Andrew Manze & Elsa Dreisig

Andrew Manze is widely celebrated as one of the most stimulating and inspirational conductors of his generation.

His extensive and scholarly knowledge of the repertoire, together with his boundless energy and warmth, mark him out. He has been Chief Conductor of the NDR Radiophilharmonie, Hannover, since September 2014 and his contract has recently been extended until summer 2023. In the 18/19 season he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition to a busy touring schedule within Germany, in the 19/20 season the NDR Radiophilharmonie return to China, following their highly successful autumn 2016 tour, and make their BBC Proms debut. Manze and the orchestra have embarked on a major series of award-winning recordings for Pentatone, focussed on the works of Mendelssohn and Mozart. The first recording in the Mendelssohn series won the Preis der Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik. Manze has also just finished recording a cycle of the complete Vaughan Williams symphonies with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra for Onyx Classics.

In great demand as a guest conductor across the globe, Manze has long-standing relationships with leading orchestras that include the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Camerata Salzburg, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He is also a regular guest at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City. Recent and upcoming guest conducting highlights include engagements with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Concertgebouw, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé and Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
From 2006 to 2014, Manze was Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. During this time he made a number of recordings with them including Beethoven Eroica (Harmonia Mundi) and a cycle of Brahms symphonies (CPO). He was also Principal Guest Conductor of the Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra from 2008 to 2011, and held the title of Associate Guest Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra for four seasons.

After reading Classics at Cambridge University, Manze studied the violin and rapidly became a leading specialist in the world of historical performance practice. He
became Associate Director of the Academy of Ancient Music in 1996, and then Artistic Director of the English Concert from 2003 to 2007. As a violinist, Manze released an
astonishing variety of recordings, many of them award-winning. Manze is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, Visiting Professor at the Oslo Academy, and has contributed to new editions of sonatas and concerti by Bach and Mozart, published by Bärenreiter, Breitkopf and Härtel. He also teaches, writes about, and edits music, as well as broadcasting regularly on radio and television. In November 2011 Andrew Manze received the prestigious ‘Rolf Schock Prize’ in Stockholm.

After studying at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, the Danish opera singer Elsa Dreisig received the First Prize and the Audience Award of the Bertelsmann Foundation’s “New Voices” competition in Gütersloh in 2015 at the age of 24. The following year, she was awarded the title “Vocal Discovery” by Victoires de la Musique Classique and named Young Artist of the Year by the magazine “Opernwelt”. In 2017 she was “Young Opera Artist of the Year” at the Copenhagen Opera Festival and in the same year became a permanent ensemble member at the Staatsoper Berlin. Her repertoire there includes Pamina (“Die Zauberflöte”), Euridice (“Orfeo ed Euridice”), Gretchen in Schumann’s “Scenes from Goethe’s ‘Faust'”, Gretel (“Hansel and Gretel”) and Violetta (“La Traviata”), and she also appeared as Diane in a new production of “Hippolyte et Aricie” under Sir Simon Rattle and as Natascha in the world premiere of Beat Furrer’s opera “Violetter Schnee”. Elsa Dreisig has worked with renowned orchestras such as the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras and the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of conductors such as Daniel Barenboim and Sir Simon Rattle. She recently made guest appearances at the Salzburg Festival in “Così fan tutte” and as Anna Bolena at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. During the 22/23 season she will appear as Contessa (“Le Nozze di Figaro”) and Donna Elvira (“Don Giovanni”) at the Berlin State Opera and as Salomé at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.

2022 saw the release of “Mozart x 3”, her third album following her award-winning debut album “Miroirs”‘ (2018) and the album “Morgen” (2020) with pianist Jonathan Ware. The singer is an ambassador for Opera for Peace and was awarded the Culture Prize of the Danish Crown Prince and Crown Princess in 2019.