Archive Programme 2015

© Marco Borggreve

Michael Sanderling, born and educated in Berlin, turned to conducting after a successful career as a cellist. At the age of 20, he was appointed solo cellist at the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig under Kurt Masur in 1987; later he held the same position at the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin (until 2006). In 2000, the youngest son of the legendary conductor Kurt Sanderling made his conducting debut with the Berlin Chamber Orchestra. Since the 2011/12 season, the 48-year-old conductor has been chief conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic, an engagement recently prolonged until 2019. From 2006 to 2010 Michael Sanderling was music director of the German String Philharmonic. Furthermore, he has worked with the radio orchestras in Stuttgart, Munich, Cologne, Hamburg, Leipzig and Hanover; other recent invitations include appearances in Zurich, London, Toronto and Tokyo. In 2010 the conductor founded the Skyline Symphony in Frankfurt, an orchestra which unites musicians from European orchestras to offer accessible music for a younger audience on the campus of the Goethe University.  

© Guido Werner

Alexey Stadler is from St. Petersburg, where he received his first cello lessons at the age of four. Even during his student days, Alexey Stadler won various prizes and national awards, such as “Young Talent” (2008, 2009 and 2010) and “Russia’s Hope” (2008, 2009). He attended master classes with Natalia Gutman, David Geringas and Frans Helmerson. Today, the 24-year-old studies at the Music Academy Franz Liszt in Weimar with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. The cellist can already look back on a multitude of high-carat invitations: thus, he appeared as a soloist with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Czech Radio Orchestra and the London Chamber Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy. As a chamber musician, Stadler has been invited to the Verbier Festival, the Heidelberger Frühling and the Kronberg Academy, where he performed with Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet and Christian Tetzlaff. Stadler plays a 19^th-century cello which formerly belonged to the Russian Tsar Nicholas II.

© Steven Haberland

The US-American John Neumeier is among the most important choreographers of our times. As Ballet Director and Artistic Director of the Hamburg Ballet, he turned this company into one of Germany’s leading ones. John Neumeier won international acclaim for his combination of traditional ballet with new, contemporary forms. One of John Neumeier’s passions is the support and education of young talent. In 1978, he founded the Ballet School of the Hamburg Ballet. In 2011, John Neumeier took on the position of Artistic Director of the newly-founded National Youth Ballet. John Neumeier has been awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit twice and was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 2003. He already choreographed a ballet for Young Euro Classic in 2012, and in 2013 and 2014 the National Youth Ballet appeared at the Konzerthaus in two of his choreographies as well.

www.hamburgballet.de

© Yohan Stegli

Born in Miami, Kevin Haigen has worked as a dancer, choreographer, ballet teacher and ballet master. He trained at the School of American Ballet under George Balanchine, where he created his first choreographies. In 1976 Kevin Haigen joined the Hamburg Ballet, where he returned in 1991, after several international engagements, as company ballet master and ballet teacher. Ever since, he has assisted John Neumeier in the production of numerous ballets worldwide. Since the founding of the National Youth Ballet, Kevin Haigen has been its Artistic and Pedagogical Director.

© Marco Borggreve

The composers in his repertoire list alone demonstrate that violinist Hugo Ticciati’s heart beats mainly for contemporary music: in recent years, he has played violin concerti by Alfred Schnittke, Rodion Shchedrin, Lera Auerbach, Philip Glass and Toru Takemitsu, in addition to world premieres by Tobias Broström, Sergey N. Yevtushenko and Albert Schnelzer. Ticciati performs this repertoire at all the major concert halls in Europe and America as well as renowned festivals. His passion for chamber music has led him to collaborate with such musicians as pianist Angela Hewitt, percussionist Evelyn Glennie, cellist Steven Isserlis and trombonist Nils Landgren. He directs his own festival, O/MODƏRNT in Sweden, which also presents concert series at Wigmore Hall in London and at the Muziekgebouw aan’t Ij in Amsterdam. In addition, Hugo Ticciati gives master classes and seminars and has made an intensive study of the application of the physical and spiritual aspects of meditation on violin playing. Ticciati, who was born in London in 1980 and is the elder brother of conductor Robin Ticciati, is a Swedish citizen today.

www.hugoticciati.com

© Marco Borggreve

At the age of only 22, bassoonist Bram van Sambeek was appointed principal bassoon of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, a position he held until 2011. Since 2009 he has taught at the Rotterdam Conservatory; in addition he is a member of the Orlando Quintet and appears as a soloist. Van Sambeek recorded the CD Bassoon-Kaleidoscope in 2012, featuring not only chamber music, but also a rock song. He gave the world premiere of a new Bassoon Concerto by the Finnish composer Sebastian Fagerlund in Lahti (Finland) at the end of 2014. In 2009, Van Sambeek became the first bassoonist to receive the Dutch Music Prize.

www.bramvansambeek.com

© Marco Borggreve

The Dutch double bass player Rick Stotijn received his education in classical double bass at the conservatories in Amsterdam, Utrecht and Freiburg. Apart from his solo work, he appears in various chamber music formations, performs in a trio with his sister, the soprano Christianne Stotijn, and pianist Joseph Breinl, and has presented a four-part concert series at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. Stotijn is currently principal bass of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, with which he has also recorded the Double Bass Concerto by Nino Rota.

www.rickstotijn.com

© Marco Borggreve

The percussionist Marijn Korff de Gidts, a graduate of the Amsterdam Conservatory, has gathered a multitude of experiences with non-European music on his study trips to West Africa, India and New York. He is equally curious about “classical” percussion and contemporary music, world music, improvisation and electronic music. He is a member of the percussion trio Twitching Eye and of the Soil Ensemble (percussion, piano and cello). At the same time he works regularly with the Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Dutch Wind Ensemble.

© Pablo Delfos

Sven Figee, Hammond organist and head of the band Sven Hammond Soul, is from Almelo in the Netherlands. He works as a composer, conductor, producer and co-presenter of the Dutch talent show The Voice of Holland. During the 1990s he toured Europe and the USA with the rock singer Anouk. He was also involved as a producer, composer, arranger and pianist in the debut album Trust by the soul singer Rose. Sven Figee runs his own recording studio in Delft; his band’s most recent CD mixes rock, pop and soul with rhythm ’n’ blues.

© Bundesregierung / Denzel

Dr. Ralf Kleindiek (SPD) is known for his poised and unpretentious disposition. Since his appointment as Undersecretary of State at the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth by Manuela Schwesig in 2014, he has represented the ministry on numerous podiums and platforms, winning general sympathy. Born in Hameln, Kleindiek studied law in Gießen and subsequently worked at the Federal Ministry of the Interior, in various positions at the Federal Ministry of Justice, and as a State Councilor at the Hamburg Authority for Justice and Equal Opportunities. His departure was unfortunate for Hamburg, but practical for him: the Undersecretary of State lives in Brandenburg with his family, so his commute became significantly shorter. In an interview with the Foundation for German-Russian Youth Exchange last year, he said: “Youth politics must be international; they depend on the mutual experience of young people in the various countries.” That sounds to us like the perfect attitude for a patron at Young Euro Classic…

© Hoffotografen

The conductor Patrick Lange is a familiar face not only at Young Euro Classic, but to Berlin audiences in general. In 2008 the native of Nuremberg became First Kapellmeister at the Komische Oper, and in 2010 he was appointed interim Chief Conductor there. During his tenure there, he conducted three major premieres: Wagner’s Meistersinger, Dvořák’s Rusalka and Mozart’s Idomeneo. At the same time, his international career took off, which has taken Lange to many great opera houses since. Apart from his regular appearances at the Vienna State Opera, the 34-year-old has conducted in Munich and Hamburg, at London’s Royal Covent Garden Opera House and at the Sydney Opera. Concert invitations have taken him to the WDR Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Lange began his musical education with the Regensburger Domspatzen boys’ choir. Later, he studied at the music academies in Würzburg and Zurich and was mentored especially by Claudio Abbado. 

© Felix-Broede-Hans Deumling-Dorothee Falke-Jürgen Olczyk

With his well-thought-out concert programmes and CD recordings, the 36-year-old pianist Herbert Schuch has made a name for himself as one of the most interesting musicians of his generation. Most recently, he won acclaim for his six-part Schubert-Janáček cycle; his latest CD combines works by Bach and Liszt with Ravel, Messiaen and Tristan Murail. In his concert repertoire, he focuses on Mozart, but also performs the piano concerti for left hand by Ravel and Korngold as well as Victor Ullmann’s piano concerto. Born in Temesvár in Romania in 1979, Schuch moved to Germany with his family in 1988. In 2005 he came to broad attention by winning three major competitions: the Beethoven Competition in Vienna, the Casagrande Competition in Italy and the London International Piano Competition. Ever since, he has appeared with many major orchestras and conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Lothar Zagrosek, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jonathan Nott and Michael Sanderling. Schuch is also an active proponent of the organisation “Rhapsody in School”, founded by his fellow pianist Lars Vogt, which promotes the teaching of classical music in schools.

www.herbertschuch.com

Journalist and Author

Alexander von Schönburg-Glauchau may have been born in Mogadishu (Somalia) in 1969, but went to school in Munich, where he was quickly “corrupted”, as he says himself: even as a high school student, he began his career as a journalist, writing about youth topics for the Münchner Merkur, then working as a reporter for the German edition of Esquire magazine. Even before graduating, he transferred to a school in England, where he then also studied history, leading to a severe case of Anglophilia. Very befittingly: by marriage, the head of the Schönburg family and brother of Gloria von Thurn und Taxis is also a great-nephew of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and thus of the Queen herself! He also developed the ability “to write about lighthearted things seriously and lightheartedly about serious matters”, leading to a highly diverse career in journalism and as a book author. He was editor at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, chief editor at the magazine Park Avenue and has been a member of the editorial board of BILD since 2009. His books, for example Everything You’ve always Wanted to Know about Kings but never Dared to Ask (2008) and his most recent work, Small Talk (2015) made it onto the German bestseller lists.

© B. Ealovega

The British conductor Sir Mark Elder, knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2008, has been among the outstanding conductors of the United Kingdom for many years. He made a name for himself as an opera conductor as early as the 1980s, when he was at the helm of the English National Opera together with Peter Jonas. Since 2000 Elder has been chief conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, with which he has realised numerous CD productions and appeared regularly at the BBC Proms in London. Invitations have taken him to all the important opera houses in Europe and the USA; in 1981 Elder became the first Englishman to conduct at the Bayreuth Festival (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg). Together with Barrie Gavin, he produced a film about the life and work of Giuseppe Verdi for the BBC in 1994; this was followed by a film about Gaetano Donizetti for German TV in 1996. The 67-year-old has recorded even unknown Donizetti operas like Dom Sebastien and Linda di Chamounix. Elder is also a popular guest on TV: for example, he presented a multi-part series entitled Maestro at the Opera for the BBC in 2012.

Senator for Finance of Berlin

Even during his student days at the Technical University in Darmstadt, Dr. Matthias Kollatz-Ahnen (SPD) stood for the values of social democracy, representing the Young Social Democrats on the Students’ Union Executive Committee. Since then, much has happened in his life, but his political engagement has lasted. The physical engineer, who subsequently also studied political economy in Frankfurt am Main and Berlin, is Berlin’s Senator for Finance today – which gives him the difficult task of finding solutions for the capital’s chronic money problems. A former Chairman of the European Investment Bank, a former Senior Expert at the consultancy PriceWaterhouseCoopers and a member of the EU Commission’s Advisory Council ‘Innovation for Growth’, this task should be right up his alley. He can also consult with his wife, who holds the same position in the State of Rhineland-Palatinate. We wonder if he occasionally travels there on his motorcycle? At least on August 11, to our delight, the EU expert will be in Berlin, as patron for the European Union Youth Orchestra!

© Nora Roitberg

The Chinese-American conductor Xian Zhang, born in Dandong in 1973, was educated at the Central Conservatory in Beijing, where she took her first conducting classes at the age of only 16. At 19, she conducted her first opera at the Beijing Opera House (Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro). When she was 25, Xian Zhang continued her studies in the USA, where she became Lorin Maazel’s assistant conductor at the New York Philharmonic in 2004. Afterwards, her own career took off rapidly, leading her to conduct major orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. In 2009 Zhang became chief conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi in Milan; since 2011 the conductor has been artistic director of the Dutch NJO Music Academy. Apart from her numerous opera engagements (e.g. in Washington DC, Milan, Cardiff and Savonlinna), she has made a name for herself as a champion of Chinese composers such as Chen Yi, Huang Ruo, Qigang Chen and Tan Dun.

© Decca / Harald Hoffmann

Only 33 years old, the American cellist Alisa Weilerstein can already look back on a “career” that spans (almost) 30 years. At the age of only 4, her parents fulfilled her wish for a cello, and six months later she first performed in public. At 13, Weilerstein made her debut with the Cleveland Orchestra, playing Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations, and at 15 she was first heard at Carnegie Hall in New York. Ever since, the musician has quickly found her place among the best cellists of the younger generation. She has been invited to all the major festivals in the world; last season, she performed with the Orchestre de Paris and the London Philharmonia Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, the New York Philharmonic and the NHK Orchestra Tokyo. The exclusive DECCA artist has recorded the cello concerti of Edward Elgar and Elliott Carter with Daniel Barenboim, her latest record being a recital of 20^th century solo sonatas. A champion of contemporary music, Weilerstein regularly performs works by Osvaldo Golijov, Lera Auerbach and Joseph Hallman, but also the 2014 New York premiere of Matthias Pintscher’s cello concerto Reflections on Narcissus.

alisaweilerstein.com 

Chairwoman of the Board of GASAG

Garbage is no work for girls – that bit of prejudice has successfully been refuted up by Vera Gäde-Butzlaff. The lawyer who moved to Berlin from Lower Saxony to study law was Chairwoman of the Board of Berlin’s municipal waste-disposal company BSR for seven years, also getting rid of some “garbage” along the way: her first self-set task on the job was to take part on a cleaning and garbage-collection tour. “In this job, you have to be authentic and show that you value the work of every single coworker” – with those words, she turned her job over to her successor last year, leaving with sympathy for BSR running high among the Berliners, and with fantastic revenues for the company. Instead of resting on her laurels and dedicating herself to one of her favourite pastimes, traveling, she became Chairwoman of the Board of GASAG, Berlin’s Gasworks, in March 2015. And she is a friend of the arts: since 2011 she has been chairwoman of the Friends of the Berlin State Ballet as well. But maybe it will soon be time for a vacation after all – perhaps in Portugal, after she has welcomed and enjoyed the Jovem Orquestra Portuguesa at Young Euro Classic!

© Mario Zgoll

The Portuguese conductor Pedro Carneiro, born in Lisbon in 1975, has pursued a two-track musical career. On the one hand, he is an internationally acclaimed percussionist performing in all the major concert halls between the USA, Japan and Australia. More than 100 world premieres demonstrate his special status as an artist of the musical avant-garde, as do his regular collaborations with the Arditti Quartet, the Tokyo String Quartet and the Chilingirian Quartet. The percussionist has a special flair for musical improvisation, often in combination with live electronics or other innovative technologies. On the other hand, Carneiro has been making a name for himself as a conductor during the past years. The Portuguese Chamber Orchestra (Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa) was founded at his initiative in 2007 and has its own concert series at the Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisbon). Not least, the Portuguese musician composes orchestral and chamber music and directs the percussion festival “Bang Crash Splash!” in Lisbon.

www.pedrocarneiro.com

The violinist Pedro Lopes, born in Braga in Northern Portugal in 1988, moved to Lisbon in 2006 at the age of 18 to study at the Music Academy, where he specialized both in modern and baroque violin. During the following years Lopes won numerous prizes for young musicians. Today he is a member of the Portuguese Chamber Orchestra (OCP) and has been teaching at the National Conservatory since 2011. In addition, he participates in a master programme for chamber music at the Hanover Music Academy with his ensemble, Trio do Desassossego.

The violist Ricardo Gaspar began his musical training at the age of eight, completing his bachelor’s degree at the Music Academy in Lisbon in 2012 after studies with Pedro Muñoz. He subsequently continued his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Gaspar was not only a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra, but also reinforced the string group of the London Symphony Orchestra, performing under conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Pablo Heras-Casado, Bernard Haitink and Valery Gergiev. The violist has won several prizes for young musicians in Portugal. He currently studies at the International Menuhin Academy in Switzerland.

Chief Editor, DER TAGESSPIEGEL

© Benjamin Ealovega

Eivind Aadland is one of Norway’s most respected conductors. He was Chief Conductor and Artistic Leader of the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra from 2004 to 2011. His extensive work with Scandinavian orchestras includes regular guest engagements with the Oslo and Bergen Philharmonics, the Stavanger Symphony, the Gothenburg Symphony and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. In addition Aadland has conducted critically acclaimed productions at Den Norske Opera, Oslo. Aadland has also worked extensively in the Far East and Australia. In 2010 he led the Trondheim Symphony on tour in China and conducted the KBS Symphony Orchestra in Seoul. In 2011 he became Principal Guest Conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Brisbane. His strong rapport with orchestral musicians flows from his experience as concertmaster of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and subsequent work with the European Union Chamber Orchestra. Aadland studied violin with Yehudi Menuhin; he also received conducting lessons from Jorma Panula.

© Robert Romik

The 42-year-old Norwegian Henning Kraggerud is among his country’s artistic multi-talents. Not only does he perform as a violinist and violist, but he is also co-director of the Risør Chamber Music Festival and artistic director of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. In addition, Kraggerud is an active composer: his most recent work, Equinox. 24 Postludes in All Keys for Violin and String Orchestra of 2014 was inspired by the literary work of Jostein Gaarder. As a violin soloist, Henning Kraggerud has performed at Carnegie Hall in New and at London’s Royal Albert Hall, in Hong Kong and in Seoul; his repertoire includes the great violin concerti from Bach to Prokofiev. His comprehensive discography includes works by Edvard Grieg and Christian Sinding as well as the violin virtuosi Louis Spohr, Fritz Kreisler and Eugène Isaÿe. Kraggerud also forms a piano trio with pianist Imogen Cooper and cellist Adrian Brendel.

The Ukrainian conductor Igor Palkin was born into a family of musicians in Kharkiv in 1959. From 1978 to 1984 he studied choral conducting, piano and conducting at the State Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Kiev, where Roman Kofman was among his teachers. After this he began his career as a conductor, which also took him to the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 1989. Apart from the Ukraine’s leading orchestras, Palkin has been invited to guest-conduct orchestras in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Spain and other European countries. His opera includes even rarities such as Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, Prokofiev’s Duenna, Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tale of Tsar Saltan as well as Love Letters and Solitude by the Ukrainian composer Vitaly Gubarenko. Palkin is currently conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the Ukrainian National Philharmonic and chief conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the National Tchaikovsky Music Academy in Kiev.

Even before his sixth birthday, Dima Tkachenko, a native of the Ukraine, began taking violin lessons. After graduating from the Lysenko Music School in Kiev and the National Music Academy of the Ukraine, he was invited to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London in 1998. Afterwards, he launched an international career which has taken him all over Europe, Asia and America. Among its highlights were performances at the Great Concert Hall in Moscow, at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Palau de la Música in Barcelona and Carnegie Hall in New York. Tkachenko’s repertoire includes all the great violin concerti, from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons to Mozart and Mendelssohn and all the way to Berg, Schoenberg, Shostakovich and Lutoslawski. Tkachenko teaches at the Ukraine’s National Music Academy, gives master classes and serves on the juries of various international competitions. He is also the co-founder and artistic director of the International Benjamin Britten Violin Competition in London.

www.tkachenko.net

Since 2014, Huan Jing has served as Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Guangzhou Youth Orchestra. The Resident Conductor of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, she made her debut there in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with soloist Maxim Vengerov. A graduate of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, she furthered her studies in the USA at the University of Cincinnati, where she gathered her first professional experience as a conductor assistant with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and assistant conductor of the Cincinnati Youth Orchestra (2011–2013). In June 2012, Jing participated in the Campos do Jordão International Festival in São Paulo, Brazil, where her performance led to an invitation to serve as Assistant Conductor of the São Paulo State Symphony beginning in February 2013. In opera, she has led performances of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Puccini’s Turandot and Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress.

© B. Ealovega

Since winning the gold medal at the International Van Cliburn Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2009, Haochen Zhang has enjoyed a fast-moving international career. Among the highlights of recent years was a concert tour of China with the Munich Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel in 2013 and an engagement as Artist in Residence at the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra for the 2013/14 season. In December 2014 Haochen Zhang performed Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in Beijing under Valery Gergiev’s baton; in February 2015 he made his debut at the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Xian Zhang, performing Tan Dun’s piano concerto Triple Resurrection. At the age of eleven, in the pianist enrolled at the music school in Shenzhen in Southern China; later he studied at the Shanghai Conservatory and subsequently under Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.

www.haochenzhang.com

The Chinese-Australian cellist is no unknown entity in Berlin: Li-Wei Qin has performed here with the Konzerthaus Orchestra, with the Radio Symphony Orchestra and most recently also with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester. Winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and the Naumburg Competition in New York, the cellist has been invited to perform around the world: he has appeared in London and Prague as well as in Sydney and Auckland, Osaka and Hong Kong, at the Rheingau Music Festival and at Lincoln Center in New York. Born in Shanghai in 1976, Li-Wei Qin moved to Australia with his family at the age of 13; later he studied with Ralph Kirshbaum in Manchester and David Takeno in London. The cellist also had spectacular appearances at the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 and in London in 2012. His discography includes works by Beethoven and Rachmaninov in addition to the cello concerti by Dvořák, Elgar and Walton. Li-Wei Qin plays a Guadagnini cello built in 1780.

www.liweicello.com

Jia Lei is among the most renowned sheng virtuosos in China. Educated at the conservatory in Xi’an and at the Central Conservatory in Beijing, he won the Excellence Award of the National Music Competition in 1995 and was then accepted into the National Chinese Youth Orchestra as a sheng player. After graduating with his performance degree, he worked at the National Opera and at the Theatre of Dance and Drama. Jia Lei has performed with the Chinese Radio Orchestra at the Golden Hall of Vienna’s Musikverein. Since 2001 the sheng player has been a member of the China National Orchestra and since 2004 also of the Macao Chinese Orchestra.

© Mehmet Çağlarer

The personal and artistic biography of Cem Mansur could hardly be more cosmopolitan: the British and Turkish citizen was born in Istanbul in 1957 into a multi-national and multi-lingual family. He studied first in London and then with Leonard Bernstein at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. As the conductor of the Istanbul State Opera from 1981 to 1989 he acquired an impressive opera repertoire. The successful performance of Edward Elgar’s unfinished opera The Spanish Lady in London in 1986 was followed by internationally renowned orchestras and opera houses. Cem Mansur performs regularly at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg and at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago in Tuscany. As chief conductor of the National Youth Philharmonic of Turkey he has conducted guest appearances at Young Euro Classic and led several bi-national projects, including the Young Euro Classic Festival Orchestra Turkey-Germany and the Armenian-Turkish Youth Orchestra. Since 1998 he has been chief conductor and artistic director of the Akbank Chamber Orchestra. He also directs a festival of classical music that takes place at Istanbul’s most beautiful historical sites.

© Kmetitsch

Milan Turkovic, born in Zagreb to Austrian-Croatian parents in 1939, originally came to fame as a bassoonist. For 45 years he was a member of Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s Concentus Musicus in Vienna. In addition, he made guest appearances as a solo bassoonist all over the world, working with conductors such as Carlo Maria Giulini, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Christoph Eschenbach and Sándor Végh. Numerous composers, from Sofia Gubaidulina to Jean Françaix and Wynton Marsalis, composed works for him. Two decades ago, Turkovic also began to conduct. In the meantime, he has led many of Austria’s major orchestras, in addition to ensembles in Rome, London, New York and Japan. During the 2014/15 season, he conducted a production of Kurt Weill’s Die sieben Todsünden at Vienna’s Volkstheater. Turkovic’s other interests are broad-ranging: he has moderated a music quiz on ORF, has written several books (Wiener Leben. Wien erleben; Was Musiker tagsüber tun) and appeared in Händl Klaus’ film Kater (2015).

www.milanturkovic.com

© Lynn Goldsmith

The French pianist Lise de la Salle, born in 1988, made her concert debut at the age of nine in a live broadcast by Radio France. At the age of 13 she completed her studies at the Conservatoire Supérieur de la Musique in Paris and launched her career, which would soon take her to all the important music metropolises, from New York, Boston and Montréal to London, Munich and Moscow and all the way to Japan. Conductors with whom she has worked during recent years include Lorin Maazel, James Conlon, Philippe Herreweghe, Michael Sanderling, Charles Dutoit and Dennis Russell Davies. Between 2013 and 2015 she performed all the piano concerti by Sergey Rachmaninov under Fabio Luisi’s baton in Zurich. Lise de la Salle’s repertoire ranges from Bach and Mozart via Schumann and Liszt to the Russians Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Rachmaninov. After her Young Euro Classic debut in 2004, when she was merely 16, the pianist returns to the festival for the first time in eleven years.

www.lisedelasalle.com

© C. Heysel

Antony Hermus’ international conducting career began during his tenure as Music Director of the Theatre Hagen from 2007. From 2009 to 2015 he was Music Director of the Anhaltisches Theater in Dessau. As of this season he will be Principal Guest Conductor of the Noord Nederlands Orkest. The Dutch conductor has collaborated with orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Residentie Orkest, MDR Leipzig Symphony, Bamberg Symphony and Norrköping Symphony. Further to his successful debuts during the last season, 2015/16 forges new relationships with the BBC Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre National de Bordeaux and Royal Flemish Philharmonic, as well as return visits to the Philharmonia Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Residentie Orkest, Essen Philharmonic and to the Komische Oper Berlin. Widely recognised for his commitment to contemporary music, Hermus conducted various world premieres of Unsuk Chin, Jonathan Harvey, Wim Laman, Marijn Simons and Rob Zuidam. His passion for distinctive programming has earned him much praise on the music scene.

antonyhermus.com

© Nina Kleingeld

The 25-year-old Dutch trombonist Sebastiaan Kemner studied at the conservatories in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. After completing his concert degree in 2012, he continued his education as a member of the Berlin Philharmonic’s Orchestra Academy. In 2012 Kemner was also named “Best Dutch Young Musician of the Year” by the Society for Young Musical Talent. In 2013 Kemner won the first prize and the audience award of the Aeolus Competition for Winds in Düsseldorf. As a soloist, the trombonist has already performed on many stages in Europe, Asia and the USA. Since 2012 he has been a member of the New Trombone Collective; he has also played as a substitute with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam as well as the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne and the Radio Orchestra of the Netherlands.

© Eugen Oprina

Horia Andreescu is Music Director of the “George Enescu” Philharmonic Orchestra and founder and conductor of the Chamber Orchestra “The Virtuosi of Bucharest”. He was born in Brasov, Romania, in 1946. After studies at the Bucharest Music Academy and Vienna Music Academy he won numerous prizes at major international competitions such as Nicolai Malko (Copenhagen) and Ernest Ansermet (Geneva), and he was awarded the “Critics Prize” at the Berlin Biennale of Music and the prize “Conductor of the Year” of the Romanian Critics Union. During the 1980s and 1990s Horia Andreescu worked as a permanent guest conductor with three leading German orchestras: Radio Orchestra Berlin (RSB), Dresden Philharmonic and Staatskapelle Schwerin. He is frequently invited to conduct major orchestras such as Staatskapelle Berlin, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Budapest Philharmonic, and the London Symphony Orchestra. For the leading European radio companies, Horia Andreescu has completed more than 1.000 productions in addition to 70 CD recordings.

Romanian pianist Daniel Goiti is one of the most sought-after pianist soloists in Romania and Eastern Europe. He has performed as a soloist with prestigious orchestras in the US, England, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Greece, Japan, and Israel. His recordings include the Rachmaninov Concerto No. 2, Variations on a Theme by Paganini, the Beethoven Concertos Nos. 3 and 5, Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 1. Daniel Goiti is the recipient of numerous international prizes and awards, including the Kawai Award, Gold Medallist at the A. Schnabel Competition, Berlin, Germany, as well as the winner of the prestigious George Enescu International Competition and the Romanian Composers Union Prize. Daniel Goiti, born in 1968, is a graduate of the Academy of Music “G. Dima” in Cluj-Napoca, where he is currently Professor of Piano and Head of the Piano Department.

Journalist and TV Presenter

© Sussie Ahlburg

The Ukrainian conductor Kirill Karabits, born in 1976 in Kiev as the son of conductor Ivan Karabits, has multiple connections with Berlin. Not only has he conducted the Konzerthaus Orchestra, but during his studies in Vienna, he also dedicated himself to the historical archive of Berlin’s Sing-Akademie, which was discovered in Kiev in 1999. With the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, whose chief conductor he has been since 2009, Karabits gave the first performance of C. Ph. E. Bach’s St John’s Passion in modern times. Apart from his engagements with London’s major orchestras, he has conducted premieres of La Bohème and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at the Glyndebourne Festival and appears regularly at the opera houses in Moscow and Hamburg. His most recent invitations have taken him to Cleveland and Philadelphia, Oslo, The Hague and Turin. He is also intensively involved in youth orchestra work, having taken on the artistic directorship of the I, Culture Orchestra in 2014 and also of the Beethoven Academy Orchestra from Poland.

www.kirillkarabits.com

© Mika Bovan

Born in Kharkiv in the Eastern Ukraine in 1984, Alexander Gavrylyuk gave his first public concert at the age of nine. At 13 years of age, he emigrated to Australia with his family. In 2005 he won the famous Artur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv. Ever since, Gavrylyuk has been invited to perform all over the world, performing with conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Vladimir Jurowski, Vassily Petrenko, Leif Segerstam and Andrey Boreyko. During the 2014/2015 season he appeared with the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam as well as the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, in Budapest, London, Vienna and Moscow. The focus of his repertoire is on the Russian composers: thus, the pianist performed the complete piano concerti by Sergey Prokofiev together with Vladimir Ashkenazy in Sydney, and the complete piano concerti by Sergey Rachmaninov with Neeme Järvi in Geneva. Furthermore, Gavrylyuk dedicates himself to supporting young Australian piano talents and social projects for children in Cambodia.

www.alexandergavrylyuk.com

© Sebastian Schmidt

Nils Landgren is doubtlessly one of Europe’s most successful jazz musicians. Fans and observers of the 58-year-old Swede are already wondering whether his days might have more than 24 hours. Critics have nominated him as the hardest working man in show business. When “Mr. Redhorn,” the man with the red trombone, is not touring with his legendary band Funk Unit or other projects bearing his name, he works as a producer and talent scout or is found passing his know-how on to his students. In the German capital, he has made a name for himself as the artistic director of the JazzFest Berlin. It is not least his versatility which is admired in this musician, who began playing drums at the age of six and discovered the trombone for himself at 13: apart from hardcore jazz, he is devoted to Swedish folk music – or he might record romantic and idiosyncratic Christmas songs, as he did on his album Christmas With My Friends. In cooperation with Doctors without Borders, Nils Landgren’s Funk Unit supports a music education project for children and teenagers in one of the largest slums of Kenya’s capital city of Nairobi.

© Pamela Cortes Bruna

The percussionist Malin and the saxophone player Karolina Almgren, two sisters from Gothenburg, have been performing together as “Sisters of Invention” since 2013. This combination brings out their qualities as musicians and arrangers. 2014 saw the release of their second album, Navigating, following Om & Om Igen. Not even in their mid-twenties, the two Swedish sisters have written arrangements for the Arctic Youth Jazz Orchestra and performed at the Fife Jazz Festival in Scotland. Today, they also work for the Bohuslän Big Band, with whom they will be touring in the autumn of 2015 as well.

Pianist Fanny Gunnarsson is from Malmö, where she also graduated with a diploma from the local music academy in 2014. She discovered jazz while still a student. In the meantime, she has long made a name for herself as a pianist and singer and founder of the Fanny Gunnarsson Quartet. As a songwriter, Fanny Gunnarsson combines contemporary jazz with pop music; her debut album Same Eyes As You led to invitations for her quartet to the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival and the famous jazz club “Fasching” in Stockholm.

This past year, Lisa Wulff, born in Hamburg in 1990, completed her studies in music education in jazz and jazz-related music in Bremen, during which she majored in E-bass and acoustic double bass. Since then, she has been studying for a performance degree in Hamburg. Lisa Wulff takes to the stage not only as a bass player, but also as a singer. Furthermore, she composes and founded the Lisa Wulff Quartet, following her experiences with her own bands such as Kalís, Greenroom and takadoon. Concerts beyond the German borders have taken her all over Europe and to China.

© Sebastian Schmidt

Nils Landgren is doubtlessly one of Europe’s most successful jazz musicians. Fans and observers of the 58-year-old Swede are already wondering whether his days might have more than 24 hours. Critics have nominated him as the hardest working man in show business. When “Mr. Redhorn,” the man with the red trombone, is not touring with his legendary band Funk Unit or other projects bearing his name, he works as a producer and talent scout or is found passing his know-how on to his students. In the German capital, he has made a name for himself as the artistic director of the JazzFest Berlin. It is not least his versatility which is admired in this musician, who began playing drums at the age of six and discovered the trombone for himself at 13: apart from hardcore jazz, he is devoted to Swedish folk music – or he might record romantic and idiosyncratic Christmas songs, as he did on his album Christmas With My Friends. In cooperation with Doctors without Borders, Nils Landgren’s Funk Unit supports a music education project for children and teenagers in one of the largest slums of Kenya’s capital city of Nairobi.

© Pamela Cortes Bruna

The percussionist Malin and the saxophone player Karolina Almgren, two sisters from Gothenburg, have been performing together as “Sisters of Invention” since 2013. This combination brings out their qualities as musicians and arrangers. 2014 saw the release of their second album, Navigating, following Om & Om Igen. Not even in their mid-twenties, the two Swedish sisters have written arrangements for the Arctic Youth Jazz Orchestra and performed at the Fife Jazz Festival in Scotland. Today, they also work for the Bohuslän Big Band, with whom they will be touring in the autumn of 2015 as well. 

Pianist Fanny Gunnarsson is from Malmö, where she also graduated with a diploma from the local music academy in 2014. She discovered jazz while still a student. In the meantime, she has long made a name for herself as a pianist and singer and founder of the Fanny Gunnarsson Quartet. As a songwriter, Fanny Gunnarsson combines contemporary jazz with pop music; her debut album Same Eyes As You led to invitations for her quartet to the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival and the famous jazz club “Fasching” in Stockholm.

This past year, Lisa Wulff, born in Hamburg in 1990, completed her studies in music education in jazz and jazz-related music in Bremen, during which she majored in E-bass and acoustic double bass. Since then, she has been studying for a performance degree in Hamburg. Lisa Wulff takes to the stage not only as a bass player, but also as a singer. Furthermore, she composes and founded the Lisa Wulff Quartet, following her experiences with her own bands such as Kalís, Greenroom and takadoon. Concerts beyond the German borders have taken her all over Europe and to China.

© Pamela Cortes Bruna

The percussionist Malin and the saxophone player Karolina Almgren, two sisters from Gothenburg, have been performing together as “Sisters of Invention” since 2013. This combination brings out their qualities as musicians and arrangers. 2014 saw the release of their second album, Navigating, following Om & Om Igen. Not even in their mid-twenties, the two Swedish sisters have written arrangements for the Arctic Youth Jazz Orchestra and performed at the Fife Jazz Festival in Scotland. Today, they also work for the Bohuslän Big Band, with whom they will be touring in the autumn of 2015 as well.

Pianist Fanny Gunnarsson is from Malmö, where she also graduated with a diploma from the local music academy in 2014. She discovered jazz while still a student. In the meantime, she has long made a name for herself as a pianist and singer and founder of the Fanny Gunnarsson Quartet. As a songwriter, Fanny Gunnarsson combines contemporary jazz with pop music; her debut album Same Eyes As You led to invitations for her quartet to the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival and the famous jazz club “Fasching” in Stockholm.

This past year, Lisa Wulff, born in Hamburg in 1990, completed her studies in music education in jazz and jazz-related music in Bremen, during which she majored in E-bass and acoustic double bass. Since then, she has been studying for a performance degree in Hamburg. Lisa Wulff takes to the stage not only as a bass player, but also as a singer. Furthermore, she composes and founded the Lisa Wulff Quartet, following her experiences with her own bands such as Kalís, Greenroom and takadoon. Concerts beyond the German borders have taken her all over Europe and to China.

The Georgian conductor Nikoloz Rachveli is a musical multi-talent whose gifts were recognised even during his earliest youth. At the age of nine, he composed a children’s opera; at ten, he first conducted an orchestra. His subsequent studies in Vienna brought him into contact with personalities such as Pierre Boulez, György Ligeti and Luciano Berio. Later, Rachveli became the first to perform compositions by Stockhausen, Cage, Schnittke and Gubaidulina in his native Georgia. After the Rose Revolution, Rachveli took on leading positions at the Opera in Tbilisi and the State Orchestra; today, the 36-year-old is chief conductor of the Georgian Philharmonic Orchestra. His piano concerto Introversion was performed by the Georgian Chamber Orchestra at Berlin’s Konzerthaus; as a conductor, he has championed the oeuvre of Giya Kancheli in particular. In 2013 Rachveli joined artists such as Gidon Kremer, Daniel Barenboim, Khatia Buniatishvili and Sergey Nakariakov in a solidarity concert entitled To Russia with Love at Berlin’s Philharmonie, protesting human rights violations in Russia.

© Maxim Reider

The Estonian conductor Andres Mustonen, born in 1953, turned to contemporary music early in life, but then executed an about-face and dedicated himself to early music. In 1972 he founded the ensemble Hortus Musicus, with which he appeared at many international festivals and produced 25 records. In the meantime, Andres Mustonen, who also performs as a violinist, has learned to combine early and modern music effortlessly, his focus always being on sacred music. On the other hand, he conducts works by Schütz, Bach and Mozart and on the other by Giya Kancheli, Krzysztof Penderecki, John Tavener, Alexander Knaifel and Gubaidulina. Mustonen’s conducting style is unusual for its spontaneity, improvisation and radiant artistry. The conductor has very clear criteria about the artists he performs with: “I never share the stage with someone I don’t know, don’t consider my friend or don’t love.” 

The Georgian violist Giorgi Zagareli, born in Tbilisi in 1986, originally studied in his hometown and then at the Music Academies in Detmold, Leipzig and Basel. Since then, Zagareli has made a name for himself as a soloist and chamber musician. He is particularly interested in contemporary music: he has given first performances of works by Berio, Feldman, Xenakis, Penderecki and Ligeti in his native Georgia; he has also given world premieres by compositions of his countrymen Sulkhan Nasidze, Tigran Mansurian and Giya Kancheli. He has recorded several of the latter’s works on CD, including the project Kancheliada with the ensemble Septeriment. Together with Nikoloz Rachveli, Zagareli also founded the Georgian contemporary music festival “Counterpoint”. In 2014, he recorded with Nikoloz Rachveli Giya Kancheli’s 20 Miniatures for Viola and Piano. The composer dedicated this work to Giorgi and Nikoloz.

© James Scott

The Georgian pianist Dudana Mazmanishvili, born in Tbilisi in 1980, has been most successful during recent years in the USA, where she also studied at the Mannes School of Music in New York City. However, she also has close ties with Germany. After her basic education in her native Georgia, the young pianist moved to Munich to study with Elisso Virsaladze at the Music Academy there, recording her first CD for the Bavarian Radio, and has been living in Berlin for several years. The Georgian government named her “Cultural Ambassador of Georgia in Germany” in 2013. Dudana Mazmanishvili is also at home in the German piano repertoire – she performs Bach and Beethoven as happily as Schumann, Brahms and Busoni. Furthermore, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninov and Georgian composers are an additional focus. This past spring, she first performed at the Ruhr Piano Festival. 

© Markus C. Hurek

As one of the outstanding conductors of our times, Enoch zu Guttenberg has explored music in a way which has shaken audiences and critics alike and brought him international renown. Enoch zu Guttenberg has conducted the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Bamberger Symphoniker, the NDR Symphony Orchestra, the German Radio Philharmonic Saarbrücken, the MDR Symphony Orchestra and the Nouvelle Orchestre Philharmonique Paris, among many others. However, it is two ensembles in particular who implement Guttenberg’s artistic idea and musical-philosophical beliefs as common goals: the Choral Association Neubeuern, which he has directed since 1967, and the Orchestra KlangVerwaltung (literally, “SoundAdministration”), whose artistic director he has been since 1997. For Enoch zu Guttenberg and the ensembles he directs, a symbiosis of profound knowledge of the historical performance practice of the work in question, the absolute and binding focus on content and the emotionality that is its outcome are the basis of all their interpretations. Guttenberg celebrated great success with the Choral Association Neubeuern and the KlangVerwaltung not only at all the major national festivals, but also at Vienna’s Musikverein, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Hong Kong Music Festival and the Beijing Music Festival as well as in St. Martin in the Fields in London. One of the highlights was a performance of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem in honour of Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in 2010. Since 2000 Enoch zu Guttenberg has been the artistic director of the International Herrenchiemsee Festival. Although music has always been the centre of his activities and creativity, he is also known as an insistent warner and visionary in environmental issues and as a successful supporter of cultural cooperation between East and West. 

Originally from Munich, the soprano Susanne Bernhard started studying with Angelica Vogel and Helmut Deutsch at the Munich Music Academy in 1995. She made her debut as Susanne in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at Munich’s Prinzregententheater in 1997. At the age of only 23, she became an ensemble member at the Kiel Opera House, followed by engagements at the Frankfurt Opera and the Semperoper in Dresden. Apart from her activities as an opera singer, Susanne Bernhard devotes herself to song recitals, oratorio and concert appearances. Her diverse activities in this field have led her to cooperate with the Georgian Chamber Orchestra, the Ensemble Ader Paris, the Neue Hofkapelle Munich, the Russian National Orchestra, the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele and the Stuttgarter Bachakademie, in addition to Enoch zu Guttenberg’s KlangVerwaltung. She made a guest appearance with the WDR Symphony Orchestra under Semyon Bychkov. In addition, she has been heard at such prestigious festivals and venues as the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Beethoven Festival in Warsaw, the Berlin Philharmonic and Cologne Philharmonic and the Alte Oper Frankfurt. 

© Arman Karakhanyan

Seda Amir-Karayan was born in Yerevan, Armenia. She first studied jazz vocals at the State Conservatory in Yerevan; at the same time she made a name for herself as a soloist in Armenian sacred music. In 2011 she completed a master’s degree in musicology in Yerevan. Since then she has been studying singing in Stuttgart, with a focus on oratorio and art songs. Seda Amir-Karayan is also a sought-after concert contralto: in 2012 she was the soloist in the Misa Tango in several performances in Argentina. That same year, she sang the major solo part in the world premiere of Robert Amirkhanyan’s oratorio 7 Songs About Love and Peace. She also appeared in Paulus under the baton of Helmuth Rilling at the Musikfest Stuttgart and at the Rheingau Music Festival. The Bachakademie Stuttgart then engaged her as contralto soloist for the 2014 Bach Week. She has also performed in concert at the Philharmonic in Cologne and at the Philharmonic and Konzerthaus in Berlin. For the academic year of 2014/15 she has received a “Germany Scholarship”. 

Raised in an Ukrainian-German family, Alexander Schulz-Kulischenko was born in Berlin and studied at the Odessa National Music Academy from 1995 to 2004. In 2003 he was a member of the opera studio of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf. From 2004 to 2007 he was a member of the Dresden Chamber Opera. In 2008 he became a laureate of the International Vocal Competition Shtokolov in St. Petersburg and made his debut at the Odessa National State Opera and later at the Lviv National State Opera (Ukraine), where he was engaged for the next several years. His repertoire includes leading roles such as Cavaradossi (Tosca), Alfredo (La traviata), Calaf (Turandot), Manrico (Il Trovatore), as well as Canio (Pagliacci), Duca (Rigoletto) and Radames (Aida). He has performed as a guest at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, the National Opera in Riga and the Prague State Opera as well as the Estonian National Opera. 

Mischa Schelomianski grew up in Moscow, where he studied at the Academy for Culture, continuing his studies at the Frankfurt Academy of Music and Performing Arts. He made his operatic debut in Dortmund. Since then his career has taken him to many companies throughout Germany and the rest of Europe, including Baden-Baden, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Bonn, Cologne, Munich, Vienna, Salzburg, Geneva, Bern, Strasbourg, Lyon, Paris and Toulouse. Since 2008 he has been a regular guest at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. He has worked with conductors including Vladimir Jurowski, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, Ingo Metzmacher, Marc Albrecht and Kent Nagano and with such directors as Graham Vick, Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Peter Konwitschny, Harry Kupfer and Francesca Zambello. He has appeared in concert at the Rheingau Musikfestival, Musikhalle Hamburg, Glocke Bremen, Philharmonie Berlin, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Tonhalle Zürich, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Philharmonie München, with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and in Stuttgart, Maastricht, Gothenburg, The Hague, Amsterdam and in the USA at the Oregon Bach Festival.

© Michael Giegold

The Choir of the KlangVerwaltung was founded by Enoch zu Guttenberg in 2000 and unites professionally experienced young singers, members of the Munich Philharmonic Choir, the Bavarian Radio Choir, the CollegiumVocale Ghent and other renowned vocal ensembles among them. Thus, an adequate vocal ensemble was created to complement the highly virtuosic Orchestra of the KlangVerwaltung. Even the first performances at the 2000 Bachfest at Herrenchiemsee fulfilled the expectations of the new ensemble, as documented by the acclaim in the press. Since 2001 the choir has performed regularly under Enoch zu Guttenberg at the Herrenchiemsee Festival. The opening concert on the island of Frauenchiemsee featuring Bach Cantatas has become a fixed tradition. However, the Choir of the KlangVerwaltung has made a name for itself not only at the Herrenchiemsee Festival. Its live recording of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis from Munich’s Herkulessaal has been released on CD. 2012 was dedicated entirely to Beethoven: the choir performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in Regensburg, Nuremberg, Berlin and twice at the Herrenchiemsee Festival; the work was again performed in 2014 in Munich, Wiesbaden and Bad Kissingen.

Dieter Rexroth gilt als einer der kreativsten Köpfe in der deutschen Musikszene. Er war von 1996 bis 2006 Intendant und Dramaturg der Rundfunkorchester und Chöre GmbH und des Deutschen Symphonie Orchesters Berlin und holte in dieser Eigenschaft den inzwischen weltbekannten Dirigenten Kent Nagano nach Berlin, dessen Konzertprogramme er auch heute noch gestaltet. Zudem ist Dieter Rexroth seit der Gründung im Jahr 2000 Künstlerischer Leiter von Young Euro Classic und als solcher einer der Väter des äußerst erfolgreichen Festivals, das 2015 zum sechzehnten Mal stattfindet. Wichtige Stationen seiner Karriere waren die Leitung des Frankfurter Paul-Hindemith-Instituts sowie Positionen als Dramaturg und Programmverantwortlicher der Alten Oper Frankfurt. Er war Künstlerischer Leiter der „Frankfurt Feste“ (1986 bis 1994) und ist seit 2006 in gleicher Funktion für die „Kasseler Musiktage“ verantwortlich. Außerdem betreut er in ehrenamtlicher Rolle den „Felix Mendelssohn Hochschulwettbewerb“ der deutschen Musikhochschulen und der Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz.

© Christina Körte

Lea Philippa Heinrich studierte Schulmusik mit den Fächern Klavier und Jazz-Saxofon sowie Spanisch/Lateinamerikanistik an der Universität der Künste Berlin, der Freien Univresität Berlin und an der Universität von Granada (Spanien). Derzeit studiert sie im Fernstudium Kultur- und Medienmanagement an der HfMT Hamburg. Sie war ferner Stipendiatin der 2. Masterclass on Music Education der Körber Stiftung. Seit 2012 leitet sie die Musikvermittlungsabteilung des Deutschen Symphonie-Orchesters Berlin und ist Assistentin von Andrea Tober für Musikvermittlung / Musikmanagement an der Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin. Lea Philippa Heinrich arbeitete künstlerisch, konzeptionell und organisatorisch in unterschiedlichen Musikprojekten, so z.B. für die Education Abteilung der Berliner Philharmoniker, die Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, das südafrikanische Umculo Cape Festival, Young Euro Classic sowie in eigenen Projekten. Bei den Festspielen Mecklenburg-Vorpommern gab sie Konzerteinführungen und moderierte den Interpretationsvergleich im Rahmen des Festivals 360° Streichquartett mit dem Artemis Quartett.

© Sarah Ainslie

Giya Kancheli studierte von 1959 bis 1963 am Konservatorium von Tbilissi bei Iona Tuskiya. Seit seinem Examen ist er als freischaffender Komponist tätig. 1971 wurde Kantscheli musikalischer Leiter des Rustaweli-Theaters in Tbilissi. Der Komponist zog 1991 nach Berlin, wo er ein Stipendium des DAAD erhielt. 1995 wurde er Composer-in-residence der Königlichen Flämischen Philharmonie in Antwerpen. Seither lebt Kancheli als freischaffender Komponist in Belgien. Nachdem Kancheli in den sechziger Jahren als Komponist der „sowjetischen Avantgarde“ begonnen hatte, erarbeitete er sich seitdem zielstrebig einen eigenen musikalischen Stil. Kanchelis Klangwelt besitzt etwas ungemein Natürliches. Seine musikalischen Strukturen richten sich allein nach emotionalen Gesichtspunkten wie Steigerung und Spannung, Erregung und Ruhe. Er arbeitet mit dynamischen Extremen und fordert nicht selten äußerste Langsamkeit. Kanchelis Musik ist atmosphärisch seiner Heimat Georgien verbunden, ohne dass sie jedoch georgische Folklore zitiert. Nostalgie und Melancholie sowie Trauer über die politischen Zustände in der damaligen Sowjetunion (z. B. „Leben ohne Weihnacht“) und die Zerstörungen des georgischen Bürgerkrieges prägen sein Schaffen.

© Markus C. Hurek

As one of the outstanding conductors of our times, Enoch zu Guttenberg has explored music in a way which has shaken audiences and critics alike and brought him international renown. Enoch zu Guttenberg has conducted the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Bamberger Symphoniker, the NDR Symphony Orchestra, the German Radio Philharmonic Saarbrücken, the MDR Symphony Orchestra and the Nouvelle Orchestre Philharmonique Paris, among many others. However, it is two ensembles in particular who implement Guttenberg’s artistic idea and musical-philosophical beliefs as common goals: the Choral Association Neubeuern, which he has directed since 1967, and the Orchestra KlangVerwaltung (literally, “SoundAdministration”), whose artistic director he has been since 1997. For Enoch zu Guttenberg and the ensembles he directs, a symbiosis of profound knowledge of the historical performance practice of the work in question, the absolute and binding focus on content and the emotionality that is its outcome are the basis of all their interpretations. Guttenberg celebrated great success with the Choral Association Neubeuern and the KlangVerwaltung not only at all the major national festivals, but also at Vienna’s Musikverein, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Hong Kong Music Festival and the Beijing Music Festival as well as in St. Martin in the Fields in London. One of the highlights was a performance of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem in honour of Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in 2010. Since 2000 Enoch zu Guttenberg has been the artistic director of the International Herrenchiemsee Festival. Although music has always been the centre of his activities and creativity, he is also known as an insistent warner and visionary in environmental issues and as a successful supporter of cultural cooperation between East and West. 

Originally from Munich, the soprano Susanne Bernhard started studying with Angelica Vogel and Helmut Deutsch at the Munich Music Academy in 1995. She made her debut as Susanne in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at Munich’s Prinzregententheater in 1997. At the age of only 23, she became an ensemble member at the Kiel Opera House, followed by engagements at the Frankfurt Opera and the Semperoper in Dresden. Apart from her activities as an opera singer, Susanne Bernhard devotes herself to song recitals, oratorio and concert appearances. Her diverse activities in this field have led her to cooperate with the Georgian Chamber Orchestra, the Ensemble Ader Paris, the Neue Hofkapelle Munich, the Russian National Orchestra, the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele and the Stuttgarter Bachakademie, in addition to Enoch zu Guttenberg’s KlangVerwaltung. She made a guest appearance with the WDR Symphony Orchestra under Semyon Bychkov. In addition, she has been heard at such prestigious festivals and venues as the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Beethoven Festival in Warsaw, the Berlin Philharmonic and Cologne Philharmonic and the Alte Oper Frankfurt. 

© Arman Karakhanyan

Seda Amir-Karayan was born in Yerevan, Armenia. She first studied jazz vocals at the State Conservatory in Yerevan; at the same time she made a name for herself as a soloist in Armenian sacred music. In 2011 she completed a master’s degree in musicology in Yerevan. Since then she has been studying singing in Stuttgart, with a focus on oratorio and art songs. Seda Amir-Karayan is also a sought-after concert contralto: in 2012 she was the soloist in the Misa Tango in several performances in Argentina. That same year, she sang the major solo part in the world premiere of Robert Amirkhanyan’s oratorio 7 Songs About Love and Peace. She also appeared in Paulus under the baton of Helmuth Rilling at the Musikfest Stuttgart and at the Rheingau Music Festival. The Bachakademie Stuttgart then engaged her as contralto soloist for the 2014 Bach Week. She has also performed in concert at the Philharmonic in Cologne and at the Philharmonic and Konzerthaus in Berlin. For the academic year of 2014/15 she has received a “Germany Scholarship”. 

Raised in an Ukrainian-German family, Alexander Schulz-Kulischenko was born in Berlin and studied at the Odessa National Music Academy from 1995 to 2004. In 2003 he was a member of the opera studio of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf. From 2004 to 2007 he was a member of the Dresden Chamber Opera. In 2008 he became a laureate of the International Vocal Competition Shtokolov in St. Petersburg and made his debut at the Odessa National State Opera and later at the Lviv National State Opera (Ukraine), where he was engaged for the next several years. His repertoire includes leading roles such as Cavaradossi (Tosca), Alfredo (La traviata), Calaf (Turandot), Manrico (Il Trovatore), as well as Canio (Pagliacci), Duca (Rigoletto) and Radames (Aida). He has performed as a guest at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, the National Opera in Riga and the Prague State Opera as well as the Estonian National Opera. 

Mischa Schelomianski grew up in Moscow, where he studied at the Academy for Culture, continuing his studies at the Frankfurt Academy of Music and Performing Arts. He made his operatic debut in Dortmund. Since then his career has taken him to many companies throughout Germany and the rest of Europe, including Baden-Baden, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Bonn, Cologne, Munich, Vienna, Salzburg, Geneva, Bern, Strasbourg, Lyon, Paris and Toulouse. Since 2008 he has been a regular guest at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. He has worked with conductors including Vladimir Jurowski, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, Ingo Metzmacher, Marc Albrecht and Kent Nagano and with such directors as Graham Vick, Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Peter Konwitschny, Harry Kupfer and Francesca Zambello. He has appeared in concert at the Rheingau Musikfestival, Musikhalle Hamburg, Glocke Bremen, Philharmonie Berlin, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Tonhalle Zürich, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Philharmonie München, with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and in Stuttgart, Maastricht, Gothenburg, The Hague, Amsterdam and in the USA at the Oregon Bach Festival.

© Michael Giegold

The Choir of the KlangVerwaltung was founded by Enoch zu Guttenberg in 2000 and unites professionally experienced young singers, members of the Munich Philharmonic Choir, the Bavarian Radio Choir, the CollegiumVocale Ghent and other renowned vocal ensembles among them. Thus, an adequate vocal ensemble was created to complement the highly virtuosic Orchestra of the KlangVerwaltung. Even the first performances at the 2000 Bachfest at Herrenchiemsee fulfilled the expectations of the new ensemble, as documented by the acclaim in the press. Since 2001 the choir has performed regularly under Enoch zu Guttenberg at the Herrenchiemsee Festival. The opening concert on the island of Frauenchiemsee featuring Bach Cantatas has become a fixed tradition. However, the Choir of the KlangVerwaltung has made a name for itself not only at the Herrenchiemsee Festival. Its live recording of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis from Munich’s Herkulessaal has been released on CD. 2012 was dedicated entirely to Beethoven: the choir performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in Regensburg, Nuremberg, Berlin and twice at the Herrenchiemsee Festival; the work was again performed in 2014 in Munich, Wiesbaden and Bad Kissingen.