Heinrich Schütz
“Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen”, SWV 29
Psalm 84 for 8-part choir and continuo
Heinrich Schütz
“Die mit Tränen säen”, SWV 378
motet for 5-part choir a cappella
Johannes Brahms
“A German Requiem”
for soloists, choir and orchestra, Op. 45
Vladimir Jurowski
Conductor
Vladimir Jurowski - Conductor

Vladimir Jurowski has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the RundfunkSinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) since 2017. In 2023/2024, his concerts, tours and recordings were the highlights of the ‘RSB100’ anniversary season. His current contract in Berlin runs until 2027,
while he has also been General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich since 2021.
Vladimir Jurowski, one of the most sought-after conductors of our time, who is celebrated worldwide for his innovative musical interpretations and equally for his courageous artistic commitment, was born in Moscow in 1972 and completed the first part of his music studies at the Music College of the Moscow Conservatory. He moved to Germany with his family in 1990 and continued his studies at the music academies in Dresden and Berlin. In 1995, he made his debut at the Wexford Festival in Ireland with Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Mainacht’ and in 1996 at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden with ‘Nabucco’. He was then First Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper Berlin (1997-2001).
Vladimir Jurowski worked as Chief Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) for fifteen years until 2021 and has since been appointed Conductor Emeritus. In the UK, he was Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera from 2001 to 2013, leading a wide range of highly acclaimed productions. His close connection to British musical life was recognised by King Charles III in spring 2024 when he appointed Vladimir Jurowski an Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE). In April 2024, Vladimir Jurowski returned to London as a guest conductor to complete the concert performance cycle of Wagner’s ‘Ring’ with ‘Götterdämmerung’ with the LPO at the Royal Festival Hall.
He was Artistic Director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra ‘Yevgeny Svetlanov’ of the Russian Federation until 2021 and Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Great Britain, as well as Artistic Director of the International George Enescu Festival in Bucharest. He has also worked with the unitedberlin ensemble for many years. Vladimir Jurowski has suspended performances in Russia since February 2022. Ukrainian works are and will remain part of his repertoire, as will works by Russian composers.
Vladimir Jurowski has conducted concerts by the most important orchestras in Europe and North America, including the Berlin, Vienna and New York Philharmonics, 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 Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig. He is a regular guest at the music festivals in London, Berlin, Dresden, Lucerne, SchleswigHolstein and Grafenegg. Although Vladimir Jurowski is invited as a guest conductor by top orchestras from all over the world, he now concentrates his activities on those geographical areas that he can easily reach with reasonable effort from an ecological point of view.
The joint CD recordings by Vladimir Jurowski and the RSB began in 2015 with Alfred Schnittke’s Symphony No. 3, followed by works by Britten, Hindemith, Strauss, Mahler and again Schnittke. Vladimir Jurowski has been honoured many times for his achievements, including numerous international record awards. In 2016, he received an honorary doctorate from the Royal Philharmonic Society from the hands of the current King Charles III. In 2020, Vladimir Jurowski’s work as Artistic Director of the George Enescu Festival was honoured by the Romanian President with the Order of Cultural Merit.
Maria Bengtsson
Soprano
Maria Bengtsson - Soprano

Maria Bengtsson begins the 2024/25 season as Christine in the new production of Intermezzo at the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden. Following her extraordinary success last season, she can also be heard in this role in the revival of the opera at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. The Vienna State Opera presents the artist as Donna Anna in the Don Giovanni guest performance at the Opéra de Monaco. Maria Bengtsson returns to the Frankfurt Opera in her signature role of the Rosenkavalier-Marschallin and makes a guest appearance as Nozze-Contessa at Münchner Opernfestspiele. Concert engagements take the soprano to the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin with Barber’s Knoxville, to Malmö and Hamburg with Strauss’ Four Last Songs, both under the baton of Bertrand de Billy, to the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Simone Young with Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony and to the Singapore Symphony Orchestra with Mahler’s Symphony No. 2.
Highlights of recent seasons include Daphne at the Frankfurt Opera, Marschallin (Rosenkavalier) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and at the Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam, Contessa (Nozze di Figaro), Marschallin (Rosenkavalier) and Gräfin (Capriccio) at the Vienna State Opera, Contessa at the Opéra de Paris and the Staatsoper Berlin, Donna Anna at Covent Garden London, Blanche in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites at the Frankfurt Opera, Ellen Orford (Peter Grimes) at the Opéra de Paris, Covent Garden and the Teatro Real Madrid, Rusalka and Clara in the world premiere of Christian Jost’s Egmont at the Theater an der Wien, Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte) at the Hamburg State Opera and at the Teatro San Carlo Naples under the direction of Riccardo Muti, Pamina (Zauberflöte) at the Berlin State Opera, the soprano in Calixto Bieito’s staged version of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at the Hamburg State Opera as well as in his staged interpretation of Mendelssohn’s Elijah at the Theater an der Wien and the title role in the world premiere of Detlev Glanert’s opera Oceane at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
As a concert singer and lied interpreter, the Swedish singer has performed at the Carinthian Summer, the Berlin Festival, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Vienna Musikverein, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Brucknerhaus Linz, the Klangbogen Festival Vienna, the Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon, the Teatro Nacional Sao Carlos Lisbon and the Alte Oper in Frankfurt as well as the Frankfurt Opera. Recent concerts took her to Gothenburg with Berg’s 7 Early Songs under Simone Young, to Potsdam with Beethoven’s 9th Symphony under Antonello Manacorda, and to Antwerp for a New Year’s Concert. Maria Bengtsson has also performed with the BR Symphony Orchestra under Kirill Petrenko in Mendelssohn’s Elias, with the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo under Simone Young in Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9, in Antwerp with the Vier letzte Lieder under Bertrand de Billy, at the Konzerthaus Berlin, with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Kirill Petrenko in Tel Aviv as well as with the Hamburg Philharmonic under Bertrand de Billy and on the occasion of the opening of the Elbphilharmonie under Thomas Hengelbrock with Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang.
Maria Bengtsson studied at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg. From 2000 to 2002 she was a member of the ensemble at the Volksoper in Vienna, and from 2002 to 2007 she was a member of the ensemble at the Komische Oper in Berlin, where she appeared in the leading roles under Kirill Petrenko in many of his most important productions. Since 2007 the artist has been freelancing.
Since that time Maria Bengtsson has appeared, among others. at the Opéra de Paris, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, La Scala in Milan, the Bolshoi in Moscow, the Vienna State Opera, the Salzburg and Aix en Provence Festivals, as well as the Frankfurt Opera, the Opéra National de Bordeaux, the Cologne Opera, the Opéra National de Lyon, the Teatro la Fenice, the Antwerp Opera and the Theater an der Wien.
Matthias Goerne
Baritone
Matthias Goerne - Baritone

Matthias Goerne is one of the most internationally sought-after vocalists and a frequent guest at renowned festivals and concert halls. He has collaborated with leading orchestras all over the world. Conductors of the first rank as well as eminent pianists are among his musical partners.
Matthias Goerne has appeared on the world’s principal opera stages, including the the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Teatro Real in Madrid; Paris National Opera; and the Vienna State Opera. His carefully chosen roles range from Wolfram, Amfortas, Kurwenal, Wotan, Orest, and Jochanaan to the title roles in Alban Berg’s “Wozzeck” and Béla Bartók’s “Duke Bluebeard’s Castle”.
Goerne’s artistry has been documented on numerous recordings, many of which have received prestigious awards, including four Grammy nominations, an ICMA award, and the Diapason d’or arte. After his legendary recordings with Vladimir Ashkenazy and Alfred Brendel for Universal Music, he has completed the recording of a series of selected Schubert songs on 12 CDs for harmonia mundi (The Goerne/ Schubert Edition) with eminent pianists. His latest recordings of Brahms songs with Christoph Eschenbach and of Mahler songs with the BBC Symphony have received rave reviews.
From 2001 through 2005, Matthias Goerne taught as an honorary professor of song interpretation at the Robert Schumann Academy of Music in Düsseldorf. In 2001, he was appointed an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London. A native of Weimar, he studied with Hans-Joachim Beyer in Leipzig, and later with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
Cantus Domus
Cantus Domus

Cantus Domus was founded 25 years ago by Lena Schoenfelder. This great, at the time almost audacious idea of forming a choir at the Haus der Jugend in Berlin-Zehlendorf was inspiring and forward-looking. On its way into the present, the choir – from the beginning under the artistic direction of Ralf Sochaczewsky – has enriched and inspired many people. Over the years, musical encounters and collaborations have taken the choir to many cities in Germany and to Belarus, Poland, Nicaragua, England, Norway, France, Georgia and the Netherlands. In the process, Cantus Domus has been accompanied by a great cultural curiosity, diverse forms of musical expression and impressive concert formats.
The Corona pandemic and its accompanying restrictions have dramatically affected the musical and cultural landscape. Like countless choirs in this country and around the world, Cantus Domus has had to cancel planned concerts and concert tours. Due to the restrictions, the choir has unfolded new formats of choral, rehearsal and recording work and thus also allowed its entire artistic creative process to take place in new ways. In a short period of time, unique digital cooperation projects have been carried out with artists such as Shara Nova, Gaby Moreno, the Georgian women’s choir Tutarchela, Nicholas Müller, Grainne Hunt and Mohannad Nasser.
Cantus Domus opens up new approaches to choral music for its audiences with immersive productions and innovative collaborations. As a classical concert choir, it often seeks ways beyond common performance routines, for example by performing in unusual concert venues (J. S. Bach: “B Minor Mass”, Kraftwerk Berlin, 2015) or by involving the audience in its concerts (J. S. Bach: “St Matthew Passion”, Chamber Music Hall of the Berlin Philharmonie, 2018). One of the choir’s trademarks is the format of the so called Concept Concerts, which was developed by Paul Liebrecht in 2008 and has been constantly refined. Here Cantus Domus regularly stages elaborately choreographed and musically demanding performances in unusual spaces (Arthur Honegger: “Le Roi David” in the Vollgutlager of the Alte Kindl Brewery in cooperation with choreographer Christoph Winkler, 2017; “Synthesis” for choir, synthesiser and DJ in the Kindl Centre for Contemporary Art and Culture, 2015 or “Singingpool” in the Stadtbad Steglitz, 2008).
In the last four years before the Corona pandemic, since the premiere of a choral opera staged and excellently reviewed by Cantus Domus (Frank Schwemmer: “Macbeth”, 2016, directed by C. Rindfleisch, libretto: U. Küchler/J. Fraune), Cantus Domus performed in five countries and cooperated with around 40 orchestras, partner choirs and bands in around 50 performances and concerts. Inspiring international encounters have recently taken place with Wood River from New York, Vox Humana (Oslo), Fahmi Alqhai and the Accademia del Piacere (from Spain, Syria and elsewhere) as well as with the Georgian choirs Shavnabada and Tutarchela. In 2018, Cantus Domus and Bang on a Can All-Stars (New York) gave the German premiere of Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize for Music-winning oratorio Anthracite Fields in Berlin.
Cantus Domus has worked with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) and Vladimir Jurowski (2019), the Kammerakademie Potsdam and Antonello Manacorda (2018), the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and Neeme Järvi (2018), the Konzerthausorchester Berlin (2013), the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Jonathan Nott (2012), and the Rundfunkchor Berlin and Simon Halsey (2007), among others.
In addition to its numerous concerts with large ensembles, Cantus Domus also performs with various chamber ensembles in smaller projects. In the process, the choir increasingly moves into the border areas between classical and indie/pop, for example with performances at festivals such as People, Kaltern Pop and Haldern Pop, as well as collaborations with Bon Iver, Charlotte Greve, Damien Rice, Helga Davis, Kjartan Sveinsson, Kurt Wagner, Lisa Hannigan, Loney Dear, Mads Brauer, Shara Nova, Stargaze, The Slow Show and Tocotronic, among others.
Chor des Jungen Ensembles Berlin
Chor des Jungen Ensembles Berlin

The choir of Junges Ensemble Berlin is a standard-bearer for young, outstanding music making in Berlin. It comprises around 90 students and young professionals between the ages of 18 and 40, who share a love of music. Its members are united in their commitment to a high standard of music-making as well as a joy in challenging choral repertoire. In 2017 the musical direction of the choir was taken by Vinzenz Weissenburger.
In 2018 the Junges Ensemble Berlin celebrated its 60th anniversary. The choir can look back on considerable successes that show its musical diversity; from choral-symphonic works such as Verdi’s “Messa da Requiem” or Bach’s Passions to a cappella works. It also crosses genre boundaries, for example singing with Barbra Streisand in the Mercedes-Benz Arena Berlin in 2013. In spring 2014, the ensemble released its first professional CD recording; Arthur Honegger’s symphonic psalm “King David” on Rondeau Classics.
As well as concerts in Germany, the choir often makes guest appearances abroad. In autumn 2017 the choir travelled to China, performing in renowned concert halls in Beijing, Wuhan, Hangzhou and Changsha. Previously, the choir accepted an invitation from the Orquesta Filarmónica de Medellín to perform in Colombia.
In May 2018 the choir achieved fifth place with “very good success” in the highly competitive category “Mixed Choirs – from 32 participants” at the German Choir Competition in Freiburg, having finished with “outstanding success” at the Berlin Choir Competition in 2017. This was a continuation of the success at the 2014 German Choir Competition in Weimar, where the choir also finished with “very good success” and won a special prize for its interpretation of the folk song “Der Kuckuck und der Esel”.
The choir of Junges Ensemble Berlin also initiates projects that engage with wider society, leading a performance of Handel’s oratorio “Semele” with refugees in April 2017, and the co-operative “Images of Light” project with the Otto-Hahn-Schule Berlin-Neukölln in both Berlin and Istanbul in March 2011. In addition, the choir invited students of the Comenius-Schule Berlin-Wilmersdorf and the Jane-Addams-Schule Berlin-Friedrichshain to take part in a performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in the Berlin Konzerthaus in November 2012.
The choir of Junges Ensemble Berlin is one of the leading amateur choirs in Germany. It is a member of the Berlin Choir Society (Chorverband Berlin e.V.) and has been supported by the Berlin state government since 2009.
Vinzenz Weissenburger
Chorus Master
Vinzenz Weissenburger - Chorus Master
The conductor and choirmaster Vinzenz Weissenburger works with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Gustavo Dudamel, Andris Nelsons and Sir Simon Rattle and conducts orchestras such as the MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig, the Staatskapelle Berlin and the Lautten Compagney in concerts and operas.
At the Staatsoper in the Schiller Theater, he conducted the workshop productions of “Puss in Boots” by César Cui, “Eisenhans!” by Ali N. Askin and Wolf-Ferrari’s “Cinderella” as well as the traditional Christmas concert with the Staatsoper’s children’s choir and the Staatskapelle Berlin since 2011. In Dresden, he conducted Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte” in 2010 and Lortzing’s “Der Wildschütz” with the Neue Elbland Philharmonie in 2011. In June 2012, he made his debut at Theater Hof with Rossini’s “Il barbiere di Siviglia”.
He has conducted the children’s choir of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin since 2007 and has since developed it to such an extent that it won the gold medal at Siaulia Cantat in Lithuania in 2013 and first prize at the German Choir Competition in 2014. At the international choir competition in Hoi An (Vietnam), the children’s choir was awarded two gold medals and Vinzenz Weissenburger was awarded the Conductor’s Prize for outstanding achievement. In September 2015, he founded the youth chamber choir Junges Consortium Berlin, which won three gold medals at the Grand Prix of Nations in 2017. Here, he also received a special prize for “excellent conducting”. In November 2016, he took over the artistic direction of the Junges Ensemble Berlin choir.
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
Ralf Sochaczewsky
contuctor (Schütz) and choir instruction (Brahms)
Ralf Sochaczewsky - contuctor (Schütz) and choir instruction (Brahms)

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.
Confidence for the living – spiritual settings for the comfort of the bereaved
Concert introduction: Concert without introduction