Reinhard Seehafer is the founder and Music director of the Europa Philharmonie. Reinhard Seehafer was born in Magdeburg, Germany, studied conducting, composing and piano in Berlin and Weimar with Kurt Masur and Rolf Reuter and qualified as a conductor with Leonard Bernstein and Otmar Suitner. Even as student he was awarded with the Felix-Mendessohn-Bartholdy prize in 1980. In 1982 he created a sensation with Giacomo Puccini's Madame Butterfly at the Komische Oper Berlin, and was immediately engaged there. He worked with directors and choreographers such as Harry Kupfer, Joachim Herz and Tom Schilling. In 1989 he became principal conductor and Artistic director of the opera house of Görlitz. In 1991, together with the director of the opera house Görlitz ,Wolf-Dieter Ludwig, Reinhard Seehafer co-founded the cross-cultural project EUROPERA where he was musical director and principal conductor until 1998. In the same year he founded the Europa Philharmonie, where he is the Music director to this day. As a symphonic guest conductor, Reinhard Seehafer has led many renowned orchestras. In Germany, these include the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, the Dresdner Philharmoniker and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. He has also conducted such as the the Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic Orchestra of Lodz, the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, National Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theater in Minsk, the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Bogota, the Belgrad Philharmonic Orchestra and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.As an opera conductor, Reinhard Seehafer conducted around 800 performances of more than 40 different operas. His repertoire ranges from the traditional to new productions and premieres such as such as La Boheme, Margarete, Tosca, La Traviata, Fidelio, The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte, Albert Herring, Otello, Jenufa, Der Freischütz, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Carmen, Orpheus and Eurydice, Romeo and Julia, Turandot, Rothschild’s Violin, Candide and Rigoletto. As an ballet conductor, he has long worked with the Ballet of the Comic Opera Berlin and the Berlin State Opera with productions of Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet," Mendelssohn's "Midsummer Night's Dream", Schubert's "Wahlverwandschaften", Prokofiev's "Cinderella", Rimsky-Korsakovs "Scheherazade" and Bartoks “Mandarin” Stravinsky's “Pulcinella” ballet-evening in the German National Theatre Weimar. Also as pianist and chamber music partner concertized Reinhard Seehafer internationally in France, Poland, USA, Austria, Czech Republic, Portugal, Slovakia and Italy with soloists of Berlin's Opera Houses, the Semperoper Dresden, the NYPhilharmonic, the Staatskapelle Weimar and the Gewandhaus Quartet Leipzig. In his compositional work, Reinhard Seehafer has dedicated himself to various genres and styles. In addition to chamber music and opera, large symphonic works hold a central position in its activities as a composer. His major works include the composition "Parable" called after Lessing's "Nathan the Wise" had his world premiere at the Grand Theatre of the Cultural Palace of Nationalities in Beijing, China, the Trio „Six variations sur une theme des trouveres“ (UA: Bargemusic Festival New York 2004), „Amadeus-Fantasy“ (UA: Latina Musikfestival Italien 2006), „Land of Enchantment“ (UA: Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra/USA 2007), Piano- Quintet (UA: New York 2011). In 2007, Reinhard Seehafer created a newly reconstructed version of Germany's first opera, "Dafne" which was lost during the Thirty Years' War, on the basis of the original libretto by Martin Opitz to music by Heinrich Schütz. 2009, he was appointed the composer-in-residence by SAP Symphony in Germany. In September 2010 Maestro Seehafer received the Gellert Prize for his extraordinary artistic accomplishments in Central Germany.
In the coming season 2011/12 Reinhard Seehafer is invited as guest conductor with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma, Israel Sinfonietta, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Orquestra Sinfônica do Teatro Nacional Brazil, Orquestra Sinfonica del Estado de Mexico, at the Tzar's Village Music Festival St. Petersburg and the "Kotor art festival" in Montenegro - as well he will give his debut at the Carnegie Hall in autumn 2012.

_{March 2013}