BIO
Henrik Schaefer é o diretor musical da Folkopera de Estocolmo e uma presença constante no pódio de casas de ópera e orquestras sinfônicas em todo o mundo, demonstrando ser um parceiro engajado com fortes ideias musicais. O músico alemão iniciou sua carreira como maestro como assistente de Claudio Abbado e, de 2013 a 2020, foi diretor musical da Ópera de Gotemburgo .
Após sua estreia na casa em 2007, ele liderou a companhia em produções de sucesso aclamadas como As Bodas de Fígaro e A Flauta Mágica de Mozart, Daphne de Strauss, Hamlet de Thomas e, mais recentemente, na temporada 2018/19, com Madame Butterfly. Além disso, ele introduziu uma série de formatos de concerto inovadores: por exemplo, a série “Kom som du är” (Venha como você é), que oferece uma introdução ao mundo da música clássica; ou os “Concertos 360°”, temáticos em torno de um tema de ópera, onde o público pode mergulhar na música por horas. Seu compromisso com o repertório romântico desconhecido é demonstrado em concertos, produções de ópera e primeiras gravações de obras redescobertas de compositores como Elfrida Andrée, Wilhelm Stenhammar, Joachim Raff e August Klughardt.
De 2004 a 2011, Henrik Schaefer foi o Maestro Convidado Principal da Orquestra Sinfônica de Hiroshima e, de 2007 a 2013, foi o Maestro Chefe da Ópera de Wermland em Karlstad , onde obteve reconhecimento internacional por suas interpretações do Ciclo Completo do Anel com instrumentos históricos . Para sua interpretação de Parsifal, com a qual estreou na casa, realizou uma extensa pesquisa sobre a prática de execução de instrumentos de corda no século XIX.
Sua carreira internacional também se desenvolveu durante esse período, fazendo apresentações com a Orquestra Sinfônica Nacional Dinamarquesa, a Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest, o Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, a Orquestra Filarmônica de Osaka, a Orquestra Sinfônica Metropolitana de Tóquio, a New Japan Philharmonic, a Orquestra Filarmônica de Hong Kong e a Sinfônica de Antuérpia . Além disso, ele dirigiu produções na Ópera de Leipzig (As Bodas de Fígaro), na Ópera de Hong Kong (O Holandês Voador), bem como na Volksoper de Viena (A Flauta Mágica) e na Folkoperan de Estocolmo (Dom Quixote de Massenet). Na temporada 19/20, ele regerá obras como La Traviata com a Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra no Teatro Metropolitano de Tóquio , bem como La Bohème e Tosca em Gotemburgo . Apesar da pandemia em 20/21, ele foi muito ativo ao redor do mundo com concertos na Suécia, Dinamarca, Noruega, Colômbia e Finlândia. Em 21/22 ele rege produções de Tosca, Don Carlos, Cosi fan tutte e Norma.
Henrik Schaefer estudou viola na Universidade de Artes Folkwang, em Essen, e também com Ulrich Koch e Kim Kashkashian, em Freiburg. Em 1991, tornou-se o membro mais jovem da Filarmônica de Berlim, aos 22 anos, apresentando-se com grandes maestros da época, incluindo Carlos Kleiber, Sergiu Celibidache, Ricardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Lorin Maazel e Bernard Haitink. Durante esse período, estudou regência de 1994 a 1998 na Universidade de Música e Teatro de Leipzig com Volker Rohde.
Em 2000, Claudio Abbado o nomeou assistente na Filarmônica de Berlim , e ele passou a apoiar cada vez mais o Maestro em apresentações de repertório que incluía Tristão e Isolda, Parsifal, Falstaff, bem como as sinfonias de Mahler e Bruckner. Após a saída de Abbado de Berlim em 2003, Henrik Schaefer decidiu dedicar-se integralmente à regência – decisão que foi rapidamente seguida pelo sucesso de sua apresentação de A Sagração da Primavera com a Gewandhausorchester Leipzig e o Ballet de Leipzig (documentada em DVD pelo selo Arthaus).
Henrik Schaefer ocupa atualmente o cargo de Diretor Artístico do programa de estudos “Mestrado em Performance Orquestral” na Universidade de Gotemburgo.
Desde o verão de 2023, ele é o novo professor de regência do Conservatório Real de Música de Estocolmo , sendo responsável por todos os alunos de regência orquestral do curso de bacharelado na Suécia. Foi também professor convidado na Universidade Hanyang, em Seul, Coreia, Diretor Artístico de todas as Orquestras do Conservatório e Professor de Regência.
Henrik Schaefer
[condutor]
"...a ênfase parece ter sido colocada na caracterização musical, liderada por Henrik Schaefer com grande sensibilidade em uma interpretação finamente elaborada com um som orquestral consistentemente vívido."
Parsifal em Karlstadt
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CRÍTICAS
Parsifal in Karlstad
"...the emphasis seems to have been put on the musical characterisation, led by Henrik Schaefer with great sensitivity in a finely elaborated rendering with a consistently vivid orchestral sound."
Volker Müller, Freie presse Reichenbach
NORMA FOLKOPERAN STOCKHOLM
"So how does Folkoperan’s Norma-responsible this? Absolutely exquisitely! Folkoperan’s music director Henrik Schaefer has a successful history most certainly with Wagner. How will his relation to the doomed belcanto opera be? In the program he describes his at first hesitating and sceptical approach but also his later conversion to a real Bellini enthusiast. Already in the overture it is obvious that this is not only a lip service. Rarely has one heard Folkoperan’s orchestra playing so magnificently and enthusiastically and this continues throughout the entire performance. Schaefer has a total involvement in the dramatic process, breathes with and supports the singers in these endless melodies and he even manages to pour energy into Bellini’s rather simple accompaniment. We shout out to Folkoperan: More Belcanto for the people! Later people will say: I was there!"
Tidskriften Opera / Expressen 2022
HOFFMANN NORRLANDSOPERAN
"Henrik Schaefer – Folkoperan’s music director – brings forth the best from Norrlandsoperan’s orchestra. The orchestra playing contains everything from clear passages to the lyric beginning of the Antonia act and its totally dramatic ending. And so it continues in the Giuletta act. Schaefer goes from strength to strength as opera conductor. This Antonia Act was probably the best I have ever seen, both in terms of dramaturgical style and musical design."
Tidskriften Opera / Myway 2022
PARSIFAL IN KARLSTAD
"If one should refrain from the old cliché of not singling out or forgetting anyone – who shall receive the highest praise? ...Henrik Schaefer, the conductor? With tender practices from older playing techniques and sound-ideals and a continuous contact with the stage and the singers he presents us with a born-again Parsifal. During eight more performances, until March 31, Karlstad Cathedral transforms into a Grail-temple. Go there. Make a pilgrimage."
Expressen
RING IN KARLSTAD
"Miracle in Karlstad. That in itself creates an extremely fascinating soundscape where the sound of the orchestra really becomes an integral part of the room experience. You hear all the sounds, but as if they were at the same time near and distant, almost in you and far, far away. The music becomes transparent and physically tangible and provides the singers space to a finer and more dimmed expression. The orchestra of the Wermland Opera is hidden on the upper balcony and spreads a sort of surround-sound that is in perfect balance with the singers on stage. Just as Wagner desired: the orchestra is invisible and does not disturb the contact between singers and audiences in any kind. They also play with seductive portamenti that weld together all ”Leitmotive” to pure gold. Conductor Henrik Schaefer does not only know why he has to do this, but also how and that makes his interpretation so unbelievably convincing! Finally I want to say that I have a favourite German in Karlstad apart from Richard Wagner himself; conductor Henrik Schaefer way up there under the roof of Wermland's Opera. When conductor Henrik Schaefer steps out on stage with full orchestra, I have seldomly seen a happier and more exhausted man to receive the audience’s standing ovation. On this particular Sunday evening, he is worth ten opera houses filled with resounding cheers."
Göteborgsposten / Expressen / Nya Wermlands Tidning
HÄNSEL UND GRETEL IN GÖTEBORG
"What really touched me is the orchestra playing under the baton of Henrik Schaefer. Here you can hear the finest nuances and the feeling for the long melodic bows of Humperdinck's music is really impressive."
Göteborgsposten
HAMLET VON AMBROISE THOMAS
"After the interval the opera focuses on the human side and it is here where Henrik Schaefer's fantastic interpretation of the score touches the most. It is an old fashioned world that get re-ewoken in a music that most of us have never heard; but the enchantment has to do with the unknown. Something difficult to explain."
Göteborgsposten
LULU-SUITE UND BRAHMS 2
"Schaefer focusses on the lightness within this music and the incomparable art of instrumentation that enables the sounds to move featherlight between the sections. Fragmentaric dream-melodies, a stream of light in the middle of the dark and disturbing... Probably the Gothenburg opera should think about a complete performance of Lulu, where the contemporary understanding of the contradictory Lulu-character is the focus. Schaefer manages to balance these complex developments and the art of balancing continues in his Brahms interpretation. Here you can hear, how close this music is to his heart. He seems to have an album of ideas and an archive of sounds and the details are always taken care of. But what convinces especially is the big form, the long lines and the energies that awoke when different passages mirror one another."
Göteborgsposten
SIBELIUS 2 IN NORRKÖPING
"My encounter with Sibelius 2nd Symphony last Thursday will probably stay in the musical databank of my memory. This is how the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra sounds when they’re on top, led by a conductor who knows how to find the essence of the music and merge the parts to a whole. The introduction, with daring pauses and big rubati was a bit disconcerting at first, but soon I was convinced that Henrik Schaefer knew what he was doing. He built the framing structure while minding the details, thus providing a background for more lively excursions. In the second movement nothing was left to chance, the music was chiseled and sculpted from a larger whole. Here lines and thoughts were drawn to the utter limits with evenly distributed dynamics. Here emerged the kind of high-voltage musicianship that doesn’t just appear when asked for. The third movement started off at express speed, the wind-harmonics displaying the small print. And once arriving to the wonderful theme, we were treated with a hauntingly beautiful interpretation – following the rule-book – but with its own key signature. Truth be told; the best Sibelius 2nd I ever heard."
Folkbladet