Andrea Pier to lead Vereinigte Bühnen Wien

Andrea Pier will become managing director of Vereinigte Bühnen Wien, the company behind Theater an der Wien and the Raimund Theater and Ronacher musical venues, on Dec. 1, ORF reported. She will succeed Franz Patay, who has led the company since 2016.

Pier will be the first woman officially to lead the company. She most recently served as managing director of the project for Chemnitz’s 2025 European Capital of Culture year. Before that, she spent two decades in senior roles at entertainment company Stage Entertainment, including as head of Berlin’s Theater des Westens and in charge of touring productions.

She was selected from 19 applicants and has received a five-year contract. Pier said she would start in Vienna with considerable drive. She said she was familiar with cost-cutting requirements from her experience in the private sector, adding that the priority was to make the right decisions to maintain artistic excellence.

Pier said the privately funded Theater im Prater, a new musical venue under construction in Vienna, did not concern her. She also said she did not currently see a need to change how the company’s budget is divided between opera and musicals.

The move to Vienna is a return for Pier, who studied theatre studies at the University of Vienna. She was born in Bielefeld and holds German and Austrian citizenship.

Vienna Finance Councillor Barbara Novak welcomed what she called “a strong female presence” at the head of a key company within the city-owned Wien Holding. Wien Holding managing director Karin Ramser praised Pier’s communication skills and empathetic leadership approach, and said the interview panel had voted unanimously for her. Vienna Culture Councillor Veronica Kaup-Hasler also praised Pier’s experience.