Peter Hirsch studied at the Musikhochschule in Cologne before being named Micheal Gielen’s assistant at the Frankfurt Opera, where he served as first Kapellmeister from 1984 to 1987. In 1985, he made his debut at La Scala in Milan with Luigi Nono’s Prometeo (premiere of the final version). In the following year he conducted the premieres of Hans Zender’s Stephen Climax in Frankfurt as well as Risonanze Erranti by Luigi Nono in Cologne. There followed numerous opera productions in Vancouver, at the English and Welsh National Operas, the Scottish Opera, the Netherlands Opera, the opera in Bonn, and the Opera Unter den Linden in Berlin.

Peter Hirsch regularly conducts orchestras such as the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Berliner Sinfonieorchester, the RSO Frankfurt, the MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, the Orchestre National de Belgique, the Residence Orchestra in The Hague, and the Bournemouth Symphony.  He has been a guest at the Salzburg Festival, the Venice Biennale, the Bologna Festival, the Warsaw Autumn, the Ars Musica Festival in Brussels, the Berlin Festival, the Munich Biennale, and the Festival D’Automne Paris.

Hirsch’s recent engagements have included the Munich Philharmonic, the KBS Symphony Orchestra Seoul, the Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne, the Bern Symphony Orchestra, the Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, the RSO Saarbrücken, the Philharmonic State Orchestra in Mainz, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Camerata Salzburg, the Basel Sinfonietta, and the Hamburg State Opera.  In addition to contemporary music, the programs also included works by Brahms, Bruckner, Schubert, Mahler, and Zemlinsky.