Hermann Bäumer

The Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten 12.03.2015 on Bäumer's début with the Dresden Staatskapelle.

Hermann Bäumer has been Principal Conductor of the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Mainz and Music Director of the city's Staatstheater since the 2011/2012 season. His thoughtful and imaginative programming, together with a willingness to confront lesser-known operatic repertoire have won him the plaudits of audience and press alike. As a former member of the Berlin Philharmonic he understands the subtleties of working successfully with an orchestra and is valued by orchestras the world over for his modest manner and commitment to the music.

He has conducted orchestras such as the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Bavarian State Orchestra, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the WDR Radio Orchestra, Ensemble Resonanz in Hamburg, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the Norwegian National Opera, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra and the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra.

In the 2015/2016 season Hermann Bäumer was guest conductor of the Staatskapelle Halle, the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra, the Robert Schumann Philharmonic Chemnitz, the Hof Symphony Orchestra, the Aachen Symphony Orchestra and both the Qingdao and Guiyang Symphony Orchestras in China.

Herman Bäumer has a talent for discovering and rediscovering seldom-heard repertoire. On the programme in Mainz for 15/16, for example, are Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg and Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmelites.

In the 05/06 season, as Music Director of the Theater Osnabrück, Hermann Bäumer gave the première of Alex Nowitz's Bestmannoper to great public and critical acclaim. The programming of Gounod's La Nonne Sanglante was received with equal interest in the 07/08 season, and in 2013, Hans Werner Henze's Prinz von Homburg in Mainz met with universal approval. He directed Kurt Weill's Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny at Berlin's Komische Oper and the première of Rotter by Torsten Rasch in a production by Katharina Thalbach at Cologne Opera.

In 2006 Hermann Bäumer recorded August Enna's Heiße Liebe with the NDR Radiophilharmonie for the label Classic Produktion Osnabrück (CPO) and Jón Leif's Edda I with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra for the label BIS. Further CDs include the first recording of Henze's Wundertheater with the Osnabrück Symphony Orchestra, the first and second symphonies of Karl Höller with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, and the complete symphonies of Josef Bohuslav Foerster with the Osnabrück Symphony Orchestra, the first part of which won an ECHO Klassik award in 2009. In December of the same year, d'Albert's Seejungfräulein and Symphony op.4 were released, followed in Summer 2010 by Gounod's La Nonne Sanglante (CPO), which was awarded the German Record Critics' Award (Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik) 3/2010.

Recent recordings include works by Christian Wilhelm Westerhoff (Osnabrück Symphony Orchestra, CPO) and Friedrich Gernsheim (Staatsorchester Mainz, CPO) and a highly-praised disk of Bruch's violin concertos with Antje Weithaas and the NDR Radiophilharmonie for CPO.

Hermann Bäumer is also particularly respected for his work with numerous youth orchestras including the German National Youth Orchestra, the Young German Philharmonic and the Rhineland-Palatinate Youth Orchestra.