Germany’s Landestheater Schleswig-Holstein Hires Next Music Director

Malaysian-born conductor Harish Shankar will assume the role, effective as of the 2024/25 concert season

Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein State Theater and Symphony Orchestra has announced Harish Shankar as its general music director as of the 2024/2025 season.

From over 70 applicants for the role and an extensive selection process, Shankar was the unanimous decision of the company’s musicians and managing director, Dr. Ute Lemm.

Currently the first Kapellmeister at the Meiningen State Theater, Shankar previously served as the first conductor at the Theater and Philharmonic Orchestra of Western Pomerania and as resident conductor of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2015, he was a prize winner at the International Jorma Panula Conducting Competition.

His concert engagements have included the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Kärntner Sinfonieorchester Klagenfurt, Mannheim Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Glasgow, Orchestra and Chorus of Opera North, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, The Hallé, BBC Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and Orchester Philharmonique Royal de Liège.

He has worked with the BBC Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and Auckland Philharmonia orchestras, and collaborated with Sir Andrew Davis, Vasily Petrenko, Eckehard Stier, and Juanjo Mena, as an assistant conductor. Additionally, Shakar has led classical concerts for young children for the El Sistema program.

A graduate of the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar in conducting, Shankar’s mentors included Gunter Kahlert, Eiji Oue, Paavo Järvi, Clark Rundell, and Mark Heron, Nicolás Pasquet, Leonid Grin, and Mark Stringer.

“From the rehearsal conducting in the music hall to the 4th ‘Symphony Concert’ he conducted in the current season, at which the audience was able to experience him here for the first time, to conducting an opera performance, Harish Shankar has worked with everyone involved in the orchestra, music theater and ballet as well as in the direction leave a brilliant impression,” said Lemm.

“His ideas, especially for introducing young audiences to the music theater and concert repertoire, as well as his understanding of the special challenges in a state theater are promising for the further development of our profile.”