Michael Kerstan is a stage director, author and dramaturge. After studies in Saarbrücken and Tübingen he obtained his doctorate in empirical cultural studies. As assistant to Hans Werner Henze he worked on music-education projects in several countries; as artistic director he shaped the Jugendmusikfest Deutschlandsberg in Austria. His theatre and opera productions have taken him to the Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Salzburg Festival, among others. In 1999 he founded the El Cimarron-Ensemble for contemporary music theatre with Christina Schorn and Ivan Mancinelli. He has written four plays, three opera libretti and three biographical works. On the album Hans Werner Henze and the Requiem (2010) he talks with Mirjam Wiesemann, as Henze’s friend and assistant, about joint music-theatre projects with young people, for example in Deutschlandsberg, and the work on Henze’s “Gisela!”.
Michael Kerstan
Director / Author / Music dramaturge
