Rüdiger Neumann (Rudi to all) created Neumann Artists Management in 2008, and was joined by assistant Janja Mihaljević in 2011. He commenced his career as Artist Manager with the Peter Alferink agency in 2004, after graduating with a Master degree from the Universities of Cologne and Amsterdam, in Dutch and English language and literature and Political Sciences. Originally from Cologne, he is trilingual in German, Dutch and English, is fluent in French and street-smart in Spanish. As a student, Rudi also resided in France, where he worked as an attaché at the European branch of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, a political foundation based in Strasbourg. His major achievement there, in collaboration with the Council of Europe, was to direct and manage an international conference on Post-Yugoslavia in the esteemed presence of Vojislav Koštunica, first president of Yugoslavia after Milošević.
Rudi’s fascination with the theatre started with his own acting experiences during his formative years. His early mentor, television-personality Alfred Biolek, introduced him to the world of opera and such significant personalities as Gerard Mortier, among whom he discovered his true craftmanship is to be found behind the curtain. Neumann Artists has gone on to manage the careers of stage directors Krzysztof Warlikowski and Malgorzata Szczesniak for a full decade from their international debuts. Since its inception, the agency has built a solid reputation as a proponent of classically-trained talent, elite musicianship and charismatic stage artistry. As an intermediary between promoters and artists, Rudi is inspired as much by his love of the operatic artform as by the talent of his artists, and is driven by an ethos to combine a strong business sense without ever losing sight of the person behind the artist.
In his leisure time outside of frequent work travel, Rudi tenaciously pursues physical fitness and maintains his interest in geopolitics and foreign language proficiency. He loves to cook and to share good wine over social dinners.