Scholz succeeds Märki in Bern
The Board of Trustees of Konzert Theater Bern (KTB) has elected Florian Scholz as the new artistic director of the KTB. Florian Scholz, 49, has spent the last seven years at the helm of the Stadttheater Klagenfurt in Austria, which, like the KTB, is organized as a multi-genre theatre.
Florian Scholz will start next season as artistic director designate and will assume overall artistic responsibility at the Konzert Theater Bern from 2021. Swiss theater director Roger Vontobel will also be joining the KTB from this season onwards
KTB writes that Scholz's work at a multidisciplinary theater was a key factor in his selection: as the director of the Theater des Landes Kärnten and the City of Klagenfurt, he has brought around 15 new productions to the stage each season with over 250 permanent employees in the fields of opera and music theater, drama, dance as well as children's and youth theater in around 200 performances. He is responsible for all genres and, as artistic director of the Carinthian Symphony Orchestra, is also responsible for concerts.
Before his directorship at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt, Florian Scholz, who completed a postgraduate degree in theater management at the University of Zurich, worked as Director of International Relations and Special Projects at the Bavarian State Opera under Nikolaus Bachler in Munich (2006-2012). Among other things, he was responsible for curating the special program of the Munich Opera Festival. Prior to this, he worked at the Opéra National de Paris as assistant to Gerard Mortier and at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar as venue manager and at the Schaubühne Berlin as assistant director to Thomas Ostermeier. Between 1995 and 2000, after studying at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin, the Heidelberg native worked as an actor on various German-speaking stages.
Acting director Roger Vontobel joins Florian Scholz's team. Born in Zurich in 1977, Vontobel studied drama directing at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. He has directed at the Schauspiel Essen and the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg as well as the Münchner Kammerspiele, the Deutsches Theater Berlin, Maxim Gorki Theater, Schauspiel Köln, the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen and the Théâtre National de la Colline in Paris. From 2011-2016, Vontobel was in-house director at Schauspielhaus Bochum and has held the same position at Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf since 2016.
The director was selected by the search committee in a multi-stage process. It was chaired by Nadine Borter, President of the KTB Foundation Board. Other members of the search committee were Anna Badora, Georges Delnon, Marcel Brülhart, Markus Hongler, Ueli Studer, Hansueli Glarner and Giulia Meier.
