Overview

• Steier’s unanimous selection was confirmed by NRW Culture Minister Ina Brandes as part of a push to expand the festival’s reach beyond elite audiences.
• She will succeed Ivo van Hove and begin her three-year term as artistic director with the 2027 season.
• The 1978-born American director, formerly opera director in Lucerne until 2023, has led productions at the Salzburger Festspiele, Vienna State Opera, Basel, and Cologne.
• Steier plans to invite Ruhr region communities to co-create site-specific, experimental music and theatre works within the festival’s industrial venues.
• Since 2002 the Ruhrtriennale has converted former factories, mines, and slag heaps across the region into stages for avant-garde music theatre, drama, and dance.