Anja Bihlmaier’s musical intuition, charisma, and passion allied with precision make her one of the leading conductors of her generation. Since August 2021 she has been Chief Conductor of the Residentie Orkest in The Hague and since September 2024 Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic.
In 2024/25 she conducts the Munich Philharmonic, NDR Elbphilharmonie, WDR Cologne, Berlin Konzerthausorchester, Bergen Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony, Seattle and Toronto symphonies, Spanish National and Orquesta da Galicia. She returns to the National Symphony in Dublin for Mahler 9 and takes the Residentie Orkest to Bonn for the start of her three-year residency at the Beethovenfest. In June 2025 she will conduct a new production at the Berlin State Opera.
Following her BBC Proms debut in 2023 she returns in 2024, again with the BBC Philharmonic but also bringing Glyndebourne’s production of "Carmen" after performances at the main festival throughout August. Notable debuts in the past season have included: London Philharmonic, Wiener Symphoniker, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra Washington, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Mahler Chamber, Sydney and Melbourne Symphony orchestras and at the Salzburg Mozartwoche.
Bihlmaier has a wide-ranging repertoire that includes Haydn, Mahler, Strauss, B. A. Zimmermann to Sibelius, Bartók, Dvořák, Shostakovich, Debussy, Britten, Galina Ustvolskaya and Unsuk Chin.
Bihlmaier gained many years of experience through positions in Hanover, Chemnitz and Kassel, also guest conducting at the Vienna Volksoper and across Scandinavia, notably in Malmo ("Midsummer Night’s Dream"), Trondheim ("Faust"), Tampere ("Der Fliegende Holländer") and Oslo ("La Traviata").
After studying at the Freiburg Hochschule für Musik with Scott Sandmeier, Bihlmaier was awarded a scholarship at the Salzburg Mozarteum and went on to study with Dennis Russell Davies and Jorge Rotter. She was accepted into the Deutsche Dirigentenforum and received a scholarship from the Brahmsgesellschaft Baden-Baden.