© Ferdinand Neumüller
Born in Vienna, Christoph Wagner-Trenkwitz studied music and political science as well as Romance studies with Mag. Phil. off. Professional stations took him to the ORF radio station and as an actor, author and cabaret artist on different stages. From 1993 to 1996 he was press chief of the Vienna State Opera and from 1996 to 2001 chief dramaturge of the Vienna State Opera. Since 1998 he has been a member of the board of the Arnold Schoenberg Center Privatstiftung in Vienna.
Since 2001 he has been a TV commentator of the Vienna Opera Ball at the ORF, which made him known to a broad public. At the same time, he also designed programmes – among others Apropos Klassik, Klassiktreffpunkt, Pasticcio, Anklang as well as the transmission of the New Year’s Concert – on the Ö1 radio station. Since 2003 he has been a director of the Volksoper Wien, since 2009 its chief dramaturge. From 2013 to 2016 he was Artistic Director of the Theaterommer Haag, since 2020 he has been Artistic Director of the Operette Langenlois, where Richard Heuberger’s Der Opernball will be on the programme in the summer of 2022.
Performances as a lecturer, presenter and actor have taken him to the Berlin State Opera, the Bonn Opera and the Baden stage, the Bregenzer and Salzburg Festival, the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz Munich and the Goethehaus Frankfurt, the Richard Strauss Festival Garmisch, the Festspielhaus St. Pölten, the Festival Grafenegg, Stadttheater Klagenfurt, Wiener Konzerthaus, Musikverein and Wiener Festwochen.
At the Austrian Theatre Museum, he designed the exhibitions Lucky Me Remained (on Marcel Prawy’s 90th birthday) and, together with Marie-Theres Arnbom, Grüß mich Gott (on Fritz Grünbaum’s 125th birthday). From 2000 onwards he worked as a presenter at the Theater an der Wien and was a versatile member of the cabaret in der Hölle from 2010-2022.
Numerous publications and books, most recently “The orchestra that never sleeps. The Vienna Philharmonic” (2017), “All Waltz. The Opera Ball from A to Z” (2020) and “Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome. Musical at the Volksoper Vienna” (2022).