• “ A self-glowing and brave interpretation. Thanks to the congenial interpretation of the score by conductor Henrik Schaefer. ”
    — Göteborgsposten, Sweden
  • “ Conductor Henrik Schaefer gives us a Mozart interpretation, which is full of swing and lightness. A triumph for orchestra and ensemble. ”
    — Dagens Nyheter, Sweden
  • “ Henrik Schaefer’s conducting was inspired, ensuring that the sense of line and musical flow through the operas never flagged. It was a world-class Gesamtkunstwerk. ”
    — Seen and Heard International
  • “ Henrik Schaefer seems to have an album of ideas and and an archive of sounds and the details are always taken care of. ”
    — Göteborgsposten, Sweden
 
 

Henrik Schaefer is the Music Director of the Folkopera Stockholm and a regular fixture on the podium at opera houses and symphony orchestras across the world, proving himself an engaged partner with strong musical ideas. He started his conducting career as assistant to Claudio Abbado with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and from 2013 to 2020 has been Music Director of the Gothenburg Opera House.

Henrik Schaefer also holds the position of Associate Professor for Orchestral Conducting at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.

Following his debut in Gothenburg in 2007 he led the company in lauded successful productions of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute, Strauss’ Daphne, Thomas’ Hamlet and most recently in the 2018/19 season with Madame Butterfly. In addition, he has introduced a series of innovative concert formats: for example the “Kom som du är” (Come as you are) series which offers a introduction to the world of classical music; or the “360° Concerts” themed around an opera’s subject, where audiences can immerse themselves in music for hours. His commitment to unknown romantic repertoire is demonstrated in concerts, opera productions and first recordings of re-discovered works by composers such as Elfrida Andrée, Wilhelm Stenhammar, Joachim Raff and August Klughardt.

From 2004 to 2011 Henrik Schaefer was Principal Guest Conductor of the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra, and from 2007 to 2013 he was Chief Conductor of the Wermland Opera Karlstad, where he found international recognition through his performances of the complete Ring cycle using historical instruments. For his performance of Parsifal, with he made his debut at the house, he conducted extensive research into the performance practice of string instruments in the 19th century.

His international career also developed during this time, making appearances with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest, the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and the Antwerp Symphony. In addition, he led productions at the Leipzig Opera (The Marriage of Figaro), the Hong Kong Opera (The Flying Dutchman) as well as at the Vienna Volksoper (The Magic Flute) and the Stockholm Folkoperan (Massenet’s Don Quichotte). In the 19/20 season he conducted works including La Traviata with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre as well as La Bohème and Tosca in Gothenburg.


Henrik Schaefer studied viola at the Folkwang University of Arts in Essen as well as with Ulrich Koch and Kim Kashkashian in Freiburg. In 1991 he was made the youngest member of the Berlin Philharmonic at 22 years of age, performing with the great conductors of the day including Carlos Kleiber, Sergiu Celibidache, Ricardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Lorin Maazel and Bernard Haitink. During this time he studied conducting from 1994 to 1998 at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig with Volker Rohde. In 2000 Claudio Abbado named him as his assistant at the Berlin Philharmonic, and he increasingly supported the Maestro in performances of repertoire including Tristan and Isolde, Parsifal, Falstaff as well as the symphonies of Mahler and Bruckner. Following Abbado’s departure from Berlin in 2003, Henrik Schaefer decided to dedicate himself totally to conducting – a decision that was quickly followed by the success of his performance of The Rite of Spring with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig und the Leipzig Ballet (documented on DVD for the Arthaus label).

The conductor has an ongoing commitment to supporting young musicians and singers, including work at the Dutch National Opera Academy, the Hanyang University in Seoul, the Gothenburg University as well as his current position as Associate Professor for Orchestral Conducting at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.

 
 
 
 

REPERTOIRE AND DISCOGRAPHY

Next to his work at this opera house he has an impressive career as guest conductor with amongst others Gävle Symphony, Danish Radio Symphony, Osaka Philharmonic, Helsingborg Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, Norrköping Symphony, Sapporo Symphony, Arctic Philharmonic, Sendai Philharmonic, Rouen, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Tokyo Metropolitan, Volksoper Wien, Bogota Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Nederlands Philharmonisch, Hongkong Philharmonic und den Orchestern in Medellin, Curitiba, Aalborg, Antwerpen, Porto Alegre, Enschede, Kristiansand and Belo Horizonte.

Henrik Schaefer conducted one or several productions of the following operas:

  • Mozart: Figaro, Cosi fan Tutte, Don Giovanni, Magic Flute

  • Wagner: Rheingold, Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung, Parsifal, Fliegender Holländer

  • Strauss: Ariadne, Elektra, Daphne

  • Humperdinck: Hänsel and Gretel

  • Puccini: La Bohème, Butterfly, Tosca

  • Verdi: La Traviata, Falstaff, Rigoletto

  • Salieri: Prima la musica

  • Purcell: Dido and Aeneas

  • Thomas: Hamlet

  • Rossini: Il barbiere di Seviglia

  • Haydn: Lo Speziale

  • Hindemith: The long christmas diner

  • Massenet: Don Quichotte

  • Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmelites

  • Gounod: Faust

  • Tchaikovsky: Eugen Onegin

  • Stenhammar: Gildet på Solhaug

His symphonic repertoire stretches from the Baroque to the Avantgarde and includes all important works by Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Tschaikowsky, Elgar, Mozart and Bach.

Henrik Schaefer has not only conducted numerous radio recordings but also recorded the following CDs and DVDs: