Svetlomir Zlatkov is the newly appointed 1st Kapellmeister at the Music Theatre in Rostock, Germany, where he leads new productions of Madama Butterfly, Don Giovanni, Swan Lake, and Ludger Vollmer’s Tschick. He also collaborates regularly with the North German Philharmonic Rostock across a variety of concert programs.

Before moving to Rostock, Svetlomir spent four seasons as Assistant to the Choir Director at the Vienna State Opera, where he supervised the Choir in productions such as Peer Gynt—released on DVD—and the world premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s Orlando. In 2021, he joined the Landestheater Linz as Repetiteur with Conducting Duties, later becoming Head of Music. There, he conducted Bizet/Constant’s La tragédie de Carmen and worked closely with conductors Markus Poschner and Enrico Calesso.

Previously, he held the positions of 2nd Kapellmeister and Head of Music at the Theatre in Nordhausen, Germany, collaborating with the Loh-Orchester Sondershausen on various opera and musical theatre productions.

Svetlomir studied orchestral and choral conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna under Simeon Pironkoff, Erwin Ortner, and Thomas Lang. He graduated with distinction, conducting the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna in a public concert at the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein.

In 2018, he won first prize at the International Conducting Competition "Nino Rota" in Matera, Italy. He later became a laureate of the European Union Conducting Competition, the Bucharest Music Institute, and the inaugural International Conducting Competition "Wiener Schule".

His guest conducting engagements include appearances with the Wiener Concert-Verein, St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, the State Opera Orchestra in Szczecin (Poland), the Lower Bavarian State Theatre, as well as the Sofia, Brașov, Ploiești and Moravian Philharmonic Orchestras.

He has refined his craft in masterclasses and workshops with renowned conductors such as Theodor Currentzis, Johannes Schläfli, Tomas Netopil, Leonid Korchmar, and Marc Albrecht.

Svetlomir is also deeply committed to teaching and mentorship. From 2019 to 2023, he served as Lecturer and Leader of the Preparatory Course in Conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, guiding aspiring conductors at the start of their careers.

Svetlomir is passionate about exploring the historical and ideological connections between the different fields of art expression. His dream is to create a new concert format to unite all art forms and thus present a modern Gesamtkunstwerk to the audience, which incorporates the unity of art.