Peter Ruzicka

Peter Ruzicka was born in Düsseldorf on 3 July 1948. From 1963 to 1968 he received his early musical training at the Hamburg Conservatory. He studied law and musicology in Munich, Hamburg and Berlin until 1976 (doctoral thesis: Berlin, 1977). Peter Ruzicka was appointed professor at the Conservatory for Music and Theater in Hamburg in 1990. Prof. Ruzicka is a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and of the Free Academy of Arts in Hamburg. He was general manager of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1979 to 1987 and director of the Hamburg State Opera and the State Philharmonic Orchestra from 1988 to 1997. Moreover, he became artistic advisor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam in 1997. In 1999 he was named President of the Bavarian Theatre Academy, and from 2001 to 2006 he assumed the Artistic Directorship of the Salzburg Festival. At present he is artistic director of the Munich Biennale, in which office he succeeded Hans Werner Henze in 1996. His compositions have been awarded numerous prizes.