Philipp Kochheim was born in Hamburg and studied art history, German literature and theatre sciences at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. Since 1997 he has directed operas, musicals and plays.

From 2004 to 2008 he was Artistic Director of the opera at Staatstheater Darmstadt and from 2013 to 2017 Artistic Director of the opera at Staatstheater Braunschweig.

From 2017-2024 he was General Manager and Artistic Director of the Danish National Opera.

He was awarded the Otto-Kasten-Prize, the Götz-Friedrich-Prize and the Rolf-Mares-Prize and his productions were nominated as productions of the year in the Opernwelt Yearbook several times.

His production of Weinberg's "The Passenger" was awarded the Performance of the Year Award in 2019 and is nominated for the prestigious Reumert Award 2019 as best opera production.

"Ragtime" was awarded the "Austrian Theatre-Prize" 2019 as best musical.

His Corona production "Yesterday and tomorrow" was awarded the P2 Prize for artistic event of the year 2021.

In 2024 he was awarded the prestigious Hans-Christian-Andersen-Prize.

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