Thielemann, Christian

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Thielemann, Christian

Thielemann, Christian, German conductor; b. Berlin, April 1, 1959. He received training in Berlin. In 1979 he became an assistant to Karajan in Berlin and Salzburg. After working in opera houses in Gelsen-kirchen, Karlsruhe, Hannover, and Düsseldorf (1982-85), he served as Generalmusikdirektor in Nuremburg (1988-92). In 1991 he conducted at the San Francisco Opera and at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. He conducted at the Hamburg State Opera in 1992, the same year he made his Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. conducting Der Rosenkavalier. In 1995 he appeared as a guest conductor with the N.Y. Phil. From 1997 to 2001 he was Generalmusikdirektor of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire