Deutsches Nationaltheater and Staatskapelle Weimar Appoint New Music Director

Australian conductor Daniel Carter will step into the role

The Deutsches Nationaltheater and the Staatskapelle Weimar have announced the appointment of the Australian conductor Daniel Carter as their new Music Director. Carter will step into the role at the opening of the 2025/26 season.

Carter is presently the General Music Director at Landestheater Coburg and has been a conductor at the Deutsche Oper Berlin since August 2019. Previously, he worked at Staatsoper Hamburg, first as a Repetiteur, then as Conductor and Musical Assistant to Simone Young. In 2015, he was appointed Principal Conductor at Theater Freiburg.

Carter studied the piano and composition at the University of Melbourne, during which time he was the Developing Artist Conductor and Musical Assistant to the Music Director at Victorian Opera.

He has led many of Australia's most prominent opera and symphony orchestras, including Victorian Opera, Opera Australia, The Australian Ballet, Sydney Theatre Company, the Sydney and Melbourne Festivals, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and Australian Youth Orchestra.

"It is a great privilege for me to become part of this renowned and historical theater and the Staatskapelle," Carter said. "I am very much looking forward to working with the new team and all colleagues!"

"In an intensive selection process with auditions, Daniel Carter was able to distinguish himself as an outstandingly suitable candidate for the Staatskapelle as well as for the ensembles and the team directorship," the theater's management wrote in a statement. "He impressed with his excellent conducting and the clear communication of his musical vision. We are delighted to welcome Daniel Carter, one of the first-class opera conductors of his generation, to the DNT."