Romely Pfund made history with her first permanent engagement in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In 1987, at the age of 32, she became general music director and artistic director of the Neubrandenburg Philharmonic Orchestra. Born in Dresden, she was the first woman to head a German professional orchestra and remained the only female chief conductor for a long time after the fall of the Berlin Wall, even in reunified Germany. At the age of 68, Pfund, who is now head of studies at the opera stage in Lübeck, is returning to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern after a long and successful conducting career.
In Schwerin, where she had already conducted the Mecklenburg State Orchestra at the beginning of her career in 1985, she will be the first woman to conduct the traditional New Year's Eve concert with Beethoven's 9th Symphony at the State Theatre this year. "A very appealing task, with a very good and highly motivated orchestra," says Pfund on the sidelines of an orchestra rehearsal.
She has the comparison, as she has already conducted the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin, the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Radio Orchestra, among others. As a guest conductor, Pfund, who was practically born into a family of artists in Dresden, has conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Bruckner Orchestra Linz and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra.
