Jan Dvořák

Jan Dvořák is a composer, dramaturg and author from Hamburg. He studied composition, music theory and musicology in his home town and in Vienna; he subsequently undertook further studies in conducting.

His works range from performance-based projects, through chamber music and theatre, to the operas *Frankenstein* and *20,000 Leagues Under the Sea*. He has collaborated with, amongst others, Sebastian Baumgarten, Reinhild Hoffmann, Andrea Moses, Anna Viebrock, Johannes Schütz, Roger Vontobel, Matthias v. Hartz and, particularly closely, with Philipp Stölzl.

In 2008, he founded the cross-genre theatre group Kommando Himmelfahrt with Thomas Fiedler. Since 2013, the dramaturg and production manager Julia Warnemünde has also been part of the group. In productions that are mostly large-scale, they combine musical theatre, performance art, video art and concert elements to create philosophical theatrical compositions. Avant-garde montage techniques converge with revue and song; band music meets classical choral and orchestral elements; and lecture-performance meets cinematic realism. Kommando Himmelfahrt explores utopias and myths, examining their potential and projecting them back onto the present. The group works both for independent production venues and at theatres and opera houses.

Jan Dvořák was a lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts from 2012 to 2015. In 2016, he became chief dramaturg at the National Theatre in Mannheim and developed numerous new formats, series and projects, such as the opera ‘Vespertine’, based on Björk’s album, and the Mannheimer Sommer festival.

Since 2019, he has been working as a freelance artist once again. During the 22/23 season, he was composer-in-residence at the Camerata Bern (radio play ‘Utopia’); the Bern Theatre celebrated the world premiere of his dramatic opera ‘Carmilla’ in 2022. Following his adaptation of ‘Andersen’s Tales’ for the Residenztheater in Munich, new plays were staged in 2024 at the Bregenz Festival, in Mannheim and at the Freiburg Theatre.