Stefan Veselka

Stefan Veselka was born in Stavanger, Norway as son of czech parents. He studied piano with Christoph Lieske at the "Mozarteum" in Salzburg, and with Hans Leygraf at the University of Arts in Berlin.

Following his debut in 1985, he made numerous successful appearances as a soloist or as a chamber musician throughout Europe, Japan and the U.S.A. He has been a prizewinner in several national and international piano competitions: including the “European Piano Competition in Luxembourg“; at the" Beethoven International Piano Competition“ in Vienna; and also in the "A.Schnabel Competition " in Berlin.

Stefan has collaborated with wellknown orchestras and conductors in important festivals and in major concert venues such as Berliner Philharmonie, Musikverein Wien, Bridewater Hall etc. Festivals in Bergen, Elverum and Stavanger, at the Berliner Festwochen, at the Ruhr Festival, Festival de Musique Divonne, Schubertiade Feldkirch, Moravian Spring and Piano 2000 Festival.

His recordings for various companies include releases of works by Beethoven, Prokofiev, Debussy, Lutoslawski, Strauss, Webern and Valen. For the Antonin Dvorak anniversary 2004 he recorded the complete piano works for NAXOS, for which he was awarded the Classical Internet Award 2004.

Following his conducting studies with Kazushi Ono and Kerry Taliaferro, Stefan Veselka has been working as a conductor in Europe, USA and Japan. As a part of the Culture capital of Europe 2008 he conducted the Shell – Gala in Stavanger 2008.

Highlights were his debut in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam with the Brabant Philharmonic Orchestra in 2011 and the production of Katja Kabanova with stage director Harry Kupfer which was invited to the Janacek- Festival 2012 in Brno.

Stefan Veselka was principal conductor of the Münster Symphony Orchestra from 2014 – 2021.
In January 2015 he did his Debut in France with a production of "Katja Kabanowa" at the Opera Dijon. In 2018 he conducted “Jenufa” also in Dijon and 2019 “Jenufa” in Caen. He made his debut at the Norwegian national opera in Oslo in the 2022/23 season. In 2021 Stefan Veselka became Professor for orchestral conducting at the University of the Arts in Bremen, Germany.

Stefan Veselka will become Generalmusikdirektor (Chief conductor) for the Theater Regensburg and the Philharmonisches Orchester Regensburg from the 2023/24 season.