He was born in Berlin in 1959. In 1988, in Nuremberg, he became Germany's youngest music director. From 1997 to 2004 he was general musical director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and between 2004 and 2011 he was head of the Munich Philharmonic. Since September 2012 he is the principal director of the Staatskapelle in Dresden, and in the spring of 2013 will take over the artistic direction of the Salzburg Easter Festival. He has directed in the main opera houses of the world and is a regular guest of the leading orchestras, such as the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic. In 2000 he made his debut at the Bayreuth Festival, which was celebrated with enthusiasm, and since then he has not missed the event for almost a year.