Gernot Sahler

Gernot Sahler, born in Trier, studied piano and conducting at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. From 1991 onwards, he worked as a répétiteur and Kapellmeister at the Aachen Theatre, the Essen Philharmonic and the Mainz State Theatre. From 1996 to 2003, he served as First Kapellmeister and Deputy General Music Director at the Staatstheater Mainz, and was also a lecturer in conducting and director of the Peter Cornelius Orchestra.

From 2003 to 2006, he held the position of First Kapellmeister and Deputy General Music Director at the Freiburg Theatre. During this period, he was invited to the Venice Biennale with the opera Les Nègres by Michaël Levinas. In the 2008/09 season, he appeared as a guest conductor at the National Theatre Maribor (Slovenia).

Following a professorship in orchestral conducting at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Cologne, he was appointed University Professor for musical direction in the Department of Opera at the Mozarteum University Salzburg in 2012. There, he is responsible for the musical direction of one of the opera classes, each of which is led jointly by a conductor and a stage director. Since 2017, he has also served as Head of the Opera Studies Department.

At the Mozarteum, he has collaborated with directors including Hermann Keckeis, Eike Gramss, Karoline Gruber and Alexander von Pfeil on productions that include La bohème, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, The Rape of Lucretia, Carmen, Eugene Onegin, La finta giardiniera, Gianni Schicchi, Alcina, La finta semplice, Reigen, Les contes d’Hoffmann, Owen Wingrave, La clemenza di Tito, Faust and L’incoronazione di Poppea.
Since 2021, Gernot Sahler has also been director of the newly founded Mozart Forum at the Mozarteum University Salzburg.