Freude, schöner Götterfunken…

Internationally acclaimed for her emotionally charged performances, technical command and interpretive depth, Karina Canellakis has become one of the most in-demand conductors of her generation. She is the Chief Conductor of Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.  She was Principal Guest Conductor of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) until the end of the 2022/23 season.
As Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, she recently led an extensive tour of Germany’s most prestigious concert halls with the orchestra and soloist Daniil Trifonov. Karina continues to present exciting modern pieces as well as well-known masterpieces at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, where she holds the title of Chief Conductor.
In the 23-24 season, Vienna’s Musikverein will feature her as an Artist-in-Residence, appearing several times across the season with four different orchestras.
Since winning the Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award in 2016 Karina has become a guest conductor with leading orchestras around the world, including the Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, London Symphony Orchestra, LA Phil, San Francisco Symphony, Vienna Symphony and Munich Philharmonic. She was the first woman to conduct the First Night of the BBC Proms in London in 2019, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. She was also the first woman to ever conduct the Nobel Prize Concert with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic in 2018.
Already known to many in the classical music world for her virtuoso violin playing, Karina was initially encouraged to pursue conducting by Sir Simon Rattle while she was playing regularly in the Berlin Philharmonic for two years as a member of their Orchester-Akademie. She performed for many years as a soloist, guest leader, and chamber musician, spending her summers at the Marlboro Music Festival, until conducting eventually became her focus. Karina was born and raised in New York City.
After the great success of “Kat’a Kabánova” in the previous season, she brings another Janáček opera, “The Cunning Little Vixen“, to the stage of the Concertgebouw in April 2023. Her concert performances of acts of Wagner’s “Die Walküre”, “Tristan und Isolde”, and “Siegfried” have been met with tremendous critical praise, and she has conducted critically acclaimed productions of Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin”, Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”, “Die Zauberflöte”, “Le nozze di Figaro”, David Lang’s “the loser” and Peter Maxwell Davies’ “The Hogboon”.

Iwona Sobotka achieved international acclaim as the Grand Prize winner of the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Belgium. Other awards include First Prize at the Warsaw Polish Art Song Competition and First Prize at the East & West Artists International Auditions in New York, that resulted in her debut concert in Carnegie Hall.

Recent and upcoming engagements include, among others, concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle in Beethoven’s “Christ on the Mount of Olives”, the London Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at Festspiele Baden-Baden, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg under Marek Janowski in Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder.

Iwona Sobotka made her operatic debut at the National Opera in Paris in 2004, where she performed the roles of the First Lady (“The Magic Flute”) and Ygraine (Dukas’ “Ariane et Barbe-Bleue”). She also appeared at the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival in the title role of Halka and Liù (Puccini’s “Turandot”) to great critical acclaim. Other roles have included Tatyana (Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin”) and Donna An­na (Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”) under Teodor Currentzis for the Tchaikovsky Perm State Opera; and Violetta (Verdi’s “La traviata”), Pamina (“The Magic Flute”) and Mimi (Puccini’s “La bohème”) for Opera Podlaska. In 2017 she made her Komische Oper Berlin debut as Pamina, performing also with Komische Oper Berlin on tour to Australia, New Zealand, Macao and Taiwan. She made her Osterfestspiele Baden-Baden debut as Blumenmädchen in Wagner’s Parsifal with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle one year later.

Past performances on the concert stage include a concert tour in Asia with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony; as well as appearances with the London Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, Vienna Symphony, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. ­ With the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin she has appeared numerous times.

In 2010, Sobotka took part in a ‘Szymanowski Focus’ programme curated by distinguished Polish pianist Piotr Anderszewski to promote the music of Karol Szymanowski in London at the Wigmore Hall and in New York at Carnegie Hall. Following her graduation from the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Iwona continued her studies with the renowned artist and pedagogue Tom Krause at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid.

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.

With around 60 concerts annually, numerous CDs and three Grammys, Rundfunkchor Berlin is one of the world’s foremost choruses. Its wide-ranging repertoire, flexible and richly nuanced sound, flawless precision and enthralling delivery have made it the chosen partner of the major orchestras and conductors in its home city but also internationally, where it functions as a musical ambassador for Berlin in the great concert halls of the world. It is so much more than just a concert and studio chorus.

Along with its symphonic choral central repertoire, Rundfunkchor Berlin is constantly forging new paths by means of projects that burst the bounds of the classical concert format and allow choral music to interact with other art forms. The choreographic realization of the Brahms Requiem as “human requiem” by Jochen Sandig with Sasha Waltz & Guests represents a milestone. Following acclaimed performances in Brussels, Taipei and Hong Kong, the work was performed during the 2016-17 season in Berlin, New York and South America. In Christian Jost’s LOVER, a music-theatre piece premiered in 2014 in Berlin’s Kraftwerk, Western symphonic choral music meets a traditional Asian percussion ensemble. In its most recent project, “cosmic lights”, in 2016, Rundfunkchor Berlin presented a multimedia programme based on celestial phenomena including the Northern Lights.

Rundfunkchor Berlin is constantly developing new and unusual ways of experiencing choral music and stimulating choruses all over the world to follow its lead. In formats such as the Sing-Along Concert in the Berlin Philharmonie, the Liederbörse (Song Exchange) for Berlin’s school choirs and the project Hand in Hand, it is working intensively with committed amateur choirs. With its International Master Class for choral conducting and the Academy and Schola for young singers, it is fostering the next generation of professionals. And to help make singing an intrinsic component of the primary school day, it created the initiative SING! in 2011.

Founded in 1925, the chorus celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2015. Since its inception, it has been shaped by conductors like Helmut Koch, Dietrich Knothe (1982-93), Robin Gritton (1994-2001) and Simon Halsey (2001-15). At the beginning of 2015-16 season, Gijs Leenaars assumed the position of Principal Conductor and Artistic Director. Simon Halsey retains his ties to Rundfunkchor Berlin as Conductor Laureate and Guest Conductor. Rundfunkchor Berlin is an ensemble of Rundfunk Orchester und Chöre GmbH Berlin and is sponsored by Deutschlandradio, the German Federal Republic, the state of Berlin and 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.