GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG SYMPOSIUM

As with our previous symposia, in parallel with the SSO-Simone Young performances, the day will be catered with enough breaks for participants to continue discussions in the foyer and on the terrace of the Goethe Institut.

The symposium will feature papers presented by:

Antony Ernst, Michael Ewans, David Larkin, Daniel Linton-France, Alexander Voltz and Simone Young in conversation.

The day will conclude with refreshments and further informal conversation.

BIOGRAPHIES OF SPEAKERS

ANTONY ERNST

Australian-born Antony Ernst has a multi-faceted career as a dramaturg, director, arts administrator, writer, translator, lecturer, and consultant. Management posts include General Manager of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne in Switzerland, Orchestra Director of the Royal Danish Orchestra in Copenhagen, Head of Artistic Planning and Production at the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg in France, and Artistic Planning Manager at the Auckland Philharmonia in New Zealand. He has worked as a director with opera houses in Sydney, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Rome, Frankfurt and Seville. He is also much in demand as a lecturer on opera and classical music, particularly about Wagner, Janáček and Strauss. He is the creator and director of the Peer Gynt project, which he has produced in Hobart (in English); Bremen, Germany (in German); and Tromsø and Bodø, Norway (in Norwegian).

MICHAEL EWANS

Michael Ewans (MA Oxford, PhD Cambridge) was originally appointed to a Lectureship in Classics at the University of Newcastle, Australia in 1973. On the foundation of the Department of Drama in 1974 he was invited to lecture in that discipline both on the Greek theatre and on modern drama and opera since Ibsen and Wagner. He transferred full-time to become Associate Professor and Head of Drama in 1981 and began his series of three three-year cycles of productions of Greek tragedy and comedy in his own new translations and in a half-size replica of the original performance space, in 1983 with Aeschylus’ Libation Bearers. Subsequently he was a Visiting Professor in the interdisciplinary University Professors’ Program at Boston University in 1986-7, Warden – the first administrator and academic program developer – of the Central Coast (now Ourimbah) Campus 1989-1993, and Assistant Dean (Research) in charge of developing postgraduate research programs in Music 1995-2009. Between 1998 and 2004 he directed a series of chamber operas for the then Faculty of Music, before returning to the Greek theatre and directing three comedies by Aristophanes in 2005-9. His last project before retirement was a production in 2011 of his own translation of Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck (this translation was also used by Omnibus Theatre in London for their centenary production of the play in 2013).

Michael Ewans is now an Honorary Professor in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Science at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Before retiring from the Chair of Drama in 2011 he specialized in directing plays and chamber operas, translating Greek tragedy and comedy, and writing books and articles which explore how operas and dramas work in the theatre.

DAVID LARKIN

David Larkin is a Senior Lecturer in Musicology at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

For the past two decades he has researched and written on the music of Wagner, Liszt and Richard Strauss, with articles in leading academic journals on topics such as the use of the Tristan Prelude in Lars von Trier’s film Melancholia. He is finishing a short biography of Richard Strauss and is working on another book-length study of the idea of progress in nineteenth-century music. He has been active as a music reviewer for Bachtrack, and is a frequent pre-concert speaker at the Sydney Opera House.

DANIEL LINTON-FRANCE

Versatile conductor and pianist Daniel Linton-France from Sydney completed his studies at the University, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, where he studied piano with Prof. Christoph Lieske and conducting with Dennis Russell Davies and Jorge Rotter.

As a pianist he is a much sought after chamber music partner and vocal accompanist performing on a regular basis. In cooperation with the Brucknerhaus Linz, he has recorded songs and piano works by Anton Bruckner and his contemporaries for the Austrian recording label Gramola.

As a performing artist and assistant he has worked at various festivals including the “Bayreuth Festival” (with Kirill Petrenko in 2015 and Simone Young in 2024).

To round off his musical versatility he has composed and performed many of his own works including pieces for solo instruments, chamber music, music theatre pieces and choral works.

Daniel will join the SSO as Assistant Conductor for the performances of Götterdämmerung in November 2026, assisting Chief Conductor Simone Young. His position is supported by the Wagner Society in NSW.

ALEXANDER VOLTZ

Alexander Voltz is an Australian composer and writer.

Founding Music Editor of Quadrant, he won the Symphonic Category of the 19th George Enescu International Competition in 2024. Alexander’s music has been performed and supported by the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music, English-Speaking Union (Victoria Branch), Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Australian National Academy of Music, Australian Youth Orchestra, Ensemble Offspring, Flinders Quartet, Australian Broadcasting Corporation and others.

Alexander is twice a semi-finalist of the composition division of the Bartók World Competition (HUN) and placed second in the Harlow Chorus’ 2022 Young Composer Competition (UK). In 2021, Alexander independently produced his first opera, Edward and Richard: The True Story of the Princes in the Tower.

Alexander holds a Bachelor of Music (Hons I) from The University of Queensland. He has benefited from the mentorships of several leading Australian composers including Brenton Broadstock and Brett Dean. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Ancient History/History and Writing.

Since 2026, Alexander has served on the board of Brisbane Lyric Opera.

SIMONE YOUNG AM

Australian conductor Simone Young is widely regarded as one of the leading conductors of our time.

Since 2022, she has served as Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, where she is leading, among other projects, a concert performance cycle of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen.

From 2005 to 2015, Simone Young served as Artistic Director of the Hamburg State Opera and General Music Director of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra. In this dual role, she oversaw an exceptionally broad repertoire, ranging from Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Wagner and Strauss to Hindemith, Britten and Henze, while also presenting numerous world and national premieres.

Prior to this, she was Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra from 1998 to 2002, and Artistic Director of Opera Australia in Sydney and Melbourne from 2001 to 2003.

Early in her career, Simone Young established herself internationally as one of the foremost interpreters of the works of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. She has conducted several complete cycles of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Vienna State Opera, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, and the Bayreuth Festival, as well as in a new production at the Hamburg State Opera, and most recently at Teatro alla Scala during the 2025/26 season.

Guest engagements have taken her to many of the world’s leading opera houses, including the Vienna State Opera, Opéra national de Paris, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Bavarian State Opera, the Semperoper Dresden, the Zurich Opera House, and Teatro alla Scala.

On the concert platform, Simone Young has long been one of the world’s most sought-after conductors. She regularly appears with leading orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, D.C.), Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Filarmonica della Scala, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, as well as the leading orchestras of Australia.

She holds honorary doctorates from the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne, is a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres of France, and a recipient of both the Goethe Medal and the Brahms Prize of Schleswig-Holstein. In April 2022, she was named an Honorary Member of the Vienna State Opera.

In the 2026/27 season, she returns to the Opéra national de Paris to conduct Katja Kabanova. At the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, she conducts Nabucco, while at the Vienna State Opera she leads performances of Lulu and Parsifal. In the summer of 2027, she returns to the Bayreuth Festival to conduct Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.Simone Young also continues to make a major impact on the international concert stage and appears with the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre National de Lyon, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Filarmonica della Scala, and the Orchestre National de France.