Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks & Ivan Repušić
Biography Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks & Ivan Repušić
Ivan Repušić
(1978), chief conductor of the Munich Radio Orchestra, the first permanent guest conductor of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, one of the most important and successful Croatian conductors of younger generation.
He started his professional career in German cultural institutions as the first Kapellmeister of the Lower Saxony State Opera in Hannover (2010–2013). He had his début performance in Deutsche Oper in Berlin with Puccini’s La bohème (2011). Thereafter, he was named Kapellmeister of the renowned opera house (from the 2012/2013 season); since 2014, he has held the new role of the first permanent guest conductor. To date, he has led numerous successful opera performances, including Macbeth, Tosca, Turandot, La bohème, Eugene Onegin, Nabucco, A Masked Ball, La traviata, Carmen, The Magic Flute, Lucia di Lammermoor, Tannhäuser, La Gioconda, Falstaff, Don Carlos, etc. From 2016 until 2019, he served as the general music director of the Hannover State Opera. During his tenure, he conducted many opera premieres (Salome, The Damnation of Faust, The Flying Dutchman, Manon Lescaut, Aida, etc.) and symphonic concerts. Since assuming the role of chief conductor of the Munich Radio Orchestra in 2017, he has conducted a number of concertante performances of operas (Luisa Miller, The Two Foscari, Attila, The Swallow, Ero the Joker…) and orchestral music. He has recorded a number of albums in collaboration with eminent international soloists, the Munich Radio Orchestra and the Bavarian Radio Choir, which were released by leading European labels “BR-Klassik,” “Warner Classics,” and “CPO”.
Repušić has conducted numerous renowned orchestras in Europe and around the world: the Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin; the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra; the North German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in Hannover; the Vienna Symphony Orchestra; the Giuseppe Verdi Symphony Orchestra of Milan; the Mannheim National Theatre Orchestra; the Prague Symphony Orchestra; the Norwegian National Opera Orchestra in Oslo; the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra; the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra; and the Slovenian, Pannonian and Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestras etc. Repušić is a regular guest at European festivals and prestigious venues, such as the Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra; Musikverein in Vienna; Konzerthaus in Berlin; Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden; Gasteig, Herkulessaal, and Prinzregententheater in Munich; Smetana Hall in Prague; Kultur- und Kongresszentrum Hall in Luzern; the Verdi Festival in Parma etc. He routinely performs in various renowned German opera houses, such as the Hamburg State Opera (The Elixir of Love, Rigoletto, La bohème, Tosca), Semperoper in Dresden (The Magic Flute, La traviata, Simon Boccanegra, Macbeth, Tosca, Don Carlos), Staatsoper in Berlin (Rigoletto), Berlin Comic Opera (Rigoletto, La traviata), Aalto Musiktheater in Essen (Falstaff), etc.
Repušić studied conducting at the Academy of Music of the University of Zagreb under Igor Gjadrov and Vjekoslav Šutej. He continued developing his skills with renowned conductors, such as Jorma Panula, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Kazushi Ono, and Donald Runnicles. He started his professional career at the Croatian National Theatre in Split (2002) where he was chief conductor and director of the Opera (2006–2009). He conducted numerous performances of the Italian, French, Russian and Croatian operatic repertoire during that period (G. Verdi: Don Carlos, Aida, Simon Boccanegra, The Troubadour, Nabucco; G. Puccini: Sister Angelica, Gianni Schicchi, Manon Lescaut, La bohème; P. I. Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin; Ch. Gounod: Faust; G. Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor, The Elixir of Love; G. Rossini: Barber of Seville; R. Leoncavallo: I Pagliacci; J. Gotovac: Ero the Joker; J. Hatze: The Return, etc). He was active as director of music programmes at two renowned Croatian music festivals: Split Summer Festival (2006–2009) and Dubrovnik Summer Festival (2010–2012). He has been collaborating with the Zadar Chamber Orchestra as chief conductor since 2005. He also dedicated his time to teaching at the Arts Academy of the University of Split (2004–2016) where he gained the title of associate professor. He has received numerous Croatian awards for his artistic accomplishments, such as Vladimir Nazor Award, Vatroslav Lisinski Award, Milka Trnina Award, Orlando Award, the City of Zadar Award, etc. The Zadar University awarded an honorary doctorate to Maestro Repušić for his extraordinary contribution in the field of culture and art (2021).
