BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE

He was born Günther Schneider in Augsburg, Germany on June 7, 1926. When he was two, the family moved to Munich where they lived well into the war.

Even as a boy growing up in Munich, it seemed he was headed toward a career in art where the musical converged with the visual. Music was an important part of his childhood. He learned to play the piano as a boy and loved to improvise or play by ear. He also learned to paint and draw at about the same time. He enjoyed both activities and naturally often found himself alternating between the two.

He believes he inherited his talent for drawing from his father who was an amateur painter; but he is certain that the artist in him can be traced to his maternal grandfather Siemssen, a photographer in Augsburg who was gifted by King Ludwig III with a lovely studio built in the style of the art nouveau. Thus, as a young man headed towards a career in the theater, he appended Siemssen to his legal name, which was how the hyphenated surname came to be.

As a child he was occasionally taken to plays by his parents, and remembers being fascinated by what transpired on stage - such as the magical transformation of the frog-prince. It was perhaps during these years, though it is hard to pinpoint the exact occasion, that his affinity for the theater was born. Surely, it helped that he was also introduced, through his parents' connections, to the stage designer Hugo Schmidt who showed him the theater and his design models.

As a teenager, his theater attendance became more frequent, and consequently his attraction to the art grew even stronger along with the realization that his musical perceptions were always associated with visual impressions, and that his paintings and drawings always tended toward the theatrical.

Everything it seemed was coming together. He thought of becoming a conductor, and began studies that would lead him in this direction. But then at age 14, through his mother's connections, he was introduced to the great conductor Clemens Krauss of the Munich State Opera, to whom the young lad intimated his aspiration. "Become a conductor? First you must become a rehearsal coach, and then you'll see if you possess the talent for conducting,” the Maestro admonished him. But when the young Günther showed him his drawings, the Maestro was quick to declare with great authority: "You must become a stage designer! No musical career, be a stage designer." And then was quick to add: "We need stage designers who can visually interpret the music. That's what's missing!" Needless to say, these statements were forever etched in Günther Schneider-Siemssen's memory.

That was a defining moment. At age 15, he began his stage design studies in earnest under Ludwig Sievert who was chief stage designer of the opera in Munich and also professor at the Academy, and Emil Pretorius who taught a class in stage design. His father, skeptical of a "fantasy" career in the theater, much preferred a military career for his son. But that was not to be.

He was not always considered a good student at his boyhood schools, but at the Academy of Applied Arts, he was outstanding and passed everything with flying colors. And he made sure he got a good education, even in areas outside of stage design. "I was in the scene shop. I built models. I drew furniture... . There were many additional studies, often not as important or as interesting as my major subject was. There was art history, construction style, perspective, architecture...." He wanted to learn everything, and he did.

In the following years, he continued with Sievert and added studies in dramatic science. The last part of his studies consisted of his apprenticeship years during which he also learned about rising through the ranks. It was also during this time that he developed his love for opera - the paint shop where he did his studies was just above the auditorium of the opera house; he could go to the opera every single night. He also attended and learned as much as he could about theater.

He first earned his keep by becoming Germany's youngest all-around impresario - running, producing directing and performing in shows with a comedy/cabaret touring company which he kept in the black through its existence. In performance, he proved himself to be an excellent impersonator of famous celebrities.

His next stop was briefly at the Gärtnerplatz Theater in Munich where he painted sceneries for seven operettas. Then he landed a contract with the then struggling Landestheater in Salzburg which at times did not have enough money to pay for canvas. The absence of cash proved to be a blessing in disguise for the rising stage designer.

"Why do you need canvas?" the Intendant asked him. "I hired you because you possess fantasy! Fantasy! Whoever has fantasy, doesn't need any canvas!" And then added, "What do you actually know about light to begin with?" This became the second defining moment of his young life. Light! The thought of it would never leave him. Thus began his work with projections. "I painted pictures on 13 x 13-cm glass plates, and worked with lighting equipment with very low output. It was an attempt, but it had promise... and enormous possibilities. I felt it immediately."

In 1952 he began a long-standing association with the Salzburg Marionette Theater where he did a lot of pioneering work and was Stage Designer until 1991. It is a cherished relationship that continues to this day. In 1954, the State Theater in Bremen beckoned. First hired as a set designer, he soon rose to Production Director. He stayed in Bremen for eight wonderful years, his years of "learning and wandering" (Lehr und Wanderjahre) where he further honed his skills and moved on to bigger and bigger productions of works ranging from the classics to the avant-garde. It was in Bremen where he did his first Ring Cycle, where Sir Georg Solti first took notice of him; and it was his designs for Bremen's Fidelio that piqued Herbert von Karajan's interest... Indeed, Bremen literally became his launching pad to the "big time" - Vienna, Salzburg, London, New York and the rest of the "cosmos!"