BURKHARD GÖTZE received his instrumental training in Leipzig, Dresden, and Berlin, graduating with the Konzertexamen. After initial orchestral engagements as principal trombonist, including at the Opera House in Halle, he has served as Deputy Principal Trombonist of the Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra since 2008.

He began his conducting studies with Diego Crovetti in Milan and continued with a Master’s degree in orchestral conducting under Georg Christoph Sandmann at the Dresden University of Music. Further important artistic impulses came from studies with Manfred Fabricius and Peter Gülke.

Götze has conducted ensembles such as the Neue Elbland Philharmonie, Erzgebirgische Philharmonie, Mitteldeutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Philharmonisches Orchester Plauen-Zwickau, Thüringen Philharmonie, Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg, Staatskapelle Weimar, Staatsorchester Braunschweig, and the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra.

As musical director of the Brandenburg Youth Theatre, he initiated and conducted Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat. The production received the PAPAGENO Award 2015 and was nominated for the international YEAH Award 2016.

Film Music

Since 2017, his artistic focus has increasingly turned to film music, particularly the orchestral accompaniment of silent films.

In this field, he received important inspiration from Frank Strobel, Helmut Imig, and Robert Israel. He made his debut as a silent film conductor with an acclaimed anniversary performance of Metropolis for its 90th anniversary at the Babylon cinema in Berlin—also the founding event of the METROPOLIS ORCHESTER BERLIN, which he established.

With this unique authentic cinema orchestra, he conducted, among others, the first revival of the German version of Battleship Potemkin (1926) with the original score by Edmund Meisel (Helmut Imig), and has since developed an extensive repertoire of silent film scores, including numerous premieres.

A particular milestone in film history was his direction of the first modern performance of the nearly 100-year-lost original score by Hans Landsberger for Paul Wegener’s The Golem: How He Came into the World (1920), rediscovered and reconstructed by Richard Siedhoff in 2018.

In 2020, Götze conducted the world premiere of this music with the Staatskapelle Weimar at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar.

He has been invited to numerous film and music festivals, including Film+Musikfest Bielefeld, Beethoven Festival Bonn (BTHVN 2020), the International Silent Film Festival Bonn, Kunstfest Weimar, Braunschweig International Film Festival, and Filmkunstfest Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. He has conducted at venues such as the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar, Nikolaisaal Potsdam, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Rudolf-Oetker-Halle Bielefeld, Scharoun Theater Wolfsburg, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, Zoo Palast Berlin, Theater im Delphi, Zeughauskino, Heimathafen Neukölln, and Babylon Berlin.

In summer 2022, Götze made his debut at the UFA Film Nights on Berlin’s Museum Island with the world premiere of Florian C. Reithner’s score for the silent film The Mountain of Destiny (1924), conducted with the Metropolis Orchester Berlin. He maintains close artistic collaborations with composer and silent film specialist Richard Siedhoff and chanson artist Sebastian Krämer.

Arranger and Composer

Götze is increasingly active as an orchestral arranger and composer. He has worked with ensembles such as the Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg, and the German Football Association (DFB), creating arrangements and orchestrations for artists including Sebastian Krämer, Sharon Brauner, Jadu Laciny, the Metropolis Orchester Berlin, and the chamber orchestra Capella Amadeus, with performances at venues such as the Konzerthaus Berlin.

Supported by a GVL scholarship, he composed the song cycle CELLOLIED (2022), based on poems by Else Lasker-Schüler, for soprano and string quartet with two violas.

In November 2021, his new orchestration of Victor Hollaender’s original score for Ernst Lubitsch’s silent film Sumurunwas premiered at the Nikolaisaal Potsdam with the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg under his direction. Götze had rediscovered the piano reduction of the previously lost score in December 2020 and reconstructed the music.

For this achievement, he was awarded the German Silent Film Prize 2021.

Numerous LP, CD, DVD, and television productions (e.g., for ARTE) have been conducted by Burkhard Götze, some of which have received the German Record Critics’ Award.

www.burkhard-goetze.eu