Michael Hofstetter
conducts at many well known opera houses, orchestras and festivals, include the Bavarian, the Hamburg, the Hanover and the Stuttgart State Operas, Theater an der Wien, the Royal Opera Copenhagen, the Welsh National Opera, the English National Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, the Canadian Opera Company Toronto and many others. Future engagements will see him again at the International Handel Festival in Halle, with Orchestre National d‘Île de France in Paris and at the International Gluck Festival Nuremberg.

Born in Munich, Michael Hofstetter began his career at the theatres in Wiesbaden (Kapellmeister) and Giessen (Director General of Music). He was also Professor for Orchestra Conducting and Early Music at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mayence.

As Principal Conductor from 2005 to 2012, he shaped the Schlossfestspielel with performances and first recordings of little-known works by Salieri, Gluck, Cimarosa and Hasse and with a world premiere of E.T.A. Hoffmann. Recently, the press there applauded his performances of Verdi and Wagner on period instruments. Michael Hofstetter has also acquired a reputation with his long-standing co-operation with director Herbert Wernicke at Basel Theatre. As Principal Conductor of the Geneva Chamber Orchestra from 2000 to 2006 and of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra from 2006 to 2013, he elaborated world premieres of e.g. works by the composers Moritz Eggert, Fazil Say, Richard van Schoor and Helmut Oehring.

Since autumn of 2012, he has once more been General Music Director of the Theatre Giessen and, as Principal Conductor until 2016, left his mark on Orchester Recreation Graz as well as the styriarte Festival Orchestra, which he co-founded. On the re-opening of the Margravian Opera House in Bayreuth (UNESCO World Cultural Heritage) 2018, Michael Hofstetter conducted Hasse’s opera Artaserse.

In the magazine Opernwelt, Michael Hofstetter was several times nominated as 'Conductor of the Year', recently in 2011 for his production of Hasse’s Didone Abbandonata at the Prinzregenten Theatre in Munich and in 2013 for his services as General Music Director in Giessen. For his commitment in the field of the operetta, he was awarded the Robert Stolz Medal, and his work at Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele was honoured with the Horst Stein Prize.

Michael Hofstetter has released many recordings with OehmsClassics and the labels cpo, Orfeo, Deutsche Grammophon, SONY and Virgin Records. The CD Rossini: Arien und Ouvertüren was awarded the ‘Orphée du meilleur interprète’ of the Académie du Disque Lyrique in France in 2008, and the CD Hasse reloaded (OehmsClassics) reached the leader board of German Record Critics in 2012. In 2019, OehmsClassics will release the first world recording of Emmerich Kálmán's operetta 'Ein Herbstmanöver' as well as a recording of Weber's 'Oberon', both under his baton.