Thomas Böckstiegel has been co-director of Opera and Musical Theatre of Theater und Orchester Heidelberg together with Ulrike Schumann since the 2018/19 season. Both also preside over the festival »Winter in Schwetzingen« as artistic directors.
Thomas Böckstiegel was born in Solingen and studied Theatre and Musicology at Ruhr-Universität in Bochum and Folkwang Universität der Künste. His career in theatre already started during his studies, when he started working at the renowned art and theatre festival RuhrTriennale in 2004. He first started out in dramaturgy and later worked as part of the artistic management of the festival with the artistic directors Gerard Mortier and Jürgen Flimm. He went on to work in management at Stadttheater Dortmund (2008/09), Aalto-Theater Essen (2009-2016) and most recently at Bühnen der Stadt Wuppertal (2016-2018). He was a guest lecturer for cultural management at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, among others. He regularly gives workshops and audition trainings for opera singers in Germany and abroad and continuously is jury member of various international singing competitions.