Kai Johannes Polzhofer is an Austrian-German conductor and composer.

He made his conducting debut with the Danish National Philharmonic Orchestra, and has conducted orchestras including the Düsseldorf Symphonic Orchestra, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Copenhagen Philharmonic, and the Tonkünstler Orchestra Niederösterreich (Vienna). He has also conducted performances with soloists of Mariinsky Theatre, soloists, orchestra and chorus of Gothenburg Opera, as worked with the New Music Ensemble of Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, ensemble gageego!, Solisteneinsemble Kaleidoskop Berlin, Ensemble Mosaik among others. Current highlights include the musical direction of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at Austria’s Heunburg Music Festival, featuring an international cast with artists from La Scala, the Vienna State Opera, and Volksoper Wien. He also returns to Bavarian State Opera Munich by reinvitation.

In opera, he has worked at Deutsche Oper am Rhein on Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and has conducted fully staged productions including Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen in Copenhagen, and recently lead Verdi’s La Traviata at Theater Hagen. He has held assistant conducting engagements with Wiener Symphoniker, the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, and SWR Symphonieorchester (Stuttgart) among others.

Studies in Leipzig, St. Petersburg, and Copenhagen (within the prestigious National Soloist Class under Michael Schønwandt). Internationally active as composer he has worked with JACK Quartet, Ensemble Recherche, Parker Quartet among others), Kai Johannes Polzhofer is co-founder of the Du Bois Orchestra at Harvard, KLAR!festival in Denmark, and holds a PhD from Harvard University.