Sebastian Weigle and the Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra began their series of performances of Richard Strauss' tone poems in 2013 with Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life) - they now end the series sumptuously and philosophically with volume No. 6 and the works Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra) and Don Quixote. Born in Berlin, Sebastian Weigle studied French Horn, Piano and Conducting at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music. In 1982 he was appointed as Principal Solo-Hornist of the Staatskapelle Berlin. From 1997 to 2002 he acquired a broad repertoire as Staatskapellmeister at the Berlin Staatsoper. From 2004 to 2009 he worked as General Music Director at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and acceded from the season 2008/09 the same position at Oper Frankfurt. There he made his debut in 2002/03 with Strauss' Salome, followed by the premiere of Die Frau ohne Schatten. For the extraordinary success of this production, he was voted Conductor of the Year in 2003 by the critics of the Opernwelt magazine. This award was already given to him three times in Barcelona: in 2005 for his conducting of Parsifal, in 2006 for Die Tote Stadt by Korngold and in 2010 for his conducting of Tristan and Isolde. In 2019 Sebastian Weigle will become principal conductor of Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo/Japan.