© Elsa Okazaki
Deputy Department Head
Faculty
Curriculum Committee
Univ.-Prof. MMag.
Kai Röhrig
Univ..Prof. for Musical Dramatic Representation (musical)⋅Department Opera Studies⋅Institute for New Music⋅Department Composition & Music Theory⋅Department Conducting, Choir & Wind Band Conducting
Conductor Kai Röhrig is passionately dedicated to musical theatre in all its facets. Stylistic diversity and a wide-ranging repertoire characterise his work as a conductor and teacher. He has been teaching as a university professor in the Department of Opera since 2014 and has conducted numerous opera productions at the Mozarteum University since then. Since 2024, he has also led the newly founded Ensemble for Contemporary Music at the Mozarteum and, from 2025/26, the international Master's programme in Conducting New Music.
Together with director Florentine Klepper, he has worked on productions of Benjamin Britten's ‘The Turn of the Screw’ and Giuseppe Verdi's ‘Falstaff’ in recent years, as well as Christian Jost's ‘Dichterliebe’. Kai Röhrig provides his students with a comprehensive overview of everything from baroque music to works from the contemporary repertoire. The great stage works of the genius loci Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are also regularly on the programme of his class. Many of his graduates are now successful professionals.
Kai Röhrig studied at the Cologne University of Music and at the Mozarteum University in the class of Michael Gielen, and also regularly attended summer courses with Rolf Liebermann. He worked as a musical assistant at the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals. As a protégé of Bernard Haitink, he was engaged by the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and the Concertgebouw Orkest in Amsterdam. For several years he worked as musical assistant to Pierre Boulez with various orchestras in Salzburg, Vienna and Paris.
After holding positions as Kapellmeister, Kai Röhrig worked for several years as music director of the Salzburg State Theatre and has also appeared as a guest conductor at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the Hanover State Opera, the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich and the Innsbruck State Theatre. As part of the European Capital of Culture RUHR.2010 festival, he conducted a production of Hans Werner Henze's opera ‘Das Wundertheater’. At the Salzburg Festival, he conducted productions of ‘The Magic Flute’, ‘The Abduction from the Seraglio’ and ‘La Cenerentola’ as part of the YSP. Recent guest appearances have taken him to the Radiokulturhaus in Vienna, the Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch-Patenkirchen, the Salzburg Mozart Week and the ‘La Chigiana’ Festival in Siena.
Concerts have taken Kai Röhrig to the podium of many renowned symphony orchestras, including the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Academy Orchestra of the Vienna Philharmonic, the Korean KBS Symphony Orchestra, the Slovenian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra, the Rhineland-Palatinate State Philharmonic Orchestra and the Nuremberg and Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestras. He made his debut at the Berlin Philharmonie conducting the Deutsches Sinfonie Orchester. At his debut at the Tonhalle Zurich, he conducted Dmitri Shostakovich's 14th Symphony.
Since the beginning of his career, Kai Röhrig has devoted himself intensively to the performance of contemporary music on the podium of many renowned ensembles and orchestras. He has conducted numerous premieres and first performances in both concert and music theatre, including works by composers such as Wolfgang Rihm, Adriana Hölszky, Hans Werner Henze, Mieczysław Weinberg, Manfred Trojahn, Steve Reich, Salvatore Sciarrino, Oscar Jockel, Henry Fourès, Christian Jost and Yann Robin.