Biography
Friedrich Praetorius has been Second Kapellmeister at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar since the 2022/2023 season. He is 1st prize winner of the 11th Conducting Competition of the Central German Music Academies in cooperation with the MDR Symphony Orchestra, 1st prize winner of the 1st International Conducting Competition at the University of Almería in Spain, where he also received the Orchestra Prize, and 2nd prize winner of the CAMPUS DIRIGIEREN 2022. He was also a semi-finalist in the Siemens Conductors Scholarship for the Karajan Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker and has been sponsored by the Forum Dirigieren since 2021. He was born in Lutherstadt Wittenberg in 1996 and received his first musical training as a member of the Thomanerchor in Leipzig, which included conducting lessons as well as singing and instrumental lessons (piano and cello). He completed his bachelor's degree in orchestral conducting at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar with Prof Nicolás Pasquet, Prof Gunter Kahlert and Prof Ekhart Wycik in 2021 with top marks.
Friedrich Praetorius has been chief conductor of the Wendland Symphony Orchestra since 2017, as well as a founding member and musical director of the association »Junge Mitteldeutsche Kammeroper« with which he conducted »Il Tabarro« by Puccini, »Il barbiere di Siviglia« by Paisiello and »Bastien und Bastienne« as well as »Schauspieldirektor« by Mozart. From October 2018 to July 2019, Friedrich Praetorius studied at the Conservatorio di Milano »Giuseppe Verdi« with Maestro Daniele Agiman as part of the ERASMUS funding program, where he assisted in a university production of Mozart's »Don Giovanni«. He has already worked with the MDR Symphony Orchestra, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Jena Philharmonic and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi. He was musical assistant at the Leipzig Opera for »Tannhäuser«, at the Meininger Staatstheater for »Tosca« and at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar for the production »Der satanarchäolügenialkohöllische Wunschpunsch«, in which he also conducted performances. At the same time, he is currently continuing his master's degree in orchestral conducting in Weimar. He received further inspiration from courses with Christian Thielemann, Johannes Schlaefli, Gunter Kahlert, Ole Kristian Ruud, Arthur Fagen, Stefan Blunier and Daniele Agiman.