German conductor Florian Csizmadia is currently Music Director of the Theater Vorpommern and Philharmonisches Orchester Vorpommern (Philharmonic Orchestra of Western Pomerania), both located in the cities of Stralsund and Greifswald (Germany).
There he oversees both opera and concert: He conducts several new operatic productions per season and is responsible as Artistic Director for the planning and programming of an annual series of orchestral concerts, as well as for the outreach projects of the orchestra.
Past operatic productions at the Theater Vorpommern include Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, Bizet’s Carmen, Gounod’s Faust, Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera, Il Trovatore and La Traviata, Puccini’s Tosca and La Bohème, a highly acclaimed production of Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Mozart's Idomeneo and from the Baroque repertoire Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Handel’s Alcina. In the 2024/25 season he will conduct a new production of Verdi’s Rigoletto.
Equally at home in the concert hall, Florian conducted in the past years a broad repertoire of music ranging from the 18th to the 21st century and is currently expanding his repertoire further. Cornerstones of his repertoire are the works of the Austro-Germanic tradition, works of British composers and especially the music of Edward Elgar which Florian promotes regularly in his concerts, and the symphonic works of Jean Sibelius. In 2018 Florian conducted a series of performances of Britten’s War Requiem with joint forces from Germany, Poland and Lithuania with performances in all three countries. This was followed in 2022 by a series of performances of Verdi’s Requiem.
From 2022 to 2024, Florian conducted a Sibelius cycle – still a rarity in Germany – that included all seven symphonies, the violin concerto and numerous other orchestral works.
Being partly of Hungarian origin, the works of Hungarian composers also appear often on Florian’s concert programmes. Besides the symphonic repertoire he regularly performs Baroque music, often leading the orchestra from the harpsichord. His performances are usually based on careful studies of the sources and influenced by aspects of Historically Informed Performance Practice.
Prior to his tenure at the Theater Vorpommern Florian served as Principal conductor (Kapellmeister) to the Staatstheater Mainz. He started his professional career at the Hamburg State Opera where he was for ten seasons Chorus Master and staff conductor and where he collaborated with and assisted to numerous important conductors of our time.
Born in Mannheim (Germany) in 1976, Florian studied conducting with Christian Kluttig and piano at the Musikhochschule (College of Music) Dresden as well as musicology at the University of Hamburg. Besides his conducting activities he is very much interested in musicological topics and publishes regularly in musicologic journals and books.