Gerard Mortier is the General Director of the Teatro Real de Madrid. He contributed to the EFA BOOKS 3 "Cahier de l’Atelier. Arts festivals for the sake of art?", joined the team of presenters of the Atelier for Young Festival Managers for the first time in Görlitz 2006 and now for the second time in Ljubljana. Gerard Mortier was born on 25 November 1943 in Ghent (Belgium). He attended a Jesuit school, and after his secondary education, continued to study law and communication. He chose a career in the arts and became Director of the Flanders Festival. Gerard Mortier spent most of the seventies in Germany. In chronological order, he was Artistic Director at the opera in Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Frankfurt. After that, he worked for a short time as a technical adviser in setting up the programme of the Paris Opera. In 1981, Gerard Mortier was appointed General Manager at the Monnaie Opera House in Brussels. He reformed the opera house with innovative adaptations of the repertoire, and the introduction of new works, as well as recruiting new performers. After his second term, in 1992, Mortier took over the running of the Salzburger Festspiele. He received heavy criticism as well as praise for his radical and sometimes provocative transformation of the once so traditional opera festival. In 2001, Mortier was invited to develop and lead the Ruhrtriennale 2002-2004, which brought to North Rhine Westphalia an effervescent mixture of dance, opera, symphonies and theatre. At the end of 2001, he became the General Director of the Paris Opera. He is the General Director of the Teatro Real de Madrid since 2010. Gerard Mortier holds two honorary Doctorates from the universities of Antwerp and Salzburg and was invited as “fellow” of the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin in 2001-2002. He taught political and social history of theatre in Ghent (Belgium) and Leiden (Netherlands). Eight renowned festival managers from all over the world will guide the participants throughout the seven days of the Atelier LJUBLJANA 2012 under the coordination of Hugo De Greef (Belgium): Robyn Archer (Australia), Bernard Faivre d’Arcier (France), Nele Hertling (Germany), Michal Merzcyński (Poland), Jonathan Mills (United Kingdom), Gerard Mortier (Belgium) and Fruzsina Szép (Hungary). More info on the Atelier LJUBLJANA 2012 on the Atelier website.