PER-OTTO JOHANSSON

CONDUCTOR

Per-Otto Johansson is the General Music Director at the Landestheater Detmold from 2022 and in this theatre he has conducted Madama Butterfly, Serse and Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. Next season in Detmold he will headline the new productions of Turandot, Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Jake Haggie’s Dead Man Walking. Some of the most important specializing magazines, including Oper! Das Magazin, Das Opernglas and Das Opernmagazin, acclaimed his conductions for the “sensitivity”, the unique ability to convey many emotions to the audience and the enthusiastic sense of theatre. 

Per-Otto Johansson was born in Sweden and was fascinated by classical music from an early age. He started his training with the Navy Orchestra. Johansson’s then studied at the Malmö Academy of Music. In 2003 he graduated cum laude from the conducting class of Prof. Michel Tabachnik at the Royal Danish Conservatory. During his studies Johansson also took master classes with the renowned Kurt Sanderling, Pierre Boulez, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Manfred Honeck.

Johansson has conducted more than fifty opera productions around the world and is known for his theatrical instinct and for achieving seamless communication between pit and stage. From 2007 to 2010 he has been music director of the Opera Vorpommern. In 2015, as part of celebrations marking 150 years since the birth of Carl Nielsen, he conducted the opera Maskarade at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen. Per-Otto Johansson has a established a good and continuous relationship with this opera house where he also conducted the Magic Flute, Il Barbiere di Siviglia and L’Elisir d’amore. At the Royal Swedish Opera he has conducted The Merry Widow of Léhar. In Aachen Johansson has made his debut in 2017 with Janacek’s Katja Kabanowa. In The Netherlands Per-Otto Johansson has been a regular guest since 2000 at Opera Zuid, conducting 8 productions among which: Il Barbiere (2017), Rigoletto (2015) La Cenerentola (2015), La Traviata (2014). In addition he appeared with the South Netherlands Philharmonic at Opera op de Parade in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. 

Per-Otto Johansson conducted the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (the national orchestra of Sweden) a.o. during the Nobel Prize ceremony and worked as well with the symphony orchestras of Malmö, Norrköping and Gävle in Sweden. He has conducted almost all orchestras in Denmark, like Copenhagen Philharmonic and Odense Symphony Orchestra. In The Netherlands Johansson is a regular guest of the Residentie Orchestra, Phion – Orchestra of Gelderland and Overijssel – and the North Netherlands Orchestra. With special expertise in the French, Russian and Scandinavian masterpieces, Johansson has recently conducted Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, Ravel’s Ma Mere l’Oye, Sibelius Symphony no. 5, Tuonela’s Swan, the Karelia Suite and Prokofiev’s Violin concerto no. 2, with Liza Ferschtman as soloist.

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