Vienna born Friedemann Layer has worked as a free-lance conductor since 2009 but retains close links to some orchestras and opera companies. He led the Orchestre National and Montpellier Opera from 1994-2007. During his time there many award winning recordings were made. From 2007-2009 he was (for the first time in the orchestra’s history) General Music Director in Mannheim for the second time. The first time was at the beginning of his career He has also worked for many years in places including San Francisco, Copenhagen, Paris, Brussels, Geneva and Antwerp. He has also conducted many concerts with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra in the Konzerthaus Berlin and a series of new productions at the Semperoper in Dresden. At the end of last season he conducted a new production of Die Sache Makropulos/The Makropoulos Case at Oper Frankfurt, where he has conducted revivals of Eine florentinische Tragödie/A Florentine Tragedy and Der Zwerg/The Dwarf (double bill), Simon Boccanegra, Fausts Verdammnis/The Damanation of Faust and Reimann’s Lear. Future engagements include new productions of Don Giovanni at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf and Das schlaue Füchslein/The Cunning Little Vixen at the Opéra national du Rhin in Strassbourg.