Stefan Veselka

Biography

Conductor Stefan Veselka will make his debut at the National Theatre Opera with Leoš Janáček's opera Jenůfa in May 2025.

Was born in Stavanger, Norway as the son of Czech parents and is considered to be one of the most successful Norwegian artists of his generation. He studied piano at the "Mozarteum" in Salzburg, moving in 1988 to the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin, where he successfully completed his studies. Following his debut in 1985, he made numerous successful appearances as a soloist and as a chamber musician throughout Europe, Japan and the U.S.A. He has been a prize winner in several national and international piano competitions, including the “European Piano Competition in Luxemburg”, the "Beethoven International Piano Competition” in Vienna  and the "A. Schnabel Competition" in Berlin.
He has collaborated with well known orchestras and conductors in important festivals and in major concert venues such as the Berliner Philharmonie, Musikverein Wien, and Bridewater Hall and festivals in Bergen, Elverum and Stavanger, at the Berliner Festwochen, at the Ruhr Festival, Festival de Musique Divonne, Schubertiade Feldkirch, Moravian Spring and Piano 2000 Festival. His recordings for various companies include releases of works by Beethoven, Prokofiev, Debussy, Lutoslawski, Strauss, Webern and Valen.  For the Antonín Dvořák anniversary 2004 he recorded the complete piano works for NAXOS, for which he was awarded the Classical Internet Award 2004. 
Following his conducting studies, Stefan Veselka has been working as a conductor with appearances in opera houses and concerts in several countries and cities like  Amsterdam, Berlin, Bremerhaven, Brno, Flensburg, Karlsruhe, Manchester, Münster, Osnabrück, Ulm and Stuttgart. He has already conducted a large amount of operas such as Don Giovanni, Werther, Manon, Aida, Alcina, Tosca and Lohengrin. As a part of the Culture capital of Europe he conducted the Shell –Gala in Stavanger 2008. In 2007, he conducted a highly successful production of Rusalka for Opera Zuid in Maastricht. After this, he has become a regular guest conductor there conducting La Fille du Regiment in 2008, Hänsel und Gretel in 2010, L’elisir d’amore in 2011 and Tosca in 2013. Highlights were his debut in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam with the Brabant Philharmonic Orchestra in 2011 and the production of Katya Kabanova with stage director Harry Kupfer which was invited to the   Leos - Janacek- Festival 2012 in Brno.
Stefan Veselka was principal conductor of the Münster Symphony Orchestra from 2014 to 2021. In the last seasons, he did very successful new productions of Benvenuto Cellini, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Tosca, The Bartered Bride, Les Contes d`Hoffmann, Hänsel und Gretel, Faust and Der Freischütz. He was also invited to the Orlando Festival and to the Bebersee Festival. In January 2015, he did his debut in France with a production of Katya Kabanova at the Opera Dijon. In 2018, he conducted Jenufa also in Dijon and 2019 Jenufa in Caen. He made his debut at the Norwegian national opera in Oslo in the 2022/23 season. Stefan Veselka was Professor in orchestral conducting at the University of the Arts in Bremen from 2021-2023. Stefan Veselka is the GMD (chief conductor) of the Theater Regensburg and the Philharmonic Orchestra Regensburg from the 2023/24 season.