Rainer Simon will take over as Artistic Director of the Neuköllner Oper from August 2025. Bernhard Glocksin, who has artistically shaped the theatre for the last 20 years, is leaving the NKO for reasons of age and will be taking on other freelance work. Rainer Simon is Artistic Director of the Schall&Rausch festival and Director of the Komische Oper Berlin’s external venues. From 2012 to 2022, he was a consultant to the artistic director of Komische Oper Berlin, Barrie Kosky.
Jürgen Maier, Chairman of the Board of the Trägerverein: “Under Bernhard Glocksin’s two decades of artistic direction, the Neukölln Opera has developed into an internationally and regionally sought-after premiere and production house for contemporary music theatre. We look forward to continuing on this path with new impetus from Rainer Simon.”
Rainer Simon: “Neukölln and opera: for me, there are no better ingredients for programming exciting musical theatre. In Neukölln, the discourse for socially relevant music theatre is practically on the street. And hardly any other genre offers such a variety of forms and at the same time so many areas of friction as opera.I’m really looking forward to bringing this together in a wonderful theatre with a wonderful team!”
The co-directors of the Komische Oper Berlin, Susanne Moser and Philip Bröking: “After 13 years at the Komische Oper Berlin, this is a great and logical career move. We congratulate and thank our esteemed colleague! He manages the Komische Oper Berlin’s external venues with great commitment and is a key figure in the programme of our festival for brand-new music theatre “Schall&Rausch”, after which he accompanied Barrie Kosky’s artistic directorship with equal dedication as a consultant at his side. We will miss him in our team, but we are also looking forward to working with him in his new role.”
More than 60 people and teams applied for the position in response to the call for applications. Following a two-stage process, the selection committee (consisting of members of the Board of the Trägerverein, the Directorate and the two external experts Cordula Däuper, director, and the long-standing opera manager and director Berthold Schneider) proposed Rainer Simon as the new Artistic Director. The Board of Directors followed this vote unanimously.
Press release of March 5th, 2024