Concert broadcast to the Zeiss-Grossplanetarium – New Year’s Concert

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.

Estonian soprano Mirjam Mesak is a current member of the Bayerische Staatsoper ensemble, where she has left an indelible impression in roles from Iolanta to Musetta. In September 2022, she portrayed the leading role in Axel Ranisch’s film “Orphea in Love” which premiered at the Bavarian State Opera – proving that the soprano possesses not only an “outstanding voice” (Crescendo) but is also a skilled actress. The film was subsequently released in cinemas throughout Germany.

The 2023/24 season marked several exciting debuts for Mirjam Mesak. She made her house debut at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo singing Tebaldo in a new production of Verdi’s Don Carlo staged by Davide Livermore. She debuted the role of Xenia Boris Godunov with the Bayerische Staatsoper and saw her first performances with the Royal Danish Opera as Michal in Barrie Kosky’s production of Saul. Additionally in Munich, she reprised the roles of Musetta in La bohème and Dama di Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. She was also seen in Shostakovich’s The Nose staged by Kirill Serebrennikov and led by Vladimir Jurowski, Verdi’s Il trovatore under Antonino Fogliani, and Wagner’s Parsifal conducted by Adam Fischer.

In Estonia, Mirjam is a frequent guest of the Estonian National Opera, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, and Vanemuine Symphony Orchestra. In the 2023/24 season, she appears as soloist in Symphony No. 2 (Mahler) with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra under maestro Neeme Järvi and later gives two New Year’s concerts with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra under Kaspar Mänd. Commemorating the 150th anniversary of Rudolf Tobias, the first Estonian professional composer and organist, she sings his Oratorio “Joonas” with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Tõnu Kaljuste. The recording is followed by a concert at the Tallinn Methodist Church.

In the 2022/23 season in Munich, Mirjam Mesak made her debut as Oscar in Johannes Erath’s production of Un ballo in maschera under Ivan Repušic. She also joined Der Freischütz as Ännchen conducted by Lothar Koenigs. Additionally, Mirjam was heard as Tebaldo (Don Carlo) under Andrea Battistoni, Anna (Nabucco) conducted by Daniele Rustioni, 1st Sprite (Rusalka) under Henrik Nánási, The Cunning Little Vixen led by Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, and Musetta in La bohème conducted by Juraj Valcuha. She successfully jumped in for maestro Marek Janowski’s final concerts as the Music Director of the Dresdner Philharmonie.

In 2021/22 Mirjam appeared in an all-star cast of La bohème conducted by Asher Fisch, streamed internationally by the Bayerische Staatsoper, where her portrayal of Musetta was praised for its “beauty and elegance” (Opera Wire). She also appeared as Juliette in Simon Stone’s landmark production of Die tote Stadt under Kirill Petrenko, since released on DVD. Her portrayal of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta at the Cuvilliés Theater conducted by Alevtina Ioffe earned Mirjam unanimous critical acclaim for her ability to bring an ‘unbelievable amount of depth’ to the character (Bachtrack) and can also be found on DVD. In her hometown Tallinn, Mirjam made a critically acclaimed debut as Norina in Don Pasquale with the Estonian National Opera conducted by Arvo Volmer.

During her tenure in Munich’s Opernstudio, Mirjam made tremendous impressions not only as Iolanta, but also in the roles of Freia (Das Rheingold), Nella (Gianni Schicchi) conducted by Daniele Rustioni, and the Dew Fairy in Richard Jones’ Hänsel und Gretel under Patrick Lange.

Mirjam Mesak is a graduate of Guildhall School of Music & Drama (First Class Honours) where she studied under the tutelage of Prof. Rudolf Piernay. She has performed as a soloist in several of London’s renowned concert halls such as the Barbican Hall, Milton Court Concert Hall (including as part of the LSO’s ‘This is Rattle’ festival), and Wigmore Hall.

In 2019 she was awarded with the Bavarian Art Prize in the section Performing Arts (Bayerische Kunstförderpreis in Der Sparte Darstellende Kunst).

Hailed by the New York Times as “one of the world’s special young singers,” Emily D’Angelo has continued her meteoric rise to firmly establish herself as one of the most exciting and critically acclaimed artists of her generation. Described as “wondrous and powerful” by the New York Times for her recent US recital debut, the mezzo-soprano is the first and only vocalist to have been presented with the Leonard Bernstein Award from the Schleswig Holstein Festival.  A 2020 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist, one of Canada’s “Top 30 Under 30” Classical Musicians, and WQXR NYC Public Radio’s “40 Under 40” singers to watch, D’Angelo made her professional operatic debut aged 21, as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro at the Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi. For this performance, broadcast nationwide on Italy’s RAI network, she was awarded the 2016 Monini Prize.

In the 2024/25 season, D’Angelo takes the leading role Jess in the highly anticipated Metropolitan Opera premiere of two-time Tony Award–winning composer Jeanine Tesori’s opera Grounded. She returns to the Berlin State Opera for her role debut of Octavian in Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, a role she reprises at the Vienna State Opera later in the season.  Further in Berlin the mezzo-soprano sings Idamante in Idomeneo next to Rolando Villazón in the title role. At Vienna State Opera D’Angelo revives Donna Elvira and Dorabella in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte. D’Angelo returns to the role of Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro twice: at the Bayerische Staatsoper and at the Metropolitan Opera.

A sought-after concert performer, this season Emily D’Angelo will star at the annual Advent concert of the ZDF, German national television, with Staatskapelle Dresden under the baton of Riccardo Minasi in the atmospheric Frauenkirche in Dresden. She returns to her native Canada to perform Handel’s Messiah with Orchestre Métropolitain under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin in Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal and she joins the RSB orchestra and conductor Vladimir Jurowski for the New Year concerts of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony at Konzerthaus Berlin. The mezzo-soprano finishes her concert season as a soloist with Tonkünstler Orchester lead by Alessandro de Marchi in a Haydn program at the Auditorium Grafenegg in Austria.

The 2024/25 season also holds the release of D’Angelo’s awaited second album freezing produced by Deutsche Grammophon. freezing features music by Dowland, Purcell, Kodály, Philip Glass, Randy Newman and Jeanine Tesori, among many more. The album comprises seventeen songs drawn from the folk tradition, art song and beyond. The mezzo-soprano is joined on freezing by Sophia Muñoz (piano), Bruno Helstroffer (electric guitar) and Jonas Niederstadt (bass guitar, synth, percussion).

In recent seasons, Emily D’Angelo made a host of widely acclaimed debuts, cementing her status as one of the opera world’s most in-demand artists.  At the Washington National Opera, she created the role of Jess in the world premiere of Tesori’s Grounded. In the past two years she gave her role debuts as Ruggiero in Alcina in a new Richard Jones staging at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; the titular Ariodante in a new production by Robert Carsen at the Paris Opera’s Palais Garnier, her acclaimed interpretation of Sesto (La Clemenza di Tito) in a new production of Laurent Pelly and Juno in Semele at the Bayerische Staatsoper in another new production by Claus Guth. At the Vienna State Opera, the mezzo-soprano gave her house debut as Dorabella in Così fan tutte. Further highlights include her debut as Ottavia (L’incoronazione di Poppea) in her first appearances with the Zurich Opera; her company debut with the Berlin Staatsoper as Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro); her role and house debut as Sesto in La clemenza di Tito at the Royal Opera House in London; her first performances of Idamante in Idomeneo and appearances as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro at the Bavarian State Opera; her company and role debut as Angelina in Rossini’s La cenerentola at Semperoper Dresden; her first performances as Prince Charming in Massenet’s Cinderella (broadcast Live in HD) in a return to the Metropolitan Opera; her house debut as Dorabella in Così fan tutte and her role debut as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni at Teatro alla Scala; her company debut at Paris Opera presenting, in another role debut, Siebel in Gounod’s Faust in tandem with performances as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia; and her Festival Aix-en-Provence debut in her premiere appearance as Orphée in the Gluck/Berlioz Orphée et Eurydice.

D’Angelo has triumphed in numerous international competitions, winning first prize in the Metropolitan Opera Competition, the Canadian Opera Company Competition, the George London Foundation Competition, the Gerda Lissner Competition, Innsbruck’s Cesti Competition, and the Operalia Competition, where a historic win included First Prize, the Zarzuela Prize, the Birgit Nilsson Prize and Audience Prize. She has also received prizes from the Neue Stimmen International Singing Competition and the Concours musical international de Montréal (CMIM). During her tenure as a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Program, Emily D’Angelo performed the role of Annio in La clemenza di Tito, Second Lady in The Magic Flute, and Soeur Mathilde in Dialogues des Carmélites, which was conducted by music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and broadcast in movie theaters across the world as part of the Met’s Live in HD series. She was Dorabella in Così fan tutte for the Santa Fe Opera and the Canadian Opera Company, where she has also appeared as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia – a role she debuted at the Glimmerglass Festival in a new production by Francesca Zambello in 2018.

Emily D’Angelo is a keen recitalist and regularly performs in storied concert halls, collaborating with the world’s most acclaimed orchestras, ensembles, and conductors. In 2024 she gave her solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall and recently returned to New York’s Park Avenue Armory, performing songs of her debut album enargeia. Emily D’Angelo was the Spotlight Artist at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in the 2023-24 season presenting Alban Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder and the orchestral suite of her Deutsche Grammophon debut album enargeia. On the anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s death, she sang his Requiem in Salzburg with the Camerata Salzburg and at the Salzburg Summer Festival under the baton of Manfred Honeck. She debuted Alma Mahler’s Sieben Lieder under the musical direction of Anja Bihlmaier in Madrid and sang Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra led by Raphael Pichon. With the English Concert and Harry Bicket, D’Angelo made her debut at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium in the title role of Handel’s Serse, with further concert performances in the UK and Spain in 2023. The mezzo-soprano performed a Donizetti/Rossini program with the Prague Philharmonic at Rudolfinum, and presented recitals at the Konserthuset Stockholm, Toronto’s Koerner Hall, Barcelona’s Auditori, and the Peralada Music Festival, among others. In 2021, she recorded a recital program at the Kennedy Center for Vocal Arts DC, which continues to stream online via Deutsche Grammophon’s DG Stage+ platform.

Additional performances have included diverse repertoire such as Respighi’s Il tramonto with Quartet 212 at the Princeton University Concert Series, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with the Montclair Orchestra, the world premiere of Ana Sokolović’s song cycle dawn always begins in the bones, Unsuk Chin’s snagS&Snarls, and the Canadian premiere of Matthew Aucoin’s The Orphic Moment at the Toronto Contemporary Music Festival. She has further appeared in recitals under the auspices of the Park Avenue Armory, the New York Morgan Library Recital Series, Toronto’s Koerner Hall, the Los Angeles SongFest Recital Series, the Santa Fe Festival of Song, Teatro del Lago in Chile, and The Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach.

D’Angelo can be heard performing Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music in a Grammy-nominated and JUNO Award-winning live recording with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra; in excerpts from West Side Story on Decca’s “The Magic of Mantovani”; and in Ravel’s Cinq mélodies populaires grecques with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center on their album “Odyssey,” which was filmed and recorded at the Stavros Niarchos Cultural Center in Athens for the first ever international production of PBS “Live From Lincoln Center.”

Emily D’Angelo is a Deutsche Grammophon exclusive recording artist. Her debut album enargeia presents music from the 12th and 21st centuries by the composers Hildegard von Bingen, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Missy Mazzoli and Sarah Kirkland Snider, and is described by the artist herself as a “a soundworld, bound together by the multisensory ancient concept of enargeia.”  It was named one of the 50 best albums of 2021 by NPR, the best Canadian classical album of 2021 by the CBC, was featured on NPR’s 100 best songs of 2021, and received JUNO and Gramophone awards in 2022.

Toronto-born D’Angelo is a graduate of the University of Toronto, the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio, and the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute.

With a “shimmering velvet voice,” “Wagnerian power” (Ôlyrix), and a “radiant high register” (Das Opernglas), American tenor Christopher Sokolowski captivates audiences with his vivid, electrifying portrayals, establishing himself in some of opera’s most challenging and iconic roles on the international stage.

The 2024/25 season marks several significant debuts: Sokolowski will open the season at Theater Bremen with his role debut as Lohengrin in a new production by Frank Hilbrich, under the baton of Stefan Klingele. He then appears at the prestigious Konzerthaus Berlin, performing Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. Following these concerts, he returns to Staatsoper Hannover to debut as Manolios in Martinů’s Greek Passion, in a new production by Barbora Horáková, conducted by Stephan Zilias.

In the 2023/24 season, Sokolowski made his debut as the title role in Verdi’s Ernani at Theater St. Gallen, receiving widespread praise from the press. He was hailed as “an ideal casting” (Oper! Magazin, Kronenzeitung) and lauded as “an extremely convincing, intense interpreter of Ernani, […] able to fill the role with natural, perfect vocal support and a dynamic, precisely nuanced tone” (Oper Aktuell). He was further recognized for his portrayal as an “unbelievably agile performer … [with] a highly individual timbre, a well-developed middle range, and a radiant high register” (Das Opernglas), bringing “a vibrant power and a compelling, sometimes almost wild presence” to the role (Ostschweizer Kultur).

The 2022/23 season marked Sokolowski’s initial foray into the spinto and dramatic repertoire, with notable performances in St. Gallen as Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus), Siegmund (Die Walküre, “Der Ring an einem Abend”), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), as well as serving as the tenor soloist in a scenic production of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, about which the Polish magazine Ruch Muzyczny remarked that “Christopher Sokolowski has the talent, personality, and makings of a great spinto tenor.” He made additional debuts at Staatsoper Hannover as Wagner and Neréo in Boito’s Mefistofele, at Oper Frankfurt as Ken in Vito Žuraj’s Blühen, and as the Prince in Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges at Des Moines Metro Opera, “unleashing torrents of gleaming sound, each phrase more impressive than the last” (Opera Today).

As a member of the Staatsoper Stuttgart Opera Studio during the 2018/19 and 2019/20 seasons, Sokolowski shared in over 100 performances with the company, taking on supporting roles in both critically acclaimed new productions and repertory works. While in the studio, he appeared in concert with the company at the Baden-Baden Festspiele and Opéra National du Rhin and made his debut in the title role of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito at Theater Bregenz. The 2020/21 “COVID” season brought film adaptations of works of Purcell and Monteverdi with the Staatsoper Stuttgart.

Sokolowski has garnered recognition in several prestigious competitions, most recently as a grand finalist of the Paris Opera Competition at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées where he displayed “a technical maturity well beyond his years, enabling him to master the multiple facets of his shimmering velvet voice” (Ôlyrix). He was awarded the Rohatyn Great Promise Award in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition, the Hermann Leopoldi Musikpreis in Vienna’s International Otto Edelmann Competition, and was a grand finalist in Innsbruck’s International Cesti Competition. In concert he has performed in venues across the world with a repertoire spanning from Baroque to world premieres.

A native of New York’s Hudson Valley, Sokolowski completed his vocal studies at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music (M.M.) and the Purchase Conservatory (B.M.). He has been a guest artist at the Tanglewood Music Center and the Fondation des Treilles Académie de la Voix.

Christof Fischesser grew up in a musical family, received instrumental lessons in early childhood and was a member of several choirs and ensembles. He studied singing with Prof. Martin Gründler at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt am Main and won first prize at the national singing competition in Berlin in 2000. Shortly after the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe engaged him as a permanent ensemble member and gave him early opportunities to sing great roles in his field such as Mephisto (Mefistofele / Boito) or Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro). In 2004 he joined the ensemble of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, and from 2012 to 2015 he belonged to the Opernhaus Zürich, with which he has since enjoyed a particularly close collaboration.

He will also return to this house in the 2024/25 season as Fiesco in Verdi’s Simone Boccanegra, König Heinrich in Wagner’s Lohengrin and Rocco in Beethoven’s Fidelio. Further engagements will lead him to the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden as Pogner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, to Stockholm as King Marke in Tristan und Isolde and to the Bavarian State Opera in Munich as Wassermann in Rusalka and Komtur in Don Giovanni.

Recent highlights include new productions of Verdi’s Simone Boccanegra at the Zurich Opera House under the direction of Andreas Homoki, in which Christof Fischesser appeared as Jacopo Fiesco, and Richard Strauss’ Rosenkavalier at the Bavarian State Opera, where he has continued to delight audiences as Ochs ever since. Guest engagements in this role, but also as Orest, King Marke, Hunding, La Roche, Bluebeard and Rocco, have taken Christof Fischesser to the Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, the Opéra Nationale de Paris, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Munich State Opera, the Semperoper Dresden, the Opéra nationale de Lyon, the Lyric Opera Chicago and the opera houses in Amsterdam Antwerp, Basel, Copenhagen and Stockholm. He has also performed at the Salzburg Festival and the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and accepted an invitation from the Bregenz Festival to take on the role of Kaspar in Philipp Stölzl’s interpretation of Weber’s Der Freischütz on the lake stage.

His broad repertoire also includes roles such as Landgraf (Tannhäuser), Gurnemanz (Parsifal), Sarastro (Zauberflöte), Sir Giorgio (I Puritani), Banco (Macbeth), Conte di Walter (Luisa Miller), or Mephisto (Faust /Gounod).

Christof Fischesser is also in demand internationally as a concert singer, appearing in Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass in Paris under Jukka-Pekka Saraste, with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Fabio Luisi at the Tonhalle Zürich, the Vienna Konzerthaus and Musikverein, with Daniel Barenboim and his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Madrid, Seville and Valencia, and with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under Claudio Abbado at the Lucerne Festival. Key works such as Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, Verdi’s Messa da Requiem or Mendelssohn’s Elias are part of his repertoire as well as Brahms’ Vier ernste Gesänge. He has also worked with conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Kent Nagano, Antonio Pappano, Philippe Jordan, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Kirill Petrenko.

Christof Fischesser’s artistic work is documented on numerous CD and DVD releases, including Beethoven’s Fidelio under the baton of Claudio Abbado, Massenet’s Manon under Daniel Barenboim or Wagner’s Lohengrin under Kent Nagano.