Stravinsky x 6: IV Beastly!

Vladimir Jurowski has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since 2017. He has meanwhile extended his contract until 2027. In parallel, he has been General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich since 2021.

After receiving training at the Moscow Conservatory The conductor, pianist and musicologist Vladimir Jurowski emigrated to Germany in 1990. Here he continued his studies at the music conservatories in Dresden and Berlin.  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 until 2021. He was also Artistic Director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra Yevgeny Svetlanov of the Russian Federation until 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.

Vladimir Jurowski 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.

He is a recurring guest conductor in in London, Berlin, Dresden, Luzern, Schleswig-Holstein und Grafenegg as well as at the Rostopowitsch-Festival. Although Vladimir Jurowski is invited as a guest conductor by top orchestras from all over the world, in future he would like to concentrate his activities on that geographical area which is acceptable to him from an ecological point of view.

In 2022/2023 he performed with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin in concerts in various cities in Germany, Italy and Antwerp in the Netherlands. The joint CD recordings of Vladimir Jurowski and the RSB began in 2015 with Alfred Schnittke’s Symphony No. 3, followed by works by Britten, Hindemith, Strauss, Mahler and soon again Schnittke.

Vladimir Jurowski has been the recipient of numerous awards for his achievements, including various international record prizes. In 2016, he was bestowed an honorary doctorate from Prince Charles at the Royal College of Music in London. In 2018, the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards named him Conductor of the Year. In summer 2020, Jurowski was 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.

Alice Lackner’s voice has been described by the press as “beguilingly secure, with astral heights and penetrating power” (Oper!) and as “utterly enchanting” (Tagesspiegel). She regularly appears with orchestras such as the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Essener Philharmoniker, Russian State Orchestra Kaliningrad, Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester, lautten compagney Berlin, Ensemble 1700 and Concerto Theresia, under the direction of renowned conductors such as Vladimir Jurowski, Wolfgang Katschner, Dorothee Oberlinger, Tomáš Netopil, Andrea Marchiol and Andreas Reize.
Highlights of recent seasons have included the soprano solo in Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 at the Konzerthaus Berlin, “Martha” in the world premiere of Gordon Kampe’s “Dogville” at the Aalto Theater Essen, “Ruggiero” in Handel’s “Alcina” in a production by lautten compagney Berlin, and “Negiorea” in Andrea Bernasconi’s “L’Huomo” at the Margravial Opera House Bayreuth and at the Potsdam Sanssouci Music Festival. Other engagements have taken her to the Berlin Philharmony, the Berlin Music Festival, the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest, the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music, the Days of Early Music in Herne and the Mosel Music Festival.
Alice Lackner’s core concert repertoire includes the alto roles in cantatas and oratorios by J.S. Bach, Handel, Mozart and Mendelssohn. However, the mezzo-soprano’s repertoire also includes less frequently performed works such as the masses for the dead by Duruflé or Suppè, the “Membra Jesu Nostri” (Buxtehude) and “Der Sieg des Glaubens” (Ries). Recently, she has also appeared in concert as a soprano, for example in Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, in Mozart’s “Great Mass in C minor”, in Rossini’s “Petite Messe Solenelle” and in Stravinsky’s “Les Noces”.
A major focus of her work is lieder singing. In 2021, Alice Lackner released her debut CD “Ernsthaft?!” with the GENUIN label, together with her lied accompanist Imke Lichtwark. In addition to songs by Schönberg and Zemlinsky, this CD also includes first recordings of songs by the composer Sven Daigger. In October 2023, Alice Lackner recorded a first edition of all songs by George Antheil for Deutschlandfunk together with pianist Philip Mayers. Further recordings for cpo, BR-Klassik and ARTE Concert testify to her artistic work.
Alice Lackner was born in Munich, studied singing with Prof. Kunz-Eisenlohr at the HfMT Cologne/Aachen and is currently receiving further training from Sami Kustaloglu in Berlin. She holds a scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation and has won prizes from “cantatebach!”, the Rheinsberg Castle Chamber Opera, and the “Podium junger Gesangssolisten”. With a degree in sociology, she works as a researcher at ZOiS Berlin. From 2025 onwards, she will take over the artistic direction of the “Güldener Herbst” festival in Thuringia.

Alexander Fedorov was born in Moscow. Studied piano and singing at the Ludwig van Beethoven Children’s School of Music (Moscow). In 2020 he completed a master’s degree at the Universität der Künste Berlin.

In 2015 Alexander performed the role of Orphée in Offenbach’s operetta Orphée aux enfers with the Berliner Symphoniker. In April 2017 he sang the solo role in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia). In September 2017 he became a participant in the Jeunes Chanteurs Russes programme of the Académie de l’Opéra de Monte-Carlo; performed at the 2017–18 season’s opening gala concert. Has been a guest soloist at the Staatstheater Braunschweig and the Oper Graz.

From 2019 to 2021 Alexander took part in the youth opera programme of the Komische Oper Berlin, appearing in that theatre’s productions. In 2021 he appeared under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski, performing the solo tenor role in Les Noces and the first tenor role in Stravinsky’s Renard at the Berliner Philharmonie and at the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest.

In the autumn of 2021 Alexander made his debut with the Bayerische Staatsoper in a production of Shostakovich’s The Nose conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, appearing in three roles.

Has performed the roles of Monostatos (Die Zauberflöte), Cavalier Belfiore (Il viaggio a Reims), Roméo (Roméo et Juliette), Giuseppe (La traviata), Camille de Rosillon (Die lustige Witwe), Ottokar (Der Zigeunerbaron) and Prince Paul (Offenbach’s La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein).

Since September 2021 he has been a soloist of the Mariinsky Academy of Young Opera Singers. In January 2022 he made his debut at the Mariinsky Theatre (Republic of North Ossetia–Alania Branch (Vladikavkaz)) in the role of Kai in Banevich’s opera for children The Story of Kai and Gerda. In February 2022 Alexander made his debut at St Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre, appearing as Lensky in Eugene Onegin.

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.