Nègres), Opéra National de Paris (Lulu), Opéra National de Lyon (Les Nègres), Toronto (Oedipus Rex, Psalmensymphonie, Bluebeard’s Castle, Erwartung), Opéra National de Lorraine (Il Prigioniero) and Opéra National de Rhin (Aperghi’s Tristes Tropiques). Bernhard Kontarsky is an internationally renowned congenial interpreter of Hans Werner Henzes’ works, which led him last season to the Oper Frankfurt for a new production of Henze’s Das verratene Meer as well as to the Teatro Carlo Felice Genoa for Henze‘s Boulevard Solitude. He had previously conducted this opera at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden London with enormous success and presented the concert versions of Henze‘s Boulevard Solitude and Venus und Adonis at the Oper Frankfurt.
 
Bernhard Kontarsky has conducted many productions at the Staatstheater Stuttgart, among them the world premiere of Erendira by Violeta Dinescu, Intolleranza 1960 by Luigi Nono (CD by TELDEC), the world premiere of Rolf Riehm's Schweigen der Sirenen and Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten. He has made several guest appearances at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Schoenberg‘s Moses und Aron), the Opéra National de Paris (world premiere of Pascal Dusapin’s Nosferatu and Zimmerman’s Die Soldaten), the Opéra National de Lorraine Nancy (Luigi Dallapiccola´s Il Prigioniero), De Vlaamse Opera Antwerpen (Lulu, Prinz von Homburg), the Royal Opera House Stockholm (Carmen), the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich (first performance of Sansibar by Ekkehard Mayer), the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf (Wozzeck), the Canadian Opera Toronto (Oedipus Rex, Symphony of Psalms, Bluebeard’s Castle, Erwartung) and the Wiener Staatsoper (Die Soldaten). Die Soldaten was broadcast on radio and TV and received the International Disc Award of the German Press in 1992 (TELDEC). Kontarsky has conducted concerts and recordings for every German broadcasting company and the Austrian Broadcasting Company (ORF). He has also conducted the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre National de Lille, the Mozarteum-Orchester and the Berliner Sinfonieorchester as well as numerous concerts at the Wiener Musikverein, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Bayerischer Rundfunk München, Verona and Palermo.
 
Bernhard Kontarsky was born in Iserlohn/Westfalen Germany in 1937. He studied conducting, piano, chamber music and musicology in Cologne. While at university he received the Mendelssohn Award for Chamber Music. His first engagement was at the Oper der Stadt Bonn, then Ferdinand Leitner took him to Stuttgart, where he conducted a series of experimental music theatre. Bernhard Kontarsky has taught contemporary music at the Music Academy of Frankfurt since 1981.  
          
2007/08