Ulrich Backofen

Ulrich Backofen is a German conductor from Dresden, who is currently based in Wiesbaden. After completing his studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Dresden, he became a first violinist with Dresdner Philharmonie at the age of 19. Ulrich Backofen earned his artistic degrees in conducting from the Hochschule für Musik in Leipzig, studying directly under Rolf Reuter, Olaf Koch (2) and the famous Kurt Masur, and studied composition under Siegfried Thiele. He also participated in master classes of Arvid Jansons and Igor Markevitch in Weimar.

In 1983, Backofen was freed from thirteen months of political imprisonment in East Germany, and an Austrian conductor and composer Michael Gielen had sponsored him as a guest conductor for stage and ballet music at the Frankfurt/Main Opera. Since 1985, Ulrich Backofen has been appearing as guest conductor with many leading German, Austrian, Swiss, Middle and Eastern European orchestras, including nearly all of the important Czech orchestras, and many radio symphony orchestras: Radio-Philharmonie Hannover Des NDR, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, Albanian Radio And Television Symphony Orchestra, Symphonie-Orchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken. Concerts under his direction have taken place in Konzerthaus Berlin, Musikhalle, Hamburg, Herkulessaal at Residenz München, Liederhalle Stuttgart, Rudolfinum in Prague, Stadthaus Winterthur and many others. Before and after the German reunification, Ulrich Backofen also conducted musica-viva-ensemble dresden in his home town.

From 1993 until 2002, Ulrich Backofen was an Artistic Director of the international Saxon Bohemian Music Festival. Hosted over the years in Austria, France, Great Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, and the United States, the Festival featured Backofen conducting such famous orchestras, as The Prague Symphony Orchestra, Trondheim Symfoniorkester, Orkiestra Polskiego Radia, Brno State Philharmonic Orchestra, Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra and Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, and such renowned choirs as The London Philharmonic Choir, Philharmonischer Chor Dresden, Gewandhauschor Leipzig, Oslo Kammerkor, , and Prague Philharmonic Chorus.