Katharina Wagner, great-granddaughter of Richard Wagner, has been Artistic Director and Managing Director of the Bayreuth Festival since September 1, 2015. From 2008 to 2015, she held this position together with her half-sister Eva Wagner-Pasquier. She is also Managing Director of BF Medien GmbH, a subsidiary of the Festival.

Born in Bayreuth, she studied theatre studies at the Free University of Berlin. Her directorial work has taken her to renowned opera houses in Germany and abroad, including The Flying Dutchman (Würzburg), Lohengrin (Budapest), Der Waffenschmied (Munich), Il Trittico (Berlin), Madame Butterfly and Tiefland (Mainz). In 2007, she made her directing debut at the Bayreuth Festival with Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. In 2015, Tristan und Isolde followed under the musical direction of Christian Thielemann, and in 2018 her internationally acclaimed production of Fidelio at the New National Theatre in Tokyo. Her staging of Lohengrin at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona was enthusiastically received by both audiences and critics.

In addition to her work in Bayreuth, Katharina Wagner is an honorary professor of stage directing at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin. For her artistic achievements and her cultural and political engagement, she has received numerous awards, including the B.Z. Culture Prize (2010), the Bavarian Culture Prize (2012), the Grand Decoration of Honour of the Province of Burgenland (2013), the Bavarian Order of Merit (2019), and the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art (2023).

She is an honorary member of numerous Richard Wagner associations worldwide and is regarded today as one of the most influential figures in international musical theatre.