The conductor Dirk Kaftan approaches his work with an artistic sensibility that combines precision and openness. He is equally drawn to the classical repertoire and contemporary music. His programmes bring together familiar works and fresh ideas, world premieres and opera projects that focus less on spectacle and more on sonic and dramatic depth. His approach remains measured; he seeks out subtle nuances and ways to open listeners’ ears to unfamiliar perspectives.

Since 2017, as General Music Director, he has shaped the profile of the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn and the Bonn Opera. In this role, he combines artistic work with a commitment to outreach. His aim is to conceive of concerts as spaces for exchange and to link musical quality with a local presence. Collaboration with international soloists is part of this approach, as are projects that connect historical research with contemporary practice.

As a guest conductor, Kaftan regularly appears at renowned venues and with leading orchestras. His engagements include concerts and recordings with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the KBS Symphony Orchestra Seoul. He has conducted productions at the Staatstheater Mainz and the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, collaborated with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and the Staatstheater Nürnberg, and maintains a close relationship with the Ensemble Modern. Opera houses in Copenhagen, Hamburg and Berlin have invited him for guest engagements. His musical direction of Verdi’s ‘Macbeth’ at the Theater Basel in January 2026 received particular acclaim.

The scope of his work ranges from large-scale orchestral scores and chamber music to experimental formats and popular collaborations. In Bonn, he is deeply engaged with the historical repertoire of the Bonner Hofkapelle. This forms part of a dialogical understanding of music history, from which both recordings and audience-oriented formats emerge.

Dirk Kaftan has received awards for his work. His recording of Beethoven’s *Egmont*, conducted by him, was honoured with the OPUS KLASSIK award. Together with the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, he was awarded the European Culture Prize. These accolades recognise his artistic vision and his openness to participatory approaches.

The 2026/2027 season will feature a diverse programme. His musical guests include Ragnhild Hemsing, Sharon Kam, Chen Reiss, Thomas Bauer and Reinhold Friedrich. In addition, TV presenter Bettina Böttinger and former President of the Bundestag Norbert Lammert will be Dirk Kaftan’s discussion partners during concerts.

The programme features major choral and orchestral works, including Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, the Missa Solemnis to mark the 200th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s death, Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 ‘From the New World’ and Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. At the Bonn Opera, Kaftan will take on the musical direction of Giacomo Puccini’s operas ‘La fanciulla del West’ and ‘La Bohème’, and he will conduct Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’ at the Opera in Malmö (Sweden).

Dirk Kaftan invites the audience to enter spaces of sound. Curiosity and experience become part of a living exchange that allows the music to emerge anew time and again.

Projects:

Beethoven Pure

Concerts With A Workshop Character

A concert series appealing to music experts and newbies alike: “Beethoven Pure” introduces you to Beethoven's symphonies 1 to 8 in full length with accompanying talks. We present interesting background information concerning the work and the genius behind it, become acquainted with different musical ideas in talk format, and finally get to listen to the respective work purely and in one piece. Beethoven is brought to you in a chamber orchestra arrangement during a musical workshop and the audience can look over Ludwig’s shoulder at work.

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Hofkapelle

Beethoven's Childhood And Youth Repertoire

Ludwig van Beethoven spent the first twenty-one years of his life in Bonn. During this time, he was in close contact with the ensemble “Hofkapelle”: First through his father and later as a musician working there himself. The repertoire the musicians played together most likely left a considerable mark on him. Works from the „typical concerts of the court orchestra” were found in archives in Modena and Vienna and initially performed at the “Redoute” in Bad Godesberg, the place where the aged Haydn and the juvenile Beethoven first met. Some of the works that were played by the ensemble will be released on CD by the label Dabringhaus & Grimm at the end of 2021.

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Beethoven Lounges

A Musical Talk Show For The Beethoven Anniversary

For the Beethoven anniversary year (250^th birthday in 2020), Dirk Kaftan invited guests from near and far and brought them together. At the Pantheon, the Beethoven Lounges welcomed the key players of the anniversary year from music and society. It was a meeting place with monthly updates on the festivities in honor of Beethoven’s opus. The performers discussed past events and looked forward to upcoming activities in the city of Bonn and beyond. They talked about Beethoven and looked at him with eyes sparkling with joy. Even though Beethoven’s birthday dates back many years, his values and his works are all the more current and significant up to the present day.

Ludwig van Beethoven spent the first twenty-one years of his life in Bonn. During this time, he was in close contact with the ensemble “Hofkapelle”: First through his father and later as a musician working there himself. The repertoire the musicians played together most likely left a considerable mark on him. Works from the „typical concerts of the court orchestra” were found in archives in Modena and Vienna and initially performed at the “Redoute” in Bad Godesberg, the place where the aged Haydn and the juvenile Beethoven first met. Some of the works that were played by the ensemble will be released on CD by the label Dabringhaus & Grimm at the end of 2021.

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Beethoven Moves!

Beethoven's Fifth Symphony As You Have Never Experienced It Before

With acrobatic break dancing, touching texts, exciting images and irrepressible energy, young people from Bonn and Medellín rediscovered Beethoven's masterpiece during the Beethoven Moves! project together with the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn. Already in April 2019, members of the orchestra, general music director Dirk Kaftan, director Anselm Dalferth, music educators and project director Rita Baus traveled for a week to Medellín in Colombia. There, they made the acquaintance of young people who are being accompanied back into a life in society in a facility run by the Salesians of Don Bosco.

For these young people, in addition to their daily work and education, there was also a cultural programme: Moves! Together with these young people, our musicians rediscovered Beethoven's Fifth Symphony: What does it tell me? What does it tell you? And from this, their own attitude to the piece emerged, their own statement was formulated.

 A story about how it is worthwhile to stand up for one's goals and dreams.

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Dialogue of different cultures

Concert for the Augsburg Peace Festival July 2013
A thrilling expedition through western and oriental culture together with the renowned turkish soloist and composer Kemal Dinc. First performance of the concert-piece for Baglama and orchestra.

„Alle Menschen werden Brüder“ 2010
On July 10,  2010 a unique concert took place on the Rathausplatz(open air) of Augsburg.
350 Singers of different cultures performed this concert for peace together with the Augsburg Philharmonic. The initial idea for this concert, was based on the last movement of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, which until today represents the longing for peace, tolerance and understanding in the jewish, muslim and christian culture.  Great focus was put on the first performance of Salaam – peace symphony by Enjott Schneider.

Solisten: Birgit Stolzenburg da Biasio, Komalé Akakpo (Hackbrett), Sally du Randt (Sopran), Stephanie Hampl (Mezzsopran), Seung-Hyun Kim (Tenor), Stephen Owen (Bariton)

Philharmonisches Orchester Augsburg mit: Sängerinnen und Sänger von Kosaken Kraj e. V., Junges Vokalensemble Schwaben, Chor des Gymnasiums St. Stephan, Chor der Sing- und Musikschule Mozartstadt Augsburg, Philharmonischer Chor Augsburg, Kirchenchor Herz-Jesu Augsburg, Türkischer Chor Sultan-i Yegah, Koreanischer Chor Augsburg, Chor des Deutsch-Türkischen Kültürvereins, Opernchor des Theaters Augsburg.
Pera Ensemble (Leitung: Mehmet Yesilcay)
Hamburg Klezmer Band (Leitung: Mark Kovnatskiy)

KARDES TÜRKÜLER & Augsburger Philharmoniker
Lieder der Migration(songs of migration) – Göç Türküleri 1.11.2011
ENCOUNTER of different musical traditions. The western view on oriental culture, represented by Rimsky-Korsakows Scheherazade in confrontation with „real“ turkish, armenian and kurdish music. Also an extraordinary exciting experiment with new musical forms/arrangements for orchestra and the renowned turkish folk-ensemble Kardes Türküler.

Education Programmes:

School concerts:
Introducted, moderated and chaired school-concerts „round the world with music“. This first, emotional contact with classical music reached about 20000 children in Augsburg within 3 years.

Concert Introductions with live orchestra:
Before the philharmonic concerts this unique offer to the public has become very popular giving a personal insight in the pieces to be performed.

Children and family concerts:
Numerous concerts for young people in a variety of different shapes have been created througout the years...

Special Concerts:

Dialogue of different cultures

Concert for the Augsburg Peace Festival July 2013
A thrilling expedition through western and oriental culture together with the renowned turkish soloist and composer Kemal Dinc. First performance of the concert-piece for Baglama and orchestra.

„Alle Menschen werden Brüder“ 2010
On July 10,  2010 a unique concert took place on the Rathausplatz(open air) of Augsburg.
350 Singers of different cultures performed this concert for peace together with the Augsburg Philharmonic. The initial idea for this concert, was based on the last movement of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, which until today represents the longing for peace, tolerance and understanding in the jewish, muslim and christian culture.  Great focus was put on the first performance of Salaam – peace symphony by Enjott Schneider.

Solisten: Birgit Stolzenburg da Biasio, Komalé Akakpo (Hackbrett), Sally du Randt (Sopran), Stephanie Hampl (Mezzsopran), Seung-Hyun Kim (Tenor), Stephen Owen (Bariton)

Philharmonisches Orchester Augsburg mit: Sängerinnen und Sänger von Kosaken Kraj e. V., Junges Vokalensemble Schwaben, Chor des Gymnasiums St. Stephan, Chor der Sing- und Musikschule Mozartstadt Augsburg, Philharmonischer Chor Augsburg, Kirchenchor Herz-Jesu Augsburg, Türkischer Chor Sultan-i Yegah, Koreanischer Chor Augsburg, Chor des Deutsch-Türkischen Kültürvereins, Opernchor des Theaters Augsburg.
Pera Ensemble (Leitung: Mehmet Yesilcay)
Hamburg Klezmer Band (Leitung: Mark Kovnatskiy)

KARDES TÜRKÜLER & Augsburger Philharmoniker
Lieder der Migration(songs of migration) – Göç Türküleri 1.11.2011
ENCOUNTER of different musical traditions. The western view on oriental culture, represented by Rimsky-Korsakows Scheherazade in confrontation with „real“ turkish, armenian and kurdish music. Also an extraordinary exciting experiment with new musical forms/arrangements for orchestra and the renowned turkish folk-ensemble Kardes Türküler.

Education Programmes:

School concerts:
Introducted, moderated and chaired school-concerts „round the world with music“. This first, emotional contact with classical music reached about 20000 children in Augsburg within 3 years.

Concert Introductions with live orchestra:
Before the philharmonic concerts this unique offer to the public has become very popular giving a personal insight in the pieces to be performed.

Children and family concerts:
Numerous concerts for young people in a variety of different shapes have been created througout the years...