(Credit: Werner Kmetitsch/Oper Graz)

Barbara Klepsch, the Sächsische State minister for culture and tourism, announced that Nora Schmid has been appointed the new Intendant of the Semperoper Dresden starting 2024-25 season.

“She convinced us with her inner connection and commitment to the Semperoper, whose prominent position and tradition will lead her into a promising future,” Klepsch said in a statement.

Schmid was born in Bern, Switzerland and studied musicology and business administration in Bern and Rome. In addition to her studies, she devoted herself intensively to classical singing and gained stage experience in various productions at the Stadttheater Bern.

After initial experience in orchestral management at the Basel Sinfonietta and marketing at the Staatsoper unter den Linden in Berlin, Schmid joined the Biel Solothurn Theater as a music theater dramaturge in 2005. Then, starting in 2007, Schmid was dramaturge for opera and concerts at the Theater an der Wien until in 2010, she became the Chief Dramaturge at the Semperoper Dresden. In 2015, Schmid was appointed the Artistic Director at the Oper Graz and in 2018, she was elected to the Board of Directors of the Opera Europa.

The term of the Semperoper’s current Intendant Peter Theiler has been extended until the end of 2023-24 season, as has been the term of Chief Conductor Christian Thielemann.