He studied at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin and began his career as an assistant to Hans Neuenfels. He quickly attracted attention, winning first prize at the International Competition for Directing and Stage Design in Graz in 2000. His acclaimed Krenek trilogy at Oper Frankfurt, honored in the “Rediscovered Work” category, earned him a nomination for Best Director at the 2018 International Opera Awards. In 2023 he received the prestigious Deutscher Theaterpreis Der Faust for his staging of Gordon Kampe’s Dogville. Recent highlights include Don Giovanni at the Bayerische Staatsoper München and a widely praised production of Albéric Magnard’s Guercœur at Oper Frankfurt. He has directed several important world premieres, among them Lucia Ronchetti’s Der Doppelgänger (Schwetzinger Festspiele) and Kampe’s Dogville (Aalto Theater Essen). Other major credits include Tannhäuser (Opéra de Lyon), Die Frau ohne Schatten and Das Lied von der Erde (Oper Stuttgart), Fidelio (Deutsche Oper Berlin), Falstaff (Staatstheater Nürnberg; Opéra national de Montpellier), Così fan tutte (Deutsche Oper am Rhein), Parsifal and Lohengrin (Nürnberg), I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Theater Bern), and Warten auf Heute – a program of short works by Frank Martin and Arnold Schoenberg (Oper Frankfurt). He has also staged Cendrillon (Opéra national de Lorraine, Theater Klagenfurt) as well as the world premiere of ’Tis Pity She is a Whore at Deutsche Oper am Rhein. Further notable productions include Janáček’s From the House of the Dead, L’Italiana in Algeri in Nancy and Montpellier, Simon Boccanegra at several leading houses, and Wagner’s Das Rheingold in Karlsruhe. At Deutsche Oper Berlin he directed Janáček’s The Makropulos Case, Lachenmann’s Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern, and Xenakis’ Oresteia. Additional engagements comprise La traviata and Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Opernhaus Zürich), Ariadne auf Naxos and Lully’s Armide (Opéra national de Lorraine, Semperoper Dresden), Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (Opéra de Lausanne), and the world premiere of Yasutaki Inamori’s Wir aus Glas (Munich Biennale in collaboration with Deutsche Oper Berlin). Additional credits encompass productions at the Salzburger Festspiele, Lucerne Festival, Dutch National Opera, and Teatro Real Madrid among others.