Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in the Zeiss-Großplanetarium

Born in New York, Karina Canellakis took up the role of Principal Guest Conductor of the RSB at the beginning of the 2019/2020 season, also assuming a long-term collaboration with the orchestra alongside Vladimir Jurowski. Karina and the orchestra first performed together in September 2017 at the Mecklenberg-Vorpommern Festival and quickly built a strong rapport. Her successful first season astonished audiences, notably with the critically acclaimed performances of Beethoven’s ninth symphony at the RSB’s popular New Years’ Concerts.
As the Principal Guest Conductor, Karina Canellakis will establish her own thematic narrative throughout each season. Two concerts in the 2020/2021 season will focus on two key works of the classical music repertoire: The Symphony No. 10 by Dmitri Shostakovich and the Symphony No. 2 by Johannes Brahms. On 29 November 2020, Benjamin Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem will precede Shostakovich’s monumental work. Brahms, on the other hand, fancied Hungarian sounds in music his whole life. That’s why he would probably welcome Frank Peter Zimmermann, who will interpret the Rhapsody No. 1 by Béla Bartók, with open arms. On 24 April 2021 the violinist will take the audiences on a journey from this unprecedented firework of Csárdás back to the Czech Republic, playing the breathtaking Suite Concertante by Bohuslav Martinů. Karina Canellakis will open the concert with the passionate tone poem „Jealosy“ by Leoš Janáček.
Karina Canellakis, who has Greek and Russian ancestry and speaks English as well as German, French, and Italian, began her musical career as a violinist. In the course of her education, she became a member of the orchestra academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker, where she was encouraged by Sir Simon Rattle to devote herself more to conducting. She followed this advice with great enthusiasm and won the Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award in 2016. With emotionally charged performances, technical brilliance, and interpretative depth, she quickly made a name for herself at orchestras and at opera houses in the USA, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
In addition to her involvement with the RSB, Karina Canellakis took up her first position as Chief Conductor at the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest of the Netherlands in autumn 2019, with whom she will launch a cycle of Janáček operas in January 2021, starting with „Jenůfa“.
In the 2020/2021 season, the charismatic conductor will realise some remarkable projects, such as her début with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Mozart’s „Le nozze de Figaro“). Again, she will be on the rostrum of the London und Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony, Seattle and Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Wiener Symphoniker.

French mezzo-soprano Virginie Verrez is a graduate of New York’s Juilliard School.  She is the winner of the 2016 Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition and a winner of the 2015 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.  She was a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program 2015-2017.

In the 2019/20 season, Virginie makes her role debut as Carmen in a new production for the Welsh National Opera and she sings her first Prince Charmant in a new production of Cendrillon for the Stadttheater Klagenfurt. On the concert platform she will sing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin/Karina Canellakis; Mozart’s Requiem with the Orchestre symphonique de Mulhouse/Jacques Lacombe and Beethoven’s Mass in C at the Festival de Saint Denis with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Radio France/Karina Canellakis.

She has sung at the Opéra national de Paris; Wiener Staatsoper; Opéra de Lille, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence; Glyndebourne Festival and, in the United States, for the Metropolitan Opera; Dallas Opera and in Santa Fe.

German Heldentenor, Stefan Vinke, studied as a church musician at the Cologne College of Music before beginning his professional singing career in Karlsruhe and Mönchengladbach. In 1999 he was awarded the position of ‘Young Heroic Tenor’ at the Nationaltheather Mannheim where in 2000 he was voted ‘Male Newcomer of the Year’ by Opernwelt magazine.

Globally renowned as an interpreter of Wagner’s great tenor roles, he has sung the title roles of Parsifal, Lohengrin, Rienzi, Tristan and Siegfried, also Siegmund/Die Walküre, Siegfried/Götterdammerung, Erik/Der Fliegende Holländer, and Walther von Stolzing/Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

His numerous Ring cycle appearances include the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden with Sir Antonio Pappano, the Metropolitan Opera, New York with Philippe Jordan, Wiener Staatsoper and Bayerische Staatsoper under Kiril Petrenko and Deutsche Oper with Donald Runnicles.

He has also sung the title role of Idomeneo, Florestan/Fidelio, Bacchus/Ariadne, Paul/Die tote Stadt, Alviano/Die Gezeichneten, and Jim Mahony/Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny in the theatres of Hamburg, Cologne, Leipzig, Stuttgart, Munich, Paris, Montpellier, Lisbon, Barcelona, Venice, Madrid, Melbourne, Bejing, Geneva, Chicago, Seattle, Hong Kong, Sydney, and at the Salzburg Festival.

His performances of Tristan at the 2019 Bayreuth Festival with Christian Thielemann, and Siegfried /Siegfried and Götterdämmerung at the Müpa in Budapest with Adam Fischer were highly acclaimed. His opera performances in the 2019/2020 season continue with Tristan in Bologna, Athens and Karlsrühe and his first Kaiser/Die Frau ohne Schatten in Leipzig.

A distinguished concert artist, his orchestral engagements in the 2019/2020 season include Beethoven’s ‘Christus am Ölberg’ in Frankfurt and Glanert’s ‘Requiem für Hieronymous Bosch’ with Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic.

The Chinese bass Liang Li has become a most sought-after singer for both opera and concert with performances at all important international companies and festivals. He sings all main roles of his Fach, which includes German as well as Italian and French repertoire. He has got a regular collaboration with conductors like Mariss Jansons, Zubin Mehta, Sir Simon Rattle, Myung-Whun Chung, Donald Runnicles, Tomás Netopil, Sylvain Cambreling, Jonathan Nott, Manfred Honeck, just to name a few.

Highlights of previous seasons include e.g.concert performances of “Turandot”/ Timur with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (Zubin Mehta) in Tel Aviv, “Tristan and Isolde”/ Marke at the National Center of the Performing Arts in Beijing (Shao-Chia Lu; Mariusz Trelinski), Beethoven’s “Symphony no. 9” with the Orchestra of La Scala di Milano (Zubin Mehta), Dvorak’s “Stabat Mater” in the Palace of the Arts in Budapest (Riccardo Frizza). 
He had a huge success with concert performances of “Don Giovanni”/ Commendatore with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra (Jonathan Nott) in Kawasaki, as Hunding /”Die Walküre” at the Hamburgische Staatsoper as well as Filippo /”Don Carlo” (Keri-Lynn Wilson) at Bolshoi Theatre Moscow. He subsequently received the ‘BraVo Award’ at Bolshoi. 
He furthermore portrayed Fiesco in a new production of “Simone Boccanegra” (Paolo Carignani; David Hermann) at the Vlaamse Opera Antwerp, Filippo /”Don Carlo” (Axel Kober) at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Zaccharia /”Nabucco” at the Deutsche Oper Berlin as well as at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, Marke /”Tristan and Isolde” and Daland /”The Flying Dutchman” at the Wagner Festival in Budapest and Sarastro in a Japan Tournée of Barrie Kosky’s production of “The Magic Flute”. He sang a concert of Beethoven’s “Symphony no. 9″ under the baton of Manfred Honeck with the Danish Radio in Copenhagen. As Arkel /”Pélleas et Mélisande” he appeared at the Wiener Festwochen and the Edinburgh Festival.

Liang Li is a regular guest at the Festival Baden-Baden with e.g. “Die Walküre”/ Hunding (Jonathan Nott) and a production of “Manon Lescaut”/ Geronte de Ravoir (Richard Eyre/Sir Simon Rattle), at the Opéra de Paris with “Il Trovatore”/ Ferrando (Daniele Rustioni; Alex Ollé) and “Don Giovanni”/ Commendatore (Alain Altinoglu), at the Deutsche Oper Berlin with “Nabucco”/ Zaccharia, Gurnemanz /”Parsifal” (Donald Runnicles) and “Tristan and Isolde”/ Marke, at the Semperoper Dresden with “Macbeth”/ Banco and “La juive”/ Cardinal de Brogni, in Caen and Luxemburg with “Der Fliegende Holländer”/ Daland (Francois-Xavier Roth), at the Opera Festival Beijing (NCPA) with “Nabucco”/ Zaccharia aside Placido Domingo, at the Palau de les Arts Valencia with “Il Trovatore”/ Ferrando and “Tristan and Isolde”/ Marke (Zubin Mehta).

With his distinguished concert repertoire, Liang Li also appears internationally on all important concert stages, as with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra (Mozart “c-moll Mass”; Andrew Manze), with Dvorak’s “Stabat Mater” with the Bavarian Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Mariss Jansons in Munich and Lucerne, with Rossini’s “Stabat Mater” both at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia (Nicola Luisotti) and at the Palace of the Arts in Budapest (Carlo Montanaro) and with Mahler’s “Symphony no. 8” with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra at Kawasaki (Jonathan Nott), with Mozart’s “Requiem” and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (Manfred Honeck) at Carnegie Hall in New York, at Vienna Musikverein as well as in Pittsburgh, with Verdi’s “Requiem” at the Philharmonie Essen (Tomás Netopil) and at the Palau de les Arts (Carlo Rizzi), with Schumann’s “Faust Szenen”/ Pater Profundus, Böser Geist under the baton of Sebastian Weigle at the Frankfurt Museumskonzerte, with Mahler’s “Symphony no. 8” (Shao-chia Lü) in Taiwan, with Dvorak’s “Stabat Mater” at the Mozarteum Salzburg – just to name a few.

Liang Li was born in China and studied voice in Tianjin and in Peking. He won numerous prizes at International Voice Competitions, e.g. the ‘International ARD Music Competition’ in Munich, ‘Neue Stimmen’ of the Bertelsmann Stiftung and the ‘International Opera-Competition in Shizuoka’ in Japan.

For his outstanding credits for the Staatsoper Stuttgart where Liang Li was a member for ten years and where he sings all important roles of his Fach, he has been honored with the title ‘Kammersänger of the Staatsoper Stuttgart’ in November 2016.

Future and current projects include several new productions at the Hamburgische Staatsoper, his return to both, Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Semperoper Dresden, various concerts and performances with Zubin Mehta, with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.

Mit rund 60 Konzerten jährlich, CD-Einspielungen und internationalen Gastspielen

zählt der Rundfunkchor Berlin zu den herausragenden Chören der Welt. Allein drei

Grammy Awards stehen für die Qualität seiner Aufnahmen. Sein breit gefächertes

Repertoire, ein flexibles, reich nuanciertes Klangbild, makellose Präzision und packende Ansprache machen den Profichor zum Partner bedeutender Orchester und Dirigenten,

darunter Sir Simon Rattle, Christian Thielemann oder Yannick Nézet-Séguin. In Berlin

besteht eine intensive Zusammenarbeit mit den Berliner Philharmonikern sowie mit dem Deutschen Symphonie-Orchester Berlin und dem Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin

und ihren Chefdirigenten.

Internationales Aufsehen erregt der Rundfunkchor Berlin auch mit seinen interdisziplinären Projekten, die das klassische Konzertformat aufbrechen und Chormusik neu erlebbar machen. Zum Meilenstein wurde die szenische Umsetzung des Brahms-Requiems als »human requiem« durch Jochen Sandig und ein Team von Sasha Waltz & Guests. Nach Gastspielen u.a. in New York, Hongkong, Paris, Brüssel und Athen reiste die Produktion im Frühjahr 2018 erstmals nach Australien. Für sein jüngstes Projekt »LUTHER dancing with the gods« reflektierte der Chor im Herbst 2017 in einer einzigartigen Konzertperformance mit Robert Wilson und Musik von Bach, Nystedt und Reich Luthers Wirkung auf die Künste und in den Künsten. Mit Christian Josts 2014 uraufgeführtem Musik-Tanz-Theater »LOVER« ging der Chor im Frühjahr 2016 auf Asientournee.

Mit seinen Community-Projekten für unterschiedliche Zielgruppen – das große Mitsingkonzert in der Berliner Philharmonie, das Fest der Chorkulturen für Chöre aus aller Welt und die Liederbörse für Berliner Schülerinnen und Schüler– möchte der Rundfunkchor Berlin möglichst viele Menschen zum Singen bringen. Seine breit angelegte Bildungsinitiative SING! zielt auf die nachhaltige Vernetzung verschiedener Partner, um das Singen als selbstverständlichen Teil des Berliner Grundschulalltags zu fördern. Mit der Akademie und Schola sowie der Internationalen Meisterklasse Berlin setzt sich das Ensemble für den professionellen Sänger- und Dirigentennachwuchs ein.

1925 gegründet, feierte der Rundfunkchor Berlin 2015 sein 90-jähriges Bestehen. Der Chor wurde von Dirigenten wie Helmut Koch, Dietrich Knothe, Robin Gritton und Simon Halsey geprägt. Seit der Saison 2015/16 steht der Niederländer Gijs Leenaars als Chefdirigent und Künstlerischer Leiter an der Spitze des Ensembles. Simon Halsey bleibt dem Chor als Ehrendirigent und Gastdirigent verbunden. Der Rundfunkchor Berlin ist ein Ensemble der Rundfunk Orchester und Chöre GmbH Berlin in der Trägerschaft von Deutschlandradio, der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, dem Land Berlin und dem Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg.

In 2016/17 Benjamin Goodson took up his post as assistant of the principal conductor of the Rundfunkchor Berlin. Born in London in 1990 the British conductor studied music and musicology at the University of Oxford. Furthermore he studied conducting with renowned teachers and conductors like Sir Colin Davis, Paul Spicer and Ulrich Windfuhr.

In England he is the musical director of the award-winning Bath Camerata, which he took over in 2015. In the same year – by the age of 24 – he was named by the university to become Oxford’s youngest director of music, a position that he gave up for the Berlin engagement, while he still holds the position as chorus master at the Dorset Festival Opera. Moreover he is a regular guest conductor of various choirs and orchestras with a broad repertoire ranging from early music to contemporary works. In the season 2017/18 he worked with the, the MDR Rundfunkchor Leipzig, the NDR Chor Hamburg, the Netherlands Radio Choir and the London Symphony Chorus, which he prepared for a performance at the BBC Proms.

In the Rundfunkchor Berlin’s 2018/19 season Benjamin Goodson prepares the choir for several works such as Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “Sea Symphony” und Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. In 2020/21 he will become principal conductor of the Netherlands Radio Choir.