Opera News“From the first measures of the prelude, it was clear that Evan Rogister would lead a stylish account of the score. Unhurried in the most lyrical moments, the conductor’s attention to phrasing and dynamics nonetheless kept the music flowing vibrantly. He whipped up energy just as persuasively, building to climactic peaks with taut control, and drew impressive playing from the orchestra throughout.”
Chicago Classical Review“The third impressive debut of the evening was conductor Evan Rogister. Unlike many opera batonsmiths, the young American started his career as a singer, which was manifest in his alert and sensitive accompaniment to the cast and impeccable balancing, conveying Verdian fire while drawing an array of hues and dynamic subtleties. Rogister will also lead the Lyric’s March-April performances of Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, and is clearly a young talent on the rise.”
Chicago Tribune“The opera, a co-production with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, receives a worthy performance from Daniels and colleagues under the talented young conductor Evan Rogister, who scored twin successes last season at Lyric Opera.”
The New York Times“The conductor Evan Rogister had a great night, performing the three-act work [King Roger] without an intermission. He drew nuanced and voluptuous playing from the Santa Fe Opera orchestra.”
Santa Fe Reporter“This vibrant young conductor, making his SFO debut here, knows his way around Szymanowski’s challenging score. He’s alert to every nuance, doesn’t overplay the work’s exoticism, coaxes wonderful detail work from the SFO’s never-better orchestra and provides some of the most shattering climaxes ever to emerge from the local pit.”
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel“Guest conductor Evan Rogister led the orchestra through Tchaikovsky’s deeply expressive Serenade for Strings, Sibelius’ broad, stirring Symphony No. 2 and Arutiunian’s powerful Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra, featuring MSO principal trumpeter Mark Niehaus. Rogister and the players gave elegant shape to the Tchaikovsky, filling the piece with graceful interpretive details.”
Seattle Post Intelligencer“The last factor is the conductor, without whom many of the effects of the production would fail. Evan Rogister, in his house debut, made the orchestra sound like another — electrifying with total attention to detail. He had the idiom of both composers in hand.”
Evan Rogister is Principal Conductor of Washington National Opera and the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra. With artistic endeavors ranging from Mozart with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment to Wagner’s complete cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen, and Terence Blanchard’s contemporary masterpiece, Fire Shut Up in My Bones, Rogister—a dual citizen of the United States and Germany—is one of the most eclectic and versatile conductors on the international scene.
Rogister returns to The Metropolitan Opera in the 2023/24 season to lead Terence Blanchard’s Grammy Award-winning work Fire Shut Up in My Bones. He will also conduct the Met Opera’s 2024 Laffont Competition Grand Finals Concert. Across the 23/24 season, Rogister returns to the Semperoper Dresden for multiple series of Die Zauberflöte performances. Additional highlights this season include a new production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette for Washington National Opera, directed by Simon Godwin, and concerts with the Badische Staatskapelle.
During the summer of 2023, Rogister made a critically acclaimed debut at the Glyndebourne Festival, leading the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The Telegraph hailed “the excellent debut conductor Evan Rogister” whose performance Musical America called “top-notch”, with Opera Magazine concurring, “The OAE played with sharpness and elan under the intensely theatrical guidance of Evan Rogister. The accompagnato that precedes Anna’s ‘Or sai chi l’onore’ in Act 1 was…steered by Rogister with such penetrating insight into the feelings packed into a short span by Da Ponte and Mozart that my eyes filled with tears of emotion, before the aria had even started.”
Equally at home on the concert stage as in the pit, recent symphonic projects include collaborations with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, l’Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, l’Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Essen Philharmoniker, the Mälmo Symphony Orchestra, the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Dedicated to nurturing new works, Rogister led performances of WNO’s American Opera Initiative in 2023, premiering three works by emerging composers and librettists. In addition to his collaboration in 2024 with the Met’s Laffont Competition, Evan is committed to fostering the next generation of performers, regularly leading masterclasses and coaching young artists. At WNO, he has initiated a partnership with the George Solti Foundation, enabling one of their young conductor laureates to be mentored during a production at the Kennedy Center.
From 2018 to 2022, Rogister conducted the Göteborg Opera’s inaugural cycle of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. The multiyear collaboration with director Stephen Langridge culminated in a new production of Götterdämmerung during the 21/22 season, coinciding with the 400th Anniversary of Gothenburg. In addition to Der Ring des Nibelungen, Rogister has conducted three other works by Wagner, Tannhäuser (Deutsche Oper Berlin), Rienzi (Deutsche Oper Berlin) and Lohengrin (Bolshoi Theatre and Royal Swedish Opera).
Additional highlights of the 2022/23 season included Rogister’s Semperoper debut and a new production of Richard Strauss’s Elektra at the Kennedy Center. The Washington Post hailed, “Rogister’s steering of the music’s violent weather had me loosening my tie, and his finely attuned management of its mess of motivic gestures and granular details was superb.”
The breadth of Rogister’s repertoire is represented by other recent productions, including Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Schoenberg’s Erwartung in double bill (Göteborg Opera and Seattle Opera); Szymanowski’s King Roger (The Santa Fe Opera); André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire (Lyric Opera of Chicago); new productions of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (Royal Swedish Opera and Spoleto Festival USA); Verdi’s Otello (Berlin and Luxembourg), Aida (WNO), and Rigoletto (Lyric Opera of Chicago); Peter Stein’s new production of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (Malmö Opera). Rogister made his Metropolitan Opera debut during the 2017/18 season, conducting Mozart’s The Magic Flute.
Rogister’s debut recording with Deutsche Grammophon, Follow, Poet, was released in January of 2015. The album features new works by the composer Mohammed Fairouz written for mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey, with Rogister conducting the Ensemble LPR. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Rogister recorded a pioneering experience, “Beethoven in Virtual Reality: Fidelio,” in partnership with the Washington National Opera and Austin Opera.
Evan Rogister currently resides in Washington, DC, with his wife, Synne, and two children.
SEPTEMBER 2023
