Thomas Eitler de Lint is the new conductor of the Bayreuth Festival Choir

In August of this year, Eberhard Friedrich officially handed in his resignation. At that time, Friedrich was still director of the Bayreuth Festival Choir, but his resignation, which he accompanied with a small signal against changes and cuts in the choir, was not as dramatic as he himself had probably thought. With a certain smile in her voice, Katharina Wagner, artistic director of the Bayreuth Festival, explains that Friedrich would have reached retirement age in May 2025 anyway and that they had therefore been looking for a successor for some time. “I have spoken to quite a few people.” She found what she was looking for in Thomas Eitler-de Lint, who grew up in Gmunden in the Salzkammergut and has been choir director of the Leipzig Opera since 2017, a position he will continue to hold alongside Bayreuth.