Germany’s Staatstheater Meiningen has appointed Killian Farrell as its new Music Director.

The company said in a press release, “With a large majority, Farrell was elected from a field of over 100 candidates to succeed GMD Philippe Bach. Philippe Bach successfully conducted the Meininger Hofkapelle from 2010/11 to 2021/22. Killian Farrell will take up the position for the 2023/24 season.”

Of the announcement, Intendant Jens Neundorff von Enzberg said, “With Killian Farrell (28 years old) we have succeeded – in a process conducted with great respect – in signing the preferred candidate of the court orchestra and theater management. We are very much looking forward to working together and to his musical impulses.”

Born in Dublin, he will become the first Irish General Music Director at a German state theater. He has been Kapellmeister and assistant to the GMD at the Staatsoper Stuttgart since the beginning of the 2021-22 season and conducts an extensive repertoire there, including works by Monteverdi, Prokofiev, Puccini Bizet, and Humperdinck. In September 2022 he will make his debut at the Semperoper Dresden with Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.”

During the 2019-20 season he was named Kapellmeister at the Theater Bremen, where he has worked since 2017 as conductor and assistant to the general Music Director. For his work in Bremen, he was awarded the Kurt Hübner Prize by the Bremen Theater Friends. He currently holds a teaching position as provisional director of music at the University of Bremen.

This season the Staatstheater Meiningen announced that it will be working with conductors such as Jonathan Brandani, Peter Ruzicka, Chin-Chao Lin, Anton Lubchenko, Philippe Bach and Harish Shankar.