German conductor Michael Balke is equally at home in the symphonic and operatic repertoire and appears regularly in major opera houses and concert halls across Europe, as well as in Japan, South Korea and the United States.
Following his debut at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich in 2022, he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor from the 2023/24 season.
His guest engagements have taken him to opera houses in Verona ("Elektra", "Salome"), Copenhagen ("La bohème"), Semperoper Dresden ("Die Zauberflöte"), Sofia ("Don Carlo") and Nancy ("L'Heure espagnole", "Gianni Schicchi"), as well as to Tokyo and Osaka on several Japan tours ("Die lustige Witwe", "Madama Butterfly"). At the Theater St. Gallen he conducted "Die Fledermaus", "Tosca", "Faust", "Il trovatore" and "Norma". He also champions rarely performed late Romantic works such as Franz Schreker's "Die Gezeichneten" and Franz Schmidt's "Notre Dame". In 2024 he made his debut at the Theater an der Wien with Poulenc's "La voix humaine" and returned for the world premiere of Gordon Kampe's "Vincent" with the Wiener Symphoniker.
On the concert platform, he has recently worked with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Arena di Verona, Osaka Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, Residentie Orkest Den Haag, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, Munich Radio Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra, Latvian National Orchestra, Taiwan Philharmonic and Swedish Chamber Orchestra. He enjoys regular collaborations with singers such as Ludovic Tézier, Lawrence Brownlee, Michael Spyres, Juan Diego Flórez and Marina Rebeka, and with soloists including Midori and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. His concerts have led him to the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Metropolitan Theatre Tokyo, the KKL Luzern, the Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.
From 2011 to 2016 Michael Balke served as Deputy General Music Director at Theater Magdeburg, where he conducted a broad operatic repertoire from Mozart, Rossini and Donizetti to Verdi, Stravinsky, Korngold and Richard Strauss, alongside numerous symphony concerts. Highlights included "Der Rosenkavalier" and a new production of "Elektra". From 2018 to 2021 he was Principal Guest Conductor at the Theater St. Gallen.
In 2022 he initiated and conducted the "Concert for Tomorrow" at the Isarphilharmonie Munich, in which Ukrainian refugees performed alongside musicians from all of Munich's major orchestras. Held under the patronage of former Federal President Joachim Gauck, the concert supported the reconstruction of the destroyed music school in Bucha and the town's cultural life. In 2020 he was nominated for "Conductor of the Year" and "Emerging Artist of the Year" at the Opus Klassik awards for his complete recording of "La traviata" with Marina Rebeka, Charles Castronovo and George Petean.
Michael Balke studied conducting with Christopher Zimmerman, piano with James Tocco, and chamber music with members of the LaSalle Quartet, the Tokyo String Quartet and Menahem Pressler at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and the Lübeck Academy of Music.