Biography
Jörg Halubek is a conductor specialising in historically informed performance across opera and concert repertoire. His work is characterised by stylistic precision, theatrical clarity and close artistic collaboration with singers, orchestras and stage directors. A central focus of his artistic profile lies in Baroque and early Classical opera, ranging from Monteverdi and Handel to Johann Christian Bach and Mozart, with a particular emphasis on rediscoveries and first modern performances.
He has conducted over forty opera productions and has appeared at major opera houses and festivals including Komische Oper Berlin, Theater Basel, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele, Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik, Stuttgart Barock and the Händel-Festspiele Halle. His operatic work encompasses staged productions as well as concert performances and is frequently realised in close dialogue between historical performance practice and contemporary theatrical thinking. Long-term collaborations with stage directors play a central role in shaping his operatic work, with a strong focus on dramaturgy, narrative coherence and musical theatre.
Alongside his work with specialised ensembles, Halubek regularly collaborates with modern orchestras, transferring historically informed principles into contemporary ensembles and fostering stylistic clarity and expressive precision. He has worked with orchestras including the Sinfonieorchester Basel, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Wuppertaler Sinfonieorchester, the Nationaltheater Mannheim Orchestra and the Händelfestspielorchester Halle. He has also collaborated with leading period-instrument ensembles such as the Freiburger Barockorchester and La Cetra Barockorchester Basel.
Halubek is the founder and artistic director of the ensemble il Gusto Barocco, with which he realises exemplary opera and concert projects at the intersection of historical research and contemporary performance practice. Projects with the ensemble include the first modern performance of Johann Christian Bach’s Amor vincitore, rediscovered works by composers such as Antonia Bembo and Johann David Heinichen, as well as major concertante opera projects by Handel and Monteverdi. Current and recent projects include the reconstruction of Jacopo Peri’s La Dafne and Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo.
Selected projects have been documented in recordings released by cpo, Berlin Classics, Aparté and Glossa, as well as in broadcasts by ARD, SWR and WDR.
Halubek began his musical career as an organist. In 2004 he won First Prize at the International Bach Competition Leipzig. He studied organ, harpsichord and conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart and pursued advanced studies in historically informed performance at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and the University of Music Freiburg.
Alongside his conducting work, Jörg Halubek maintains a close engagement with historically informed performance as an artistic method, developed through long-term projects and research-based interpretation. His work as an organist and harpsichordist, including the recording project Organ Landscapes, forms an integral part of his artistic profile and informs his approach to Baroque and early Classical repertoire. He is the Artistic Director of the International Händel Academy Karlsruhe.