Ulrich Kern impresses with his stylistically precise and profound interpretations on concert and opera stages alike. He places a special emphasis on the repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries, to which he is passionately devoted.
His repertoire includes over 60 stage works and ranges from Mozart's late operas, Wagner's "Tannhäuser", and Stravinsky's "Le Sacre du printemps" to Janáček's opera "The Excursions of Mr. Brouček" and Hans Werner Henze's last opera "Gisela!", which he rehearsed at the Semperoper Dresden. The international trade journal Opernwelt named the production of Karl Amadeus Hartmann's "Simplicius Simplicissimus" with Ulrich Kern at the podium the "most unusual performance of the season" in its 2023 critics' survey.
Ulrich Kern has appeared as a guest conductor with renowned orchestras, including the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, the MDR Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie in Koblenz, the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, the Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt/Oder, the Ensemble Resonanz in Hamburg, and the Stuttgart Philharmonic. He conducts in renowned concert halls such as the Berlin Philharmonie, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, and the Tonhalle Düsseldorf. He made his US debut in 2009 with the Spokane Symphony Orchestra and in 2011 he performed with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in France. Engagements have taken him to theaters in Bremen, Bielefeld, Osnabrück, and the Salvador State Theater in Brazil.
Ulrich Kern is a regular guest at international festivals, including the Aspen Music Festival (Colorado), the Nargen Festival (Tallinn), the Ruhrtriennale, the Impuls Festival in Saxony-Anhalt, the International Days for New Music Darmstadt, and in major concert halls in South America such as the Teatro Solis in Montevideo and the new CCK concert hall in Buenos Aires.
In the 2025/26 season, Ulrich Kern will return to the Berlin Philharmonie, where he will conduct the Berlin Symphony Orchestra's New Year's Eve concerts with soprano Nadja Mchantaf. Further guest conducting engagements will take him to the Dresden Philharmonic, the Brandenburg State Orchestra, and the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie, with which he will also appear at the Weilburg Music Festival. At the Gerhart Hauptmann Theater in Görlitz, his artistic work will focus on Janáček's opera "The Excursions of Mr. Brouček", Verdi's "Nabucco", Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos", and several concerts with the Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie.
Ulrich Kern regularly works with outstanding soloists, including Harriet Krijgh, Anastasia Kobekina, and Daniel Müller-Schott at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, as well as pianist Martin Stadtfeld and harpist Anneleen Lenaerts in Ghent.
Collaborating with contemporary composers is particularly important to him. In 2017, he opened the Flanders Festival Gent with the Ensemble Resonanz with a world premiere by Kalevi Aho. At the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, he premiered works by Rebecca Saunders and Sven-Ingo Koch. As the musical highlight of the Bauhaus anniversary year 2019, he conducted works composed especially for this occasion with the MDR Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig. The symphonic poem "Die Regentrude" by Klaus Wüsthoff, recorded with Martina Gedeck as narrator, was released as a CD recording.
Radio recordings with Saarländischer Rundfunk and MDR, as well as concert broadcasts on SWR and NDR, document his versatile artistic work.
For the CD French Trombone Concertos with Fabrice Millischer and the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken, Ulrich Kern received the German Music Prize Echo Klassik in 2014 in the category "Concert Recording of the Year 20th/21st Century".
Born in Stuttgart, Ulrich Kern studied at the music academies in Stuttgart and Weimar. He received important artistic inspiration from Bernard Haitink, Jorma Panula, and, in the USA, from David Zinman. As a scholarship holder in the Conductors' Forum of the German Music Council, he worked at the Mainz State Theater and the Kiel Opera, among others. In 2006, he won the Conducting Competition of German Music Academies, sponsored by the Herbert von Karajan Foundation Berlin, as well as the special prize for the best opera interpretation.
Ulrich Kern is Chief Conductor and Deputy General Music Director at the Theater Görlitz. For his outstanding artistic achievements, he has been awarded the Theatre Association's special prize and the audience prize several times. In addition, the theatre was named the best municipal theatre in Germany by the trade journal Die Deutsche Bühne in 2025.