Conductor and pianist Simon Krečič has been the artistic director of the Slovene National Theatre Opera Maribor since 2013. He has collaborated with many prominent Slovenian and international soloists and is a regular guest of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Slovene National Theatre Opera and Ballet Ljubljana. His symphonic repertoire includes many canonic symphonic works by Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn and the most important Romantic composers, as well as twentieth-century and contemporary music.
Simon Krečič is very well known internationally in the field of opera. He has conducted Verdi’s Macbeth at Teatro Verdi in Pisa (directed by Dario Argento) and has presented a symphonic concert at the festival Palermo Classica in Sicily. In 2016, he conducted Verdi’s I Masnadieri at the Verdi Festival in the composer’s birthplace of Busseto (Teatro Regio di Parma), in 2017, he presented the first staging of Wagner’s opera Das Rheingold in Maribor as well as conducting Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera in China (Tianjin Grand Theatre, Harbin Grand Theatre) and Puccini’s Tosca in Rovigo, Skopje and Rijeka, and in 2018, he conducted Donizetti’s La fille du régiment at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste and Weber’s Der Freischütz in Rheinsberg near Berlin. Most recently he has conducted in Rovigo, Ferrara and Palermo. He regularly collaborates with important figures from the operatic world, such as Jose Cura, Piero Giuliacci, Bruno de Simone, Dimitra Theodossiu and Carlos Almaguer.
Recent symphonic concerts include collaborations with the Prague and Zagreb Philharmonics, the Croatian Nation Theatre Opera Rijeka, the Savaria Symphony Orchestra from Szombathely, Hungary, and the Sicilian Symphony Orchestra.
Simon Krečič’s collaborations with choreographer Edward Clug have been particularly fruitful and resounding. Together with the Maribor ensemble, the two artists have staged the ballet Carmina Burana (Carl Orff) and the diptych Les noces and The Rite of Spring (Igor Stravinsky).
In March 2019, the City of Maribor awarded Simon Krečič the Glazer Charter for his achievements in the field of culture.
