About
Kommando Himmelfahrt
Kommando Himmelfahrt is a cross-genre theatre group led by the Hamburg composer Jan Dvořák, the Berlin director Thomas Fiedler and the dramaturge and production manager Julia Warnemünde.
In mostly large-scale productions, they combine music theatre, performance, video art and concerts to create philosophical theatre compositions. Avant-garde montage techniques meet revue and song, band music meets classical choral and orchestral elements, lecture performance meets cinematic realism.
Kommando Himmelfahrt deals with utopias and myths, examines their potential and projects them back onto the present. The group works for independent production centres as well as for theatres and opera houses.
Thomas Fiedler
Thomas Fiedler (*1974) studied directing and now has 25 years of directing experience in the fields of drama and musical theatre. He has been successfully producing major independent theatre projects for 20 years: conception, acquisition of third-party funding, administration, budgeting and implementation. Even as a young man, he was part of the management team at the Aachen Theatre and was the successful artistic director of the studio stage there. In 2019-21 he was deputy artistic director of the Junges Staatstheater Berlin (Parkaue) 2019-21. He directed amongst other contemporary music theaters such as “Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil” of Gérard Grisey or “Infinito nero” of Salvatore Sciarrino and worked with many contemporary ensembles like Ensemble Mosaik, Berlin and Collegium Novum Zürich. His work carried him to numerous theatres and festivals in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
Julia Warnemünde
Julia Warnemünde (*1985) is a theatre scholar with an international portfolio (Netherlands, Denmark, Great Britain). She has been producing independent theatre since 2010. She has gained extensive experience both as an artistic dramaturge and in areas such as project applications, third-party funding management and marketing. She has worked as a production manager for the ‘Impulse’ festival and as a festival dramaturge for the ‘Mannheimer Sommer’. From 2016, her dual talent as a dramaturge and production manager at the Nationaltheater Mannheim enabled her to realise unique productions such as the nationally acclaimed opera ‘Vespertine’ based on Björk, as she is able to think across different disciplines.
Jan Dvořák
After studying composition, musicology and conducting in Hamburg and Vienna, Jan Dvořák (*1971) initially turned to the contemporary music scene and worked as a composer and conductor with renowned ensembles and theatres. In 2004, he founded the avant-garde music festival ‘Klub Katarakt’ in Hamburg, which still exists today, and was its co-director until 2011. He now has 25 years of experience in the conception, composition and organisation of independent theatre projects and 20 years of experience in classical opera dramaturgy in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He was head music dramaturge at the Südthüringisches Staatstheater Meiningen under artistic director Res Bosshart, responsible for opera and concerts, then became artistic director of the final projects on the international ‘Opera Master’ programme at the Zurich University of the Arts and finally chief dramaturge at the Nationaltheater Mannheim (NTM) under opera director Albrecht Puhlmann from 2016 to 2019, where he continues to work as artistic director of the major festival ‘Mannheimer Sommer’. At the same time, he has worked continuously as an author and composer.
