Cornelius Meister, born in Hanover in 1980, became the world’s youngest General Music Director at the age of 25, taking up the position at the Heidelberg Theatre and Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2010, he moved to the Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director. In 2018, he became General Music Director of the Stuttgart State Opera and Staatsorchester Stuttgart, where, in 2026, at the conclusion of his eight-year tenure, he and his team celebrated the highest seat occupancy rate in 20 years. From 2017, he also held the position of Principal Guest Conductor of the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo.
Known for his broad repertoire, Cornelius Meister has conducted works by more than 250 composers, including all the symphonies of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Bruckner, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Sibelius and Martinů, as well as all of Richard Strauss’s tone poems. At the same time, Cornelius Meister has been passionately conducting the international operatic repertoire for more than 25 years. Contemporary music has also been a central concern throughout his career, ever since he conducted his first world premiere as a ten-year-old pianist, and under the influence of Pierre Boulez, whose assistant he became in 2004.
His partners include the leading symphony and radio orchestras of Europe, Asia and the USA, as well as Zurich’s period-instrument orchestra La Scintilla and the Paris-based Ensemble Intercontemporain. As a concert conductor, he has performed frequently at the Berlin and Paris Philharmonie, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. As an opera conductor, he made his debut at the Hamburg State Opera at the age of 21; he has appeared at the Bavarian State Opera since 2004, the Vienna State Opera since 2012, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, since 2014, Teatro alla Scala in Milan since 2015, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York since 2019. He made his debut at the Salzburg Festival in the summer of 2011 and at the Bayreuth Festival in the summer of 2022. As a pianist, he has directed piano concertos by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Grieg, Liszt and Gershwin, as well as Arvo Pärt’s Credo, from the keyboard, and has also accompanied chamber music and song recitals.
His interpretations have earned him, among other distinctions, a Gramophone Award, an International Classical Music Award, an OPUS KLASSIK award for ‘Conductor of the Year’, a Diapason d’Or and the German Record Critics’ Award. Under his direction, the Heidelberg Philharmonic Orchestra received the award for Best Concert Programme, while the Staatsorchester Stuttgart was honoured with the Innovation Award of the German Orchestra Foundation. His recordings have been released by, among others, Deutsche Grammophon.
A passionate advocate of cultural participation, Cornelius Meister reaches people of all ages through numerous music education and outreach projects – often providing their first encounter with a symphony orchestra. He is also committed to supporting the next generation of musicians and has therefore headed a conducting class at the Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts since September 2026. Many of his former assistants have gone on to become internationally successful General Music Directors and Chief Conductors in their own right.
Cornelius Meister received his earliest musical training as a pianist from his mother, Anne Hammann-Meister, and his father, Konrad Meister. At the age of four, he took up the cello. He subsequently studied harpsichord, organ and synthesiser before beginning to play the French horn at the age of 16. At 17, alongside studying piano with his father, he began his conducting training at the University of Music, Drama and Media Hanover with Martin Brauß and Eiji Ōue, and at the Mozarteum University Salzburg with Karl Kamper, Jorge Rotter, and Dennis Russell Davies.
During his time at a humanities-focused grammar school and later as a scholarship holder of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, he pursued his broad interests beyond music, particularly in philosophy and history. His passion for sport accompanied him throughout this time. In 2024, he became German champion with the Württemberg State Theatres’ football team in the German Theatre Football Championship.
