As one of the most exciting and versatile conductors of his generation Hermes Helfricht performs regularly with a wide variety of European orchestras. His broad repertoire ranges from baroque works to contemporary world premieres. In 2023, three of his productions at Theater Bonn were awarded the OPER! AWARD in the “Best Rediscovery” category. With the beginning of the 2025/26 season he assumes the position of General Music Director at Theater Erfurt as well as Chief Conductor of Elbland Philharmonie Sachsen.
Born in Radebeul in 1992, his musical talent revealed itself early on at the piano. During this time, Hermes Helfricht was part of the Dresden Kreuzchor for nine years, appeared as a boy soloist in Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte” at the Komische Oper Berlin, assisted Kreuzkantor Roderich Kreile as choir prefect and received the Rudolf Mauersberger Scholarship in 2010. At UdK Berlin, he studied orchestral conducting and participated as pianist in the chamber music class of the Artemis Quartet. Mentored by Kammersänger Peter Schreier, Helfricht matured into a sought-after Lied pianist. At the age of 21, Helfricht was a FORUM DIRIGIEREN scholarship holder and consequently invited by Tugan Sokhiev as assistant conductor to the DSO Berlin and, in the same capacity, to the Spanish National Youth Orchestra (JONDE). Helfricht has received several awards at international conducting competitions.
Following engagements as Kapellmeister at the theaters in Erfurt and St. Gallen, Helfricht was First Kapellmeister at Theater Bonn between 2018 and 2025. He has conducted many productions, including Le nozze di Figaro, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Fidelio, Nabucco, Un ballo in maschera, Rigoletto, Don Carlo, Lohengrin, La Gioconda, La Bohème, Madame Butterfly, Tosca, Eugene Onegin and Die Sache Makropulos. As part of the highly acclaimed Fokus ’33 series with excavations of forgotten works, Helfricht conducted the opera rarities Ein Feldlager in Schlesien, Li-Tai-Pe, Columbus and Asrael. Particularly Asrael was praised by the music press as “without question one of the most spectacular opera excavations of recent decades”. As a guest conductor he led the revival of Tannhäuser at Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater Schwerin, Der Fliegende Holländer at Theater Görlitz and Don Giovanni at Theater Hagen in the 2023/24 season. In the 2024/25 season he conducted, in addition to the premieres of L’elisir d’amore and Vespertine, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Tosca, Die Zauberflöte and Hänsel und Gretel at Theater Bonn.
Hermes Helfricht has performed with renowned orchestras such as the Bruckner Orchestra Linz, the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, the Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra. Helfricht is currently working with the Würzburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Elbland Philharmonic Orchestra Saxony, the Württemberg Philharmonic Orchestra Reutlingen and the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn.
In the 2025/26 season he will conduct three premieres at Theater Erfurt – Don Giovanni, Un ballo in maschera and Brokeback Mountain – as well as numerous symphony concerts with works by Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Wagner, Brahms, Dvořák, Tchaikovsky, Elgar, Debussy, Ravel, Prokofiev, Strauss and Unsuk Chin.
His artistic partners in recent years include instrumentalists such as David Geringas, Lawrence Power, Christian Schmitt, Radovan Vlatković and singers such as Jeanine De Bique, Martin Mühle, Tareq Nazmi, Elena Pankratova, Anna Princeva, Mirko Roschkowski and Jacquelyn Wagner.
As part of a teaching assignment, Helfricht taught at the Cologne University of Music and Dance.