Alexander Medem was born in Milan and studied musicology at the University of Vienna and theatre directing at the Drama Centre London. In 2017 he successfully completed his master’s degree in cultural management at the IKM of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.
From 2008 to 2010 Alexander was assistant director at the Burgtheater in Vienna. He then turned increasingly to music theatre as a freelance assistant director and gained great experience with Placido Domingo, Christof Loy, Thaddeus Strassberger, Peter Konwitschny, Jürgen Flimm and Graham Vick at the Theater an der Wien, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Hamburg State Opera, the Vlaamse Opera Antwerpen and the Bregenz Festival.
Alexander Medem also appears as narrator and actor in staged children’s concerts throughout Austria, namely in productions he creates and directs, such as “Schwups!” (in the Bösendorfersaal, Mozarthaus Vienna 2017/2018 and for Jeunesse 2018/2019) and “Der Wunderkasten (at Kaprun Castle 2018/2019 and the Vienna Musikverein 2019/2020).
More and more he is dedicating himself to his own directing work. So far he could convince with the following productions:
2007 Gianni Schicchi (G. Puccini), Magdalen Hall, Oxford
2008 The Guns of Carrar (B. Brecht), Cochrane Theatre, London
2009 L’Enfant et les Sortilèges & O Saci (M. Ravel/M. Kertsman, UA) St. Paul`s Church, London
2011 Tajikistan (A. Medem, Yael Salomonowitz, UA), Theater Drachengasse, Vienna, Audience Award 2011
2011 O Saci (Miguel Kertsman), Cultural Park District, Chicago
2012 Woyzeck 2.0 (M. Lehmann Horn, world premiere), New Opera Vienna
2012 Children’s pasticcio (A. Medem, Georg Blume, world premiere), Vienna Konzerthaus
(as part of “Music to Attack” as commissioned work for the Jeunesse Wien)
2012/13 O Saci – a goblin in the jungle (Miguel Kertsman), Jungle Vienna
2013 Le Nozze di Figaro (W.A. Mozart), Perchtoldsdorf, Bruck/Leitha
2014 O Saci – a goblin in the jungle (Miguel Kertsman), Bregenz Festival
2014 Stalin’s Saint (Katharina Tiwald, world premiere), Theater Drachengasse, Vienna
2015 Undine (Albert Lortzing/Tristan Schulze), Vienna State Opera/Children’s Opera
2015 The Christmas Story (Musical by N. Bertassi after Ch.Dickens, world premiere), Teatro Mödling
2017 Das Donauweibchen (Bernd Watzka; Wiendrama)
2017 Schwups – A music story about street music, courage and friendship/ Jeunesses Musicales Austria
2018 Revival: Schwups! in Innsbruck (November)
2018 finalist in the Netherlands Touring Opera’s competition for a Tchaikovsky’s Evgenij Onegin.
2018 Creation: “Strange Meeting” by Norberg Zehm
Opera written on the occasion of 100 anniversary of the end of World War II
(Tyrolean Ensemble for Contemporary Music)
2019 G. Verdi: „La traviata“ Slovak National Theatre Košice
In 2020, Alexander Medem will direct a scenic performance of Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummernight’s Dream” with the National Symphony Orchestra of Tenerife in the Auditorio Nacional de Tenerife.
www.alexandermedem.com
