Elbphilharmonie Sessions: Omer Meir Wellber

Omer Meir Wellber has many talents: he is a conductor, pianist and accordionist – skills he occasionally demonstrates in concert – and he also writes books. Since the beginning of the 2025/26 season, the multi-talented musician, born in 1981 in Be’er Sheva, Israel, has been General Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and the Hamburg State Philharmonic Orchestra. His career began in 2008 as an assistant to Daniel Barenboim at the Berlin State Opera and La Scala in Milan. In 2010, he succeeded Lorin Maazel as Music Director of the Valencia Opera House. He went on to be closely associated with the Semperoper in Dresden as principal guest conductor and served as chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester.

Meir Wellber’s artistic signature is defined by an uncompromising expressive drive that does not shy away from extremes, as well as a penchant for meticulously crafted programming. As Music Director of the Volksoper Wien, he conducted the world premiere of the commissioned opera »Alma« by the Israeli composer Ella Milch-Sheriff; as Music Director of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, he paired Viktor Ullmann’s »Der Kaiser von Atlantis« with Mozart’s »Requiem«.

In Hamburg, too, he made it clear right at the start of his tenure that he intended to forge his own path. For example, with the unconventional music theatre project »Die große Stille« and with the »ZeitSpiel« in the Philharmonic Concerts series, in which parts of classical works are reimagined through newly commissioned compositions. Meir Wellber sees this dialogue between the past and the future as an invitation to audiences to »transcend the boundaries of the ordinary and, through the lightness of play, gain new perspectives on our musical culture, our thinking and our very being«.

You have been General Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and the Hamburg State Philharmonic Orchestra for almost a year now. Do you already feel a little bit at home in the city?

My new apartment in Hamburg is now something of a permanent home and that’s quite unusual for me. My life as a conductor has, up until now, involved a great deal of travelling. But I’m really enjoying spending time at home at the moment. The apartment even has a small garden. I also feel very warmly welcomed by the people of Hamburg. In fact, I probably wouldn’t have to worry about dinner for a whole year, given the number of invitations I’ve received.

The theme as you unveiled the programme for your first season was »No risk, no fun«. When do you really have fun conducting? Or is »fun« too superficial?

Fun isn’t superficial – fun is essential. That is exactly why we want to create a special atmosphere for audiences at our concerts in Hamburg.

Do you have an example?

In December 2025, we performed several Haydn symphonies in concert, which inspired Detlev Glanert to compose his new »Sinfonia«, creating a connection between Haydn and the here and now. The programme could be seen as experimental, but that wasn’t our primary concern. We don’t want experiments conducted under laboratory conditions. We want people to experience music together in an atmosphere where fun is allowed. And I have to say, the audience immediately understood that, or sensed it intuitively. So when we experiment, it’s not in sterile laboratory conditions but in a playground, as it were.

What do you mean by that?

A playground is a space where there are no strict rules or expectations. No past and no future, just the here and now. There are challenges, but they’re allowed to be fun. Sometimes things work – and sometimes they don’t. And both are perfectly fine. A deeper understanding can greatly enhance the enjoyment of music. But with good music, that understanding is by no means a prerequisite for enjoying it, being entertained by it and having fun with it. Some of my programmes do have a strong dramaturgical concept, but that isn’t important for the concert itself. We have to transform those ideas into an immediate experience.

What are your plans? Where do you want to take the Hamburg State Philharmonic Orchestra?

Hamburg is such an interesting city and, with the Elbphilharmonie, has one of the most famous concert halls in the world. Now people just need to understand that the city also has an orchestra – and what it stands for. I still see potential when it comes to raising the orchestra’s profile with audiences. It’s about strengthening the image of the Hamburg State Philharmonic Orchestra and making it better known not only in Hamburg, but throughout Germany, Europe and beyond. The conditions for that to happen are excellent: we perform at the Elbphilharmonie, the Laeiszhalle, the State Opera and now also the Tivoli Theatre – all wonderful venues. So the opportunities are there; we simply have to really think big!

And where do you want to take the orchestra musically?

At the moment, I’m interested in the question of how we can find our own voice. Many factors play a role here, including repertoire, programme design, musical quality and, of course, the sound. One thing I definitely don’t want is what my teacher used to call a »general espressivo« – and that wasn’t intended as a compliment.

What ideal sound are you envisaging?

A little more precise, perhaps a little smaller. Sound is something deeply personal and therefore difficult to describe. Music isn’t physics or chemistry; there aren’t always clear answers. But there is a phenomenon in today’s musical world that is both positive and negative: even a mediocre orchestra now plays more accurately, in technical terms, than the Berlin Philharmonic of the 1930s. Why? Because musicians today receive outstanding international training. Technically speaking, orchestras perform at an extremely high level. From a sound perspective, however, things are more complicated. In the past, a Russian orchestra sounded different from a French one; the musical aesthetic in East Germany differed from that in West Germany. Today, fantastic musicians from 25 nations may sit within the same orchestra. We have gained many good things, but we have also lost something. Perhaps we can learn once again to reconnect with the extraordinarily beautiful German sound tradition.

What does that tradition sound like?

That is a very big question. There are some interesting books on the subject. Furtwängler, for example, wrote insightful articles about the German sound tradition: What is legato? What is staccato? What are our priorities? You can still hear this tradition today if you listen to the Gewandhausorchester and the Staatskapelle Dresden perform, but even then it is difficult to describe in words. When you hear it, you understand straight away. I can give a simple example. When Roger Norrington became chief conductor in Stuttgart, he declared: »From today onwards, we will play without vibrato.« Whether that idea was good or bad is beside the point, but it led to a very strong sound identity. Even such a small detail can make a huge difference. For me, though, that approach would not work because it goes against my convictions: I find a dogmatic solution to a creative idea problematic.

How do you generally interpret the role of the conductor?

As with any leadership role, it comes down to how much responsibility you are willing to assume and how you choose to fulfil it. If the orchestra plays untidily, that is my fault. I even believe it is my responsibility when an individual musician makes a mistake. There is almost a philosophical dimension to that, because of course it is not literally my fault if the clarinettist plays a G-sharp instead of a G. But my understanding of a conductor’s role is that they are responsible for everything – one hundred percent. Not only when things go well or sound beautiful, but rather always. A conductor cannot simply be the grandfather figure who does the pleasant things, tells stories and brings little gifts. They must always remain the father. That is why I have drastically reduced my other commitments in order to devote myself fully to this role in Hamburg.

With »ZeitSpiel«, in which parts of classical works are reimagined through newly commissioned compositions, you made it clear right from the start of the 2025/26 season that you intend to break new ground. Why was that so important to you?

For me, it comes back to the question: is this merely a provocation, or is there something more behind it? If you do something like this only once, it is a provocation. But if you do it regularly, it becomes normal – a different reality. You inhabit a different space, with different rules, different ideas and a different aesthetic. That was very important to Tobias Kratzer (the Artistic Director of the State Opera, note) and me. This is not a provocation; it is our life and our way of thinking. That’s why »ZeitSpiel« isn’t just at the start of the season, but in every Philharmonic concert. That doesn’t mean we want to remain fixed on this one concept. Rather, we want to continue experimenting in future seasons, developing ever-new variations and approaches.

Returning to your motto, »No risk, no fun«: aren’t you risking alienating part of the audience who might have certain expectations that are suddenly no longer being met?

The real question is: what kind of audience do we want? It matters to me that anyone who comes to one of our concerts leaves as a different person from the one who arrived. Of course, we need the right framework and strong programmes to achieve that. We have received a great deal of positive feedback about »ZeitSpiel«. But it is important to understand that feedback does not always have to be positive. In our business, there is sometimes a misunderstood notion of »political correctness«: instead of trying to reach everyone in the hope of winning over a few, we should inspire a few in order, ultimately, to reach everyone.

One of the major projects through which you hope to reach audiences is Leonard Bernstein’s »Mass« at the 2026 Hamburg International Music Festival. Why this particular work?

»Mass« and Bernstein embody exactly what we’ve just been talking about. Bernstein was interested in finding fun within seriousness – being serious, but not overly serious; being popular and classical at the same time. Bernstein was perhaps the most famous Mahler conductor of all, yet he also wrote »West Side Story«. You do not necessarily have to understand that contradiction, but you do have to accept it. That is precisely the space in which we operate. In that sense, Bernstein’s »Mass« is almost a blueprint for our artistic ideas. It also shows us how much beauty exists in the world, even within religion, however complicated religion may sometimes be. Bernstein takes the Catholic Mass text and combines it with jazz, gospel, Broadway, dance and a rock band. In doing so, he points precisely to the problem we currently have in Europe and the wider world today, for example with Islam. It is a religion that is opposed to interpretation. And Bernstein shows us that there is no sacrosanct text, that everything can be interpreted. Without interpretation, there can be no dialogue with God.

For a long time, music was something that brought people together. Lately, however, we have often witnessed the opposite, whether in boycotts surrounding the Eurovision Song Contest or the cancellation of the Israel Philharmonic’s concert in Ghent. Has music lost some of its power to bring people together?

Quite the opposite! Music has an amazing resilience. In 1942, Hitler had Beethoven’s 9th Symphony performed for his birthday. And in 1989, Bernstein conducted the same work in Berlin when the Wall fell, and had the choir sing »Freedom, beautiful spark of the gods« at the end. The idea embodied in the work of art survived. That is something profoundly positive.

Interview by Bjørn Woll for Elbphilharmonie Magazine 2/2026.