Stravinsky x 6: IV Beastly!

Vladimir Jurowski has been chief conductor and artistic director of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since autumn 2017. The conductor, pianist and musicologist Vladimir Jurowski takes on all challenges whether they be stylistic, technical or music-historical.
After receiving training at the Moscow Conservatory Vladimir Jurowski emigrated to Germany in 1990. Here he continued his studies at the music conservatories in Dresden and Berlin – conducting with Rolf Reuter; correpetition and song accompaniment with Semion Skigin. In 1995 he made his international debut at the British Wexford Festival with Rimski-Korsakov’s “Mainacht” and in the same year at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden with “Nabucco”. Subsequently he was, among other things, First Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper Berlin (1997- 2001) and Music Director of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera (2001-2013). In 2003 Vladimir Jurowski was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and has been its Principal Conductor since 2007 and will stay on until summer 2021. He is also Artistic Director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra Yevgeny Svetlanov of the Russian Federation until summer 2021, Artistic Director of the International George Enescu Festival in Bucharest and Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Great Britain. He works regularly with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the ensemble unitedberlin. With the start of the 2021/2022 season, Vladimir Jurowski will take on one of the most prestigious roles in German musical life in addition to his engagement with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, by becoming General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, a position for which he signed a contract in 2018.
Vladimir Jurowski is in high demand around the world as a guest conductor. He has conducted the major orchestras of Europe and North America, including the Berlin, Vienna and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. As a guest conductor, Vladimir Jurowski conducted Prokofiev’s “Semyon Kotko” with the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest of the Netherlands in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, made his debut at the Salzburg Easter Festival with the Staatskapelle Dresden, debuted with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, performed with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra at the Lucerne Festival and conducted a unique project with the London Sinfonietta in Moscow to mark the UK-Russian Year of Culture. Together with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin he performed in Japan in spring 2019 and at the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest in autumn 2019.
The first joint CD by Vladimir Jurowski and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin from 2015 immediately marked a milestone. Alfred Schnittke’s Symphony No. 3 was followed in 2017 by a Strauss/Mahler recording and a CD of violin concertos by Britten and Hindemith with soloist Arabella Steinbacher. In 2020, a critically acclaimed recording of Gustav Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde” was released.
Vladimir Jurowski has been the recipient of numerous awards for his achievements, including various international record prizes. In 2018, the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards named him Conductor of the Year. In 2016, he was bestowed an honorary doctorate from Prince Charles at the Royal College of Music in London. In 2020, Jurowski will be awarded the Order of Cultural Merit by the Romanian President in recognition of his work as Artistic Director of the George Enescu Festival.

Sofia Fomina first burst onto the international operatic scene in 2012 when she made a sensational debut at the Royal Opera House as Isabelle in Meyerbeer’s “Robert le Diable”. A previous member of the Saarländisches Staatstheater and Frankfurt Opera she has since appeared at Paris Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, Bayerische Staatsoper, Hungarian National Opera, Royal Opera House, Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, Baden-Baden Festspielhaus, Seattle Opera, Theater an der Wien, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall and the BBC Proms.

Recent highlights include Zerbinetta (“Ariadne auf Naxos”) at Staatsoper Hamburg; Adele (“Die Fledermaus”), Gilda (“Rigoletto”), Fiakiermili (“Arabella”) and Oscar (“Un ballo in maschera”) at Bayersiche Staatsoper and Pamina (“Die Zauberflöte”) at Glyndebourne Festival and the BBC Proms.

On the concert platform she performed Mahler’s 2nd Symphony with Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra and with Hugh Wolff and the Belgian National Orchestra; Haydn’s Harmoniemesse in Eisenstadt with Fabio Biondi; her Wigmore Hall debut together with pianist Iain Burnside and appeared at Middle Temple Hall with Julius Drake and Roderick Williams. Fomina also performed La Comtesse (“Le comte Ory”) with Teatro Nacional de São Carlos and a recital with Roger Vignoles at deSingel International Arts Campus in Antwerp.

Recent operatic successes include her appearances as Rosina (“Il Barbiere di Siviglia”) at Seattle Opera, Musetta (“La bohème”) at the Festspiele Baden-Baden with Teodor Currentzis and Gilda Rigoletto, Olympia (“Tales of Hoffmann”) and Jemmy (“Guillaume Tell”) at Royal Opera House; her debut at Opéra de Paris as Blondchen (“Die Entführung aus dem Serail”); Berthe (“Le Prophète”) at Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse; Oscar in a new production of “Un Ballo in Maschera”, Blondchen and Adele (“Die Fledermaus”) at Bayerische Staatsoper; and Aquillo in a concert performance of “Adriano in Siria” at Theater an der Wien.

Other recent engagements include concerts with the Danish National Symphony, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, with the Czech Philharmonic, with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, with the Orchestra dell’ Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; with Orchestra of Teatro Real.

Born in Russia, Fomina studied at the Orlovsky Music College and the Gnesin Academy of Music, Moscow. Her career began at the Novosibirsk Opera Theatre. She later joined the ensemble of the State Theatre of Saarbrucken. From 2013 to 2015 she was a member of Frankfurt Oper. In 2010 she was awarded a grant by the Wagner Association in Bayreuth.

Russian mezzo-soprano Elena Manistina trained in her hometown at The Music School of Saratov and later the Moscow State Conservatory P. I. Tchaikovsky. She was winner of first prize in the 2002 Operalia Competition and made her stage debut as Marfa in Mussorgsky’s “Khovanshina” in Saratov, Russia.

Elena is best known for her spectacular performances of Ulrica in “Un Ballo in Maschera”, which she has performed in numerous houses including Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opéra de Bordeaux, Oviedo Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opéra national du Rhin, Opéra Bastille and the Teatro Municipal di Santiago. Elena also regularly performs the role of Azucena in “Il Trovatore” and has sung it at the Metropolitan Opera House, Bayerische Staatsoper, Liceu Barcelona, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Washington Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Opéra Bastille, Opéra National de Bordeaux and Opera de Marseille. Other major roles include Marina in “Boris Godunow” which she has sung at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Ježibaba in “Rusalka” with Canadian Opera Company, “Mazeppa” which she has sung with Monte Carlo Opera, and Martha in “Iolanta” and Lyubasha in “Tsar’s Bride”, both roles which she has performed with Frankfurt Opera. These roles have led Elena to work with numerous world-renowned conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas, Edward Gardner, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Daniel Oren.

In concert her highlights have included “Alexander Nevsky” with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, repertoire which she has also sung with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Festival with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Other concert repertoire includes Jewish Folk Songs which she has sung with the San Francisco Symphony under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas, Mahler Symphony No. 3 with the Royal Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 at the Hollywood Bowl under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen.

The young mezzo-soprano Alice Lackner is internationally acclaimed as an opera, concert and song performer.
Born in Munich, Alice Lackner studied with Prof. Kunz-Eisenlohr at the Musikhochschule Köln/Aachen until 2015 and worked with teachers such as Brigitte Fassbaender, Gerd Uecker, Robert Holl, Ulrich Eisenlohr and Sami Kustaloglu. She received a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes and won prizes at the “Podium junger Gesangssolisten” competition in Essen (2015), the “cantatebach!” competition in Greifswald (2017) as well as the Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg (2019).
Alice Lackner worked as a soloist with orchestras such as the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Russian National Orchestra of Kaliningrad, the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt (Oder), or the L’Orfeo Barockorchester.
In June 2019, she gave her debut in the Berlin Philharmonie with Lili Boulanger’s “Psalm 130: Du fond de l’abîme” together with the Collegium Musicum Berlin. In September 2019, she performed in Richard Strauss’ “Die Frau ohne Schatten” at the Musikfest Berlin and the George-Enescu-Festival Bukarest.
In January 2020, Alice Lackner was the soloist in Mahler’s 4th symphony at the Konzerthaus Berlin, accompanied by the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski.
As an opera singer, Alice Lackner recently performed in Bad Lauchstädt Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” with the lautten compagney Berlin. In 2019, she sang the role of Nancy in Friedrich von Flotow’s “Martha” as a laureate of the Rheinsberg Kammeroper Festival. Furthermore, while still in her studies, she performed various soloist parts at the Theater Aachen, in operas such as Rusalka (Antonín Dvořák), Les Brigands (Jacques Offenbach) or Jenufa (Leoš Janáček).
Her core repertoire on the concert stage includes works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Friedrich Händel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Recent performances have also included lesser known concert repertoire such as Requiems by Maurice Duruflé or Franz von Suppè, the “Membra Jesu Nostri” (Dietrich Buxtehude) or “Der Sieg des Glaubens” (Ferdinand Ries).
With respect to the art song, Alice Lackner works on a regular basis with the pianist Imke Lichtwark in Berlin. Next to their standard repertoire of German romantic songs, they set their focus on foreign-language repertoire (such as Slavic or French) as well as contemporary music.
Alice Lackner is a frequent guest in various vocal ensembles such as the RIAS Kammerchor, the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the SWR Vokalensemble, the Berliner Rundfunkchor, the NDR Chor and the MDR Chor.
Futhermore, she recently founded the Berlin-based trio meZZZovoce, with which she explores repertoire for three mezzo-soprano voices from the Renaissance up to contemporary music.
Alice Lackner holds a Master’s degree in sociology and works as a research assistant at the Berlin-based ZOiS (Centre for East European and International Studies) .
In 2019, she realized a project about Ukraine together with the London-based photographer Mark Neville. In this project, the artists shed light on the current political situation in Ukraine from an artistic point of view.

Alexander Fedorov was born and grew up in Moscow.

At the age of five he started his education in Beethoven Music School in Moscow. He took his first piano classes with Ludmila Loginova and singing classes with Oxana Popova.

Currently Alexander is a Master graduate of the Berlin Conservatory and soloist of the Komische Oper Berlin young artist program.

He is the winner of the First prizes and the Grand Prix of many international singing competitions: “International Opera Singers Competition” in Estonia, Competition “Music without limits” in Lithuania, “International Elena Obraztsova Competition of young singers” in Saint

Petersburg, International Competition “The Silver Voice” in Moscow, International Opera Singers Competition “F. Tagliavini”, International Jose Carreras Tenor Competition and many others.

He also took part in different master classes with Teresa Berganza, Elena Obraztsova, Mirella Freni and Jose van Dam.

In the summer of 2015 Alexander Fedorov sang the part of Orphée in the operetta “Orphée aux enfers” by J. Offenbach with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB).

In April 2017 he sang Tenor solo part in Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at the Premiere in Bolivia with the Bolivian National Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Isaac Terceros.

In September 2017 Alexander was the soloist of the Young Artists Opera Program in “Opera de Monte Carlo” (Academie lyrique de l’opera de Monte Carlo).

He also took part in The Opening Gala Concert of the opera season 2017/2018 there.

Alexander sang in Opera Monte-Carlo, Staatsoper Braunschweig, Oper Graz, Komische Oper Berlin.

The repertoire of Alexander Fedorov includes:

Lensky in “Eugene Onegin”  by P. I. Tchaikovsky

Roméo in “Roméo et Juliette”  by Ch. Gounod, Nemorino in “L’elisir d’amore”  by G. Donizetti

Don Ottavio in “Don Giovanni”  by W. A. Mozart

Tamino in “The Magic Flute” by W.A. Mozart, Ecclitico in “Il mondo della Luna” by J. Haydn

Conte Almaviva  in “Il barbiere di Siviglia”  by G. Rossini

Cavaliere Belfiore in “Il viaggio a Reims”  by G. Rossini

Oleander  in “Melusine”  by A. Reimann,

Orphée  in “Orphée aux Enfers”  by J. Offenbach

Camille de Rossillon  in “The Merry Widow”  by F. Lehar

Louis in “Angels in America” by P. Eotvös

Stefan Kaminski, born in 1974, living in Berlin, started his career as an actor and freelance-speaker in 1996 on the radio. The variety of his voice allows him to participate in numerous productions to this day both studio and live. After his education at the Academy of Dramatic Art “Ernst Busch “, Berlin he developed his qualities as an actor at the Deutsches Theater Berlin until 2015, working with inspiring directors like Dimiter Gotscheff and Jürgen Kruse. His deep, grotesque and tragicomic live-radio-drama-one-man shows were created during these theater years as well – under the name Kaminski ON AIR. They went on tour through theaters, operas and clubs in Germany ans abroad. For the tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung” he won the “German Record Critics’ Prize“. Hundreds of audio books, radio plays and, not least, the dubbing voice of Kermit, the frog in „The Muppets“ (since 2012) are playgrounds for his voice.

In 2020 an enriching artistic relationship between Stefan Kaminski and the RSB began with a radio concert where Stravinsky’s “L’histoire du soldat” was performed. In spring / summer 2021, Stefan Kaminski will perform two more concerts with the RSB – again with works by Stravinsky as part of the Stravinsky Festival of the orchestra.

With approximately 50 concerts each season, regular CD-recordings and world tours the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin is one of the most renowned choirs in the world.

The ensemble is celebrated internationally for its multifaceted repertoire and its outstanding and precise acoustic sound. It is known for its historically informed interpretations of the Renaissance and the Baroque period. Its presentations of works from the classical period and Romanticism lead listeners to a new conception  of  the 19t ^-century  sound  world  frequently.  Furthermore,  the  RIAS Kammerchor Berlin commissions demanding world premieres  each  season, which will broaden the cultural legacy permanently.

In 1948, the Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor [broadcast in the American sector], short RIAS, instructed the conductor Herbert Froitzheim to form a  chamber choir. Leading artistic personalities such as Gunther Arndt, Uwe Gronostay, Marcus Creed, Daniel Reuss and Hans-Christoph Rademann shaped and coined the choir with their chief conducting.

Since the 2017-18 season, Justin Doyle has been the chief conductor and artistic director of the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin. Extraordinary concert programmes, his Japan-debut in autumn of 2018 and two recordings by now — Benjamin Britten’s I-Iymn to Cecilia and Joseph Haydn’s Missa Cellensis — were celebrated by the audience and critics. The release of George Frideric Handel’s Messiah is planned for autumn 2020.

Alongside concerts at renowned major venues, the ensemble developed the idea of the Forum Concerts in 2004. In collaboration with the ensemble’s Friends Association, events exploring new concert forms and concepts take place with choir members in unusual locations all over Berlin. The Forum  Concerts  have long stopped being events merely for the initiated; they  have  meanwhile  acquired cult status.

The RIAS Kammerchor Berlin takes part in music outreach projects with passion and responsibility. Mentorships for school choirs, concert introductions  with  school students, workshops with aspiring conductors and support for young singers in the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin Studio are only some of the elements in their successful education programme.

Numerous awards and prizes document the artistic journey and the choir’s high international reputation: The German Record Critics’ Award, the Gramophone Award, the Choc de l’annee or the Prix Caecilia are only a few of many honours.  In 2012 the choir received the “Nachtigall” honorary prize from the Jury of the German Record Critics’ Award.

An enduring and fruitful collaboration binds the choir to the Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin, the Freiburger Barockorchester, the Ensemble Resonanz as well as distinguished conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, René Jacobs, Yannick Nézet- Séguin, Ivdn Fischer, and Rinaldo Alessandrini.

The RIAS Kammerchor is an ensemble of the Rundfunk Orchester und Chore GmbH (ROC). Other partners are Deutschlandradio, the Federal Republic of Germany, the State of Berlin and the Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg broadcasting company.

Ralf Sochaczewsky received conducting lessons under Christian Grube and Marc Piollet at the Berlin University of the Arts. Later he studied choir conducting under Jörg-Peter Weigle and orchestral conducting under Prof. Reuter at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler”.

He directs the Berlin choir Cantus Domus, with which he won a 1st prize at the Berlin Choir Competition in 2017 and a 3rd prize at the 8th Choir Competition of the Deutscher Musikrat in Dortmund . From 1998 to 2012, he conducted the Ensemberlino Vocale choir and successfully participated in choir competitions (1st prize at Chorfest Bremen (Bremen Choir Festival) 2008).

He regularly works with choirs like the Berlin Vocalconsort, the Cappella Amsterdam, the RIAS Kammerchor, and the Berliner Rundfunkchor.

In 2016, he conducted the European premiere of the oratorio “Anthracite Fields” by Julia Wolfe, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2015, with the DR Vocalensemble and Bang on a Can-All Stars.

Ralf Sochaczewsky has performed with orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the National Radio Orchestra Bucharest, and the Chamber Orchestra of the Minsk Philharmonic. He conducted operas at the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Opera National du Rhin, and the Lithuanian National Opera.

Ralf Sochaczewsky collaborated with various pop groups and artists such as Stargaze and André de Ridder, Bon Iver, Damien Rice, Lisa Hannigan, and Tocotronic. With Cantus Domus, he is a regular guest at festivals such as HaldernPop and KalternPop.

He teaches choral conducting at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler”. For his great service to the Berlin choir scene, the Chorverband Berlin awarded him the Geschwister Mendelssohn Medal in 2017.

Anisha Bondy, born in 1981 in London, lives with her husband and three children in Berlin. She studied musical theatre direction at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where she graduated in 2005 with a production of “Die Kluge” by Carl Orff. Her path led her via the opera houses in Basel and Cologne to the Komische Oper Berlin. Since 2007 she has assisted many directors including Katharina Thalbach, Michael Thalheimer, Claus Guth, Andreas Homoki, Hans Neuenfels, Peter Konwitschny, Sebastian Baumgarten, Benedict Andrews and Barrie Kosky.
From 2009 – 2011 she held a scholarship in the directing category at the Deutsche Bank Foundation’s Akademie Musiktheater Heute. Since then, as an alumna, she has been conducting workshops at the Komische Oper Berlin for young people from immigrant backgrounds to introduce them to the world of opera.
In 2010 she directed the world premiere of “The Snow Queen” by Pierangelo Valtinoni at the Komische Oper Berlin. In the summers of 2011 – 2014 she was assistant director on Sebastian Baumgarten’s production of “Tannhäuser” at the Bayreuth Festival.
Since 2015, she has intensified her work in the outreach field as scenic director of “Selam Opera!”, the intercultural project of the Komische Oper Berlin. Together with her team, she developed formats such as the ‘Pop-Up Opera’ or the opera bus ‘Operndolmus’. In 2016, the team retraced the migrant worker route from Berlin to Istanbul with a 45-minute musical theatre review that was performed at various places along the journey. “Selam Opera!” was awarded the BKM Prize for Cultural Education.
Anisha Bondy worked together with conductor Vladimir Jurowski on the projects “Claude Vivier – 70/35 – a sacred act” (2018) and “Les espaces acoustiques” (2019) by Gérard Grisey at the Konzerthaus Berlin.