Artistic Director

Roland Ott

Roland Ott has been Artistic Director of the Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt since the 2018/19 season.

He was born in Schwerin, Mecklenburg. He laid the foundation for his professional career by studying at the Dresden University of Music and obtaining a diploma as a vocal soloist (bass-baritone). He additionally completed a degree in business administration at a private university of applied sciences. As a cultural manager with many years of experience in international festival and music theatre operations, Roland Ott also holds a degree in cultural management from the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre and an Executive Master in Arts Administration from the University of Zurich.

From 1989 to 2005, Roland Ott worked as an opera soloist and concert singer. As a member of the ensemble at the Deutsche Staatsoper, he sang roles such as Papageno (The Magic Flute), Angelotti (Tosca) and Biterolf (Tannhäuser). He has won prizes at international singing competitions and received the Richard Wagner Scholarship of the Bayreuth Festival.

Following his own artistic career, Roland Ott was active as a project manager and executive producer in music management from 1995 to 2008. He initially worked for Sony Classical in Frankfurt and PolyGram/Universal Music in Hamburg, then moved to Deutsche Grammophon in Hamburg in 1999, where he was project manager for CD releases by Lang Lang, Hilary Hahn and Bryn Terfel. As executive producer, he was responsible for productions with artists such as Mischa Maisky, René Pape, Thomas Quasthoff and Christian Thielemann, as well as with the Munich Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Berlin Baroque Soloists and the Vienna Philharmonic. As head of the video department, he was also responsible for numerous DVD productions with international opera houses and festivals, including the MET New York, La Scala Milan, the opera houses in Munich, Berlin, Zurich and Vienna, and the Salzburg Festival.

In 2008, Roland Ott was appointed Managing Director of the renowned Swiss chamber orchestra Festival Strings Lucerne. A year later, he accepted an offer from the Royal Opera House (ROH) in London. As Managing Director of the in-house media company Opus Arte and Director of Artists & Repertoire, he was responsible for a wide variety of media projects on CD, DVD and Blu-ray, as well as on TV, in cinemas and on the internet, with productions by the ROH and partners such as Glyndebourne Festival, Het Muziektheater Amsterdam, Liceu Barcelona, Teatro Real Madrid, Opéra de Paris and Shakespeare’s Globe London. He also successfully negotiated an exclusive media contract with the Bayreuth Festival.

In 2011, Roland Ott took over as head of the new Marketing and Media department at the Salzburg Festival, where he was responsible for all marketing activities for the festival, which had been expanded in terms of both time and programme, and in particular for further developing digital and direct marketing, collaborations and media productions.

After years abroad, Roland Ott returned to his homeland in 2013. He took over as head of marketing and sales for the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, one of Germany’s most important classical music festivals. Since 2014, he has also been a lecturer in culture and media management at the University of Salzburg and at the conservatories in Beijing and Tianjin (China).

Soloists he has worked with include Julia Fischer, Lucas and Arthur Jussen, Sabine Meyer, Nils Mönkemeyer, Martin James Bartlett, Daniel Lozakovich and James Ehnes.