The Young Artist program of the Vienna State Opera

Bogdan Roščić, Direktor Wiener Staatsoper:

»A repertory house like the Wiener Staatsoper cannot operate successfully without an excellent vocal ensemble. As both Philippe and I see it, this ensemble must be supplemented by a studio for young artists who can become a very real part of the theatre and keep renewing the ensemble from within. A program like this not only enables the theatre to establish an early and intensive relationship with the world's best talents of the next generation, but it also challenges the house to deal with fundamental questions of quality, tradition and the all-round education of singing actors. The Wiener Staatsoper offers participants ideal conditions, not only because of its artistic standing but also because of the wide range of repertoire presented. I am confident that our program will quickly become one of the most important in the world and will bear spectacular fruit very soon.«

Philippe Jordan, Musikdirektor Wiener Staatsoper:

»For me, working with young singers always was and is a great responsibility and an inspiring challenge. On the one hand it's a matter of passing on your own experience and being a musical mentor, on the other hand you benefit from the freshness and youthful curiosity of new perspectives. I'm convinced that we will discover and promote a new generation in the Young Artist Program of the Wiener Staatsoper which will shape opera life in the city and help mold the opera world of the future.«

Michael Kraus, Leitung Opernstudio: 

»I am very grateful for the trust Bogdan Roscic and Philippe Jordan have placed in me in letting me work with an international group of coaches and mentors to pass on our combined experience to the next generation of singers. The Young Artist Program of the Wiener Staatsoper will enable the best young singers to launch their professional career at one of the world's most important opera houses.«

Michael Kraus →  Artistic director

Michael Kraus was born in Vienna. He studied at the conservatories of Vienna and Munich. After engagements in Aachen and Ulm, as well as at the Vienna Volksoper, a busy international guest career developed, which has taken Michael Kraus to many stages, including the opera houses of Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg, Munich and Vienna, Teatro alla Scala, the Royal Opera House London, Opéra Bastille Paris and the opera houses of Amsterdam, Barcelona, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Helsinki, Palermo, San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Turin and Zurich. Other guest appearances, including recitals and concerts (e.g. at the Salzburg and Bregenz Festivals, the Schubertiade Feldkirch, the Glyndebourne Festival and the Baden-Baden Festival), have taken Michael Kraus to France, Italy, Spain, England, Hungary, Sweden, Greece, Portugal, Israel, Brazil, Chile, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Japan. Michael Kraus' repertoire covers a broad spectrum from Mozart (Don Giovanni and Leporello, Conte, Gugliemo and Don Alfonso, Papageno and Sprecher) to the French and Italian repertoire (Valentin, Lescaut, Conte di Luna, Don Carlos di Vargas, Iago, Marcello, Sharpless), to Strauss (Faninal, Orest, Musiklehrer) and Wagner (Beckmesser, Kothner, Alberich, Heerrufer), from baroque (Ottone in L'incoronazione di Poppea) to modern (among others. Stolzius in Die Soldaten by Bernd Alois Zimmermann, among others, as well as numerous world premieres). Michael Kraus has also appeared in operettas and musicals (Eisenstein, Danilo, Sweeney Todd). Since the 2020/21 season, Michael Kraus has been artistic director of the Young Artist Program of the Vienna State Opera. In 2022/23 he will be heard at the Opéra Bastille Paris and the Royal Opera House London, among others.

Mag. Uta Sander, MAS  →  Management

After her artistic education at the Mozarteum Salzburg (solo piano and IGP with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, Imre Rohmann and Rolf Plagge as well as lied accompaniment with Hartmut Höll and Anthony Spiri), Uta Sander completed a master's degree in arts management at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

She received artistic impulses in master classes, among others with John O'Conor at the Wilhelm Kempff Beethoven Masterclasses Positano and with Hartmut Höll and Mitsuko Shirai at the Hugo Wolf Academy Stuttgart. Recitals and concerts as a soloist with orchestras as well as numerous recitals have taken her to Germany, Italy, Austria, Finland and South America. In 2016, she released her first CD as a lied accompanist together with Klemens Sander: Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin won the Supersonic Award and was nominated for the International Classical Music Awards. In 2018 the album Das Lyrische Intermezzo has been released (together with Klemens Sander and actor Cornelius Obonya), which was also nominated for the International Classical Music Awards and awarded the Bank Austria Kunstpreis. 

Besides her artistic work, Uta Sander has been working as an arts manager for more than 20 years. She has worked for the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Bregenz Festival, the Wilhelm Kempff Cultural Foundation, Radio Österreich 1, the Herbert von Karajan Centrum Vienna and for the Bundestheater-Holding, among others. From 2012-2020, as Head of Digital Marketing, she was responsible for setting up and developing the digital strategy of the Vienna State Opera. Since 2020, she is manager of the newly founded Young Artist Program of the Vienna State Opera.