PETER ERNST LASSEN, conductor

 

PETER ERNST LASSEN was born in Copenhagen and educated as a pianist and conductor at the Royal Danish Academy of Music (1962). He continued his studies in Salzburg with Herman Scherchen, in Berlin with Herbert von Karajan, in Bayreuth with Karl Böhm and in Saint Petersburg and Kraków.

 

Peter Ernst Lassen was engaged as a resident conductor at the South Jutland Symphony Orchestra during 1963-66 and at the Danish Radio Orchestras as a frequent guest from 1966-70.

 

He became resident conductor at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen from 1972-88, conducting both opera and ballet. During this period he also gave several concerts with Danish regional orchestras as well as at the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. He also conducted several concerts with the Kraków Philharmonic Orchestra and the Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra.

 

From 1983 he was a frequent guest at the Hamburg State Opera, where he in 1988 became resident conductor and conducted a large number of operas and ballets, among them many opening nights of the John Neumeier-ballets, such as Des Knaben Wunderhorn Lieder/Fünfte Sinfonie von Gustav Mahler. - During this period he also gave concerts with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra. 

 

In 1991 he was appointed Music Director for the Ballet and conductor at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin (opera and ballet), and from 2004-2011 as well at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin.

As a guest he has conducted in most of the larger opera houses in Europe:

Opéra National de Paris (Palais Garnier and Opéra Bastille), Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, The Norwegian Opera, Oslo, The Royal Swedish Opera, Stockholm, the Finnish National Opera, Helsinki, Bayerische Staatsoper, München and Semper Oper, Dresden.

 

Since 1994 Peter Ernst Lassen was a regular guest conductor at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and he conducted at "the Farewell Gala" in 1997 (the opera house closed for re-building and modernizing).

He gave his debut at Opéra Bastille, Paris in 1994 and was a regular guest at Opéra National de Paris until 2000. In 1996 he conducted a Jerome Robbins Evening, "the Opening Gala Performance of the Palais Garnier (after the opera house being closed for renovation).

 

During the years he has conducted for Hamburg Ballet, Royal Ballet Copenhagen, Royal Ballet London, Paris Opera Ballet and Wiener Staatsballet on tours to the Metropolitan Opera, New York, Kennedy Center, Washington D.C., San Francisco Opera, Cairo Opera, Staatstheater Stuttgart, to Beijing and Shanghai and to all the major cities of Japan.

From 2000-2006 he held the position as Artistic Director of the Orchestra of the Royal Lifeguards, Copenhagen, and in 2002 he and the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra started the big project of recording the music to the most famous ballets of the Danish choreographer August Bournonville. This 9-CD-collection was presented at the festival celebrating Bournonvilles 200th Birthday in 2005.

After 21 years engagements at Deutsche Oper and Staatsoper, Berlin, he from 2011 became a guest conductor at the Wiener Staatsoper, and in 2012 he conducted for the Wiener Staatsballett on its tour to Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya).