Biography

Cornelia Maria Rainer, born in Lienz/ Tyrol in 1982, studied theater, french and philosophy at the University of Vienna, the Nouvelle Sorbonne and Université Saint Denis in Paris (graduating in 2012) and she was a guest student at the Peking Opera School in Taiwan. 
During her studies in Paris she completed international theater scholarships with Peter Brook, George Banu and Marina Abramovic and she was an intern at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg and at the Théâtre de l'Atalante in Paris. She grew up with music since her childhood; she played the oboe and she studied Classical Solo Singing at the Ecole National de Musique de Pantin in Paris and completed her studies Lied und Oratorium at the Conservatory for Church Music in Vienna. 

From 2005 to 2009 she was an assistant director at the Burgtheater in Vienna, where she assisted, among others, Andrea Breth, Stefan Bachmann, Karin Beier, Sven-Eric Bechtolf and Jan Bosse and she brought to stage her first productions, including her own playHeimfindevermögen. Since then she has staged Richard II. at the Thalia Theater Hamburg, Lenz at the Salzburg Festival/YDP, Der Sturm at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt, The 7 Deadly Sins at the Tyrolean Festival, Madame Butterfly at the Trier Opera, Pünktchen und Anton and Hamlet, Ophelia und die others at the Vienna Burgtheater. Her theater and opera productions have also taken her to the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, the Philharmonie Luxemburg, the Bregenz Festival and the Wien Modern Festival. In 2016 she was invited to the Festival d'Avignon (IN) with Lenz and then she worked in France at the Center Dramatique Nationale de Normandie-Rouen and at the Théâtre du Rond Point Paris. For her production Joanne she has been awarded with the Outstanding Artist Award and was nominated for the Stella.Darstellender Kunst Preis. In 2022 her film Gil and Dole (42') had been invited to the Female Eye Film Festival/  TiFF Bell Lightbox, Toronto/ Canada and received an Honorable Mention in the narrative foreign feature competition.

Cornelia Maria Rainer has been a guest lecturer at the Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität Wien and the Musikuniversität Graz. She is represented as an author by Thomas Sessler Verlag and Rowohlt Theater Verlag and she is a member of the jury of the Federal Ministry for Art and Culture in the Music and Performing Arts department. Since 2019 she is also leading a non-verbal communication and negotiation training in Vienna. 

Cornelia Maria Rainer lives with her family in Vienna. 


Cornelia Maria Rainer | Press photos for download