Guy Montavon has been General Manager of the Theater Erfurt and Artistic Director of the Domstufen Festival in Erfurt since August 2002.

Montavon was born in Geneva in 1961, where he first obtained a diploma as a bassoonist at the conservatory and worked as an assistant director at the “Grand Théâtre de Genève”. He then studied music theater direction at the Hamburg University of Music and Performing Arts in Götz Friedrich’s class. As an assistant to the director Giancarlo del Monaco, Guy Montavon worked at the opera houses in Hamburg, Berlin, Stuttgart, Bregenz, Barcelona, Macerata and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

After completing his studies in 1986, he staged productions at the Hamburg State Opera, in Livorno, Bremerhaven, Pisa, Lyon, St. Gallen, Montpellier and Saarbrücken. In the meantime, Montavon’s places of artistic activity also included Munich, Riga, Monte Carlo, Nice and Parma.

From 1985 to 1988 he was assistant director and research assistant at the Bremen Theater, from 1992 to 1995 he was permanently employed as chief director and deputy opera director at the Bonn Opera. Guy Montavon staged Bizet’s Carmen for the opening of the Finnish National Opera in December 1993. From 1996 he was artistic director and managing director of Stadttheater Gießen GmbH, a three-section theater with around 200 employees.

As General Manager of the Theater Erfurt, Guy Montavon initiated a cycle of world premieres and in September 2005 he directed the world premiere of Philip Glass’ opera Waiting for the Barbarians. This production was shown at the Amsterdam Opera in September 2006 and went to Austin / Texas in 2007. In June 2008, the house guested with a concert performance at London’s Barbican Hall. For the Erfurt Domstufen Festival he has staged Friedenstag (2003), Cavalleria rusticana (2007) and Die Zauberflöte (2011) as well as the Verdi opera Die Lombarden (2012).

Guy Montavon is a jury member for well-known singing competitions in Paris, Bilbao, Trnava, Barcelona, Verviers and Montreal, among others. In addition, he is chairman of the Thuringian regional association of the German Theater Association and a board member of the Sparkassen Kulturstiftung as well as general secretary of the French artistic directors’ association “Chambre professional des Directeurs d’Opéra”.

Montavon has been a member of the board of directors of Jeunesses Musicales Germany for more than 15 years. He regularly teaches at the Universities of Tokyo and Montreal. In 2008, Montavon was honored with the French Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Literature).

In January 2013, the native of Geneva was also officially appointed Honorary Consul of Switzerland for Thuringia. In this honorary post, Montavon supports the work of the Swiss embassy in Germany and helps, among other things, to arrange or intensify business contacts.