Born in
Bülach (Switzerland), Klajner studied
conducting and
musical composition in Vienna. He completed his musical training with
Gary Bertini (in Salzburg),
Moshe Atzmon (in Assisi) and
Leonard Bernstein (Tanglewood and Tel Aviv). He was assistant to the latter at the
Vienna State Opera and to
Claudio Abbado at the
Berlin Philharmonic and the
Salzburg Festival. Klajner has won several international competitions (Min-On competition in Tokyo, Masterplayer in Lugano,
Vienna Chamber Orchestra and Jecklin competitions in Zurich). He began his career as first
Kapellmeister in
Bienne (Switzerland) before being appointed Generalmusikdirektor in
Stralsund in Western Pomerania at the age of 26 and then, from 1996 to 1998, he held the same position in
Hof, Bavaria and, from 2000 to 2005 in
Würzburg (Bavaria) where he was also artistic director of the
Mozart Festival. At the same time, he is pursuing an international career: as a permanent guest conductor at Dortmund and the Bern Opera, he also conducted the
Stuttgarter Kammerorchester on a tour of Spain, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra on a tour of Austria and performs regularly in Japan and the United States. He made his debut at the
Paris Opera in 2002 with
Rolf Liebermann's
Freispruch für Medea, at
La Scala of Milan in 2004 (
Der Fliegende Holländer) and at the
Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 2005. In concert, he has conducted, among other things, the
Orchestre de Paris, the
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the
Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, the
Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, the
Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, the
Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the
Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, the
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the
Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire, and also the Orchestre philharmonique de Marseille. In the pit, he directed
Der fliegende Holländer,
La Bohème in Paris, ''
Bluebeard's Castle, Turandot in Marseille, Don Giovanni in Toulouse, Madama Butterfly at the Komische Oper Berlin, Der fliegende Holländer
, The Magic Flute, Tannhäuser at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Rigoletto in Düsseldorf, Die tote Stadt in Nancy, Don Carlos'' in Innsbruck,
Aribert Reimann's
Troades,
Freispruch für Medea de Liebermann,
Cendrillon in Bern, and
Parsifal in Darmstadt. At the
Opéra national du Rhin, half of whose performances are given by the
Orchestre symphonique de Mulhouse, he conducted the French premiere of Thomas Adès'
The Tempest,
The Nightingale and
Œdipus Rex,
Elektra,
Frühlings Erwachen,
Richard III,
Ariadne auf Naxos, the ballets
Romeo and Juliet and
La Sylphide. From 2005 to 2011, he was music and artistic director of the Orchestre symphonique de Mulhouse and since the 2010–2011 season, he has been principal Guest Conductor of the
Hofer Symphoniker. He has been teaching orchestral conducting at the
Vienna Conservatory as a guest professor since 2002. == Discography ==