Born in Regensburg, Germany in 1983, Martin Wettges studied orchestral conducting with historic performance practice specialist Prof. Bruno Weil at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich, with Mark Gibson at the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio (USA) and at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien (Austria) with Prof. Uroš Lajovic. Besides, he studied musicology, philosophy and music pedagogy at the Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität München.
He received scholarships from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, the University of Cincinnati, the Mark-Lothar-Stiftung and the Richard-Wagner-Foundation, Bayreuth.
Martin Wettges served as chorus master and conductor of Opera North in Leeds (UK) since 2013, touring to Aldeburgh Festival, Royal Opera House Belfast, The Lowry Lyric Theatre Manchester, Theatre Royal Newcastle and Theatre Royal Nottingham. In 2016 he was appointed Chordirektor mit Dirigierverpflichtung at the prestigious Meininger Staatstheater where he regularly conducted the Meininger Hofkapelle in symphony concerts and performances. (Der Barbier von Sevilla, Capriccio, Carmina Burana, Così fan tutte, Don Pasquale, Evita, Die Fledermaus, Gräfin Mariza, Hoffmanns Erzählungen, Lucia di Lammermoor, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Der Messias, Regina, Tannhäuser, Tosca, La Traviata) In 2018 he was appointed chorus master of the Norwegian National Opera (Den Norske Opera & Ballett) in Oslo.
Since 2009 Wettges has been music director of Opera Mauritius, where he conducted Carmen, Orphée aux enfers, Les Pêcheurs de Perles, La Traviata and La Veuve Joyeuse, besides several symphonic concerts and many education projects.
Wettges conducted leading orchestras, such as the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Georgisches Kammerorchester Ingolstadt, the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional del Perú in Lima, the Orquesta de la Ciudad de Lima, die Münchner Sinfoniker, das Münchner Rundfunkorchester, the Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre de la Région Réunion.
He has worked with major choruses, including Chor der Herrenchiemsee Festspiele, Münchner Motettenchor, Münchner Konzertchor, Chor des Staatstheaters am Gärtnerplatz, Kinderchor der Bayerischen Staatsoper, Münchner Knabenchor, Chor der Bayerischen Theaterakademie August Everding, Südtiroler Kammerchor and Suhler Singakademie.
Wettges was guest conductor for the opera houses in Berlin (Staatsoper unter den Linden), Coburg, Eisenach, Graz, Karlstad (Sweden), Leipzig, Lima, Munich (Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz) as well as for Münchner Biennale and the Münchner Opernfestspiele der Bayerischen Staatsoper.
In 2015 he toured to Antananarivo, Madacasgar, to perform Haydn’s Schöpfung with members of the Deutsche Oper Berlin orchestra and local choruses. In 2018 he conducted the refugee orchestra „Bridges“ upon invitation of the German government for chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. As artistic director of the international chorus festival „Various Voices“ he conducted a performance of Carmina Burana featuring 5000 singers in Munich in 2018.
Wettges’ deep interest is historic performance practice as well as contemporary and forgotten music: as a member of the international Walter-Braunfels-association, he is actively engaged in rediscovering and performing his work, which he also edited for Boosey & Hawkes, Bote & Bock and Edition Gravis. In addition, he conducted world-premieres of Carl Filtsch, Robert Krampe, Helmut Krausser, Hermann Levi, Alfred Schnittke, Anno Schreier und Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg, among others. He rediscovered, reconstructed and published the piano concerto by Hermann Levi, the famous conductor of the world-premiere of Parsifal, and performed this opus for the first time after more than one and a half centuries.
Conducting the 2010 “United Nations Holocaust Remembrance Day Concert” in Cincinnati he brought pieces by Braunfels und Levi to America for the very first time.
In 2008 he was appointed lecturer of orchestral conducting at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, where he served until 2013. Besides, he was invited to teach at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, at the College-Conservatory of Music Cincinnati, at the Conservatoire de la Région Réunion and at the Conservatoire Frédéric Mitterand.