Bayreuth Festival
Thielemann is a regular conductor at the Bayreuth Festival, following his début in 2000 with Wagner's "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg", and at the Salzburg Festival. With the decision in September 2008 of the Richard Wagner Festival Foundation to appoint Katharina Wagner and Eva Wagner-Pasquier to succeed Wolfgang Wagner as directors of the Bayreuth Festival, Thielemann was named musical advisor. In June 2015, the Bayreuth Festival formally announced the appointment of Thielemann as its music director.