Per-Otto Johansson will be the new General Music Director at the Landestheater Detmold from the coming season. His contract runs for four years. Per-Otto Johansson was born in Sweden and was fascinated by classical music from an early age. He started his training with the Navy Orchestra. Johansson's then studied at the Malmö Academy of Music. In 2003 he graduated cum laude from the conducting class of Prof. Michel Tabachnik at the Royal Danish Conservatory. During his studies Johansson also took master classes with the renowned Kurt Sanderling, Pierre Boulez, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Manfred Honeck.
Johansson has conducted more than fifty opera productions around the world and is known for his theatrical instinct and for achieving seamless communication between pit and stage. From 2007 to 2010 he has been music director of the Opera Vorpommern. In 2015, as part of celebrations marking 150 years since the birth of Carl Nielsen, he conducted the opera Maskarade at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen. Per-Otto Johansson has a good relationship with this opera house where he also conducted the Magic Flute, Il Barbiere di Siviglia and L'Elisir d'amore. At the Royal Swedish Opera he has conducted The Merry Widow of Léhar. In Aachen Johansson has made his debut in 2017 with Janacek’s Katja Kabanowa. In The Netherlands Per-Otto Johansson has been a regular guest since 2000 at Opera Zuid, conducting 8 productions among which: Il Barbiere (2017), Rigoletto (2015) La Cenerentola (2015), La Traviata (2014). In addition he appeared with the South Netherlands Philharmonic at Opera op de Parade in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.
Per-Otto Johansson conducted the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (the national orchestra of Sweden) a.o. during the Nobel Prize ceremony and worked as well with the symphony orchestras of Malmö, Norrköping and Gävle in Sweden. He has conducted almost all orchestras in Denmark, like Copenhagen Philharmonic and Odense Symphony Orchestra. In The Netherlands Johansson is a regular guest of the Residentie Orchestra, Phion - Orchestra of Gelderland and Overijssel - and the North Netherlands Orchestra. With special expertise in the French, Russian and Scandinavian masterpieces, Johansson has recently conducted Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances, Ravel's Ma Mere l'Oye, Sibelius Symphony no. 5, Tuonela's Swan and the Karelia Suite and Prokofiev's violin concerto no. 2, with Liza Ferschtman as soloist.
