Live from Konzerthaus Berlin

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”.

Louise Alder studied at the Royal College of Music’s International Opera School where she was the inaugural Kiri Te Kanawa Scholar. She won the Young Singer Award at the 2017 International Opera Awards and the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at the 2017 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. She also won the 2015 inaugural Young British Soloists’ Competition, and is the recipient of Glyndebourne’s 2014 John Christie Award.
In the 2022/23 season include Fiordiligi in a new production of Così fan tutte for the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, and a return to the Glyndebourne Festival as Anne Trulove The Rake’s Progress.
Recent successes have included Susanna in a new production of Le nozze di Figaro for the Opernhaus Zürich; Susanna and Sophie Der Rosenkavalier for the Wiener Staatsoper; Susanna, Marzelline Fidelio and Gretel Hänsel und Gretel at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich; Musetta La bohème for the English National Opera; Cleopatra Giulio Cesare for the Theater an der Wien, Zerlina Don Giovanni and the title role in La Calisto for the Teatro Réal, Madrid; Zerlina for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Sophie, Zerlina and Lucia The Rape of Lucretia for Glyndebourne; Ilia Idomeneo and Pamina Die Zauberflöte for Garsington Opera and Gilda Rigoletto, Susanna, Pamina, Despina Così fan tutte, Cleopatra Giulio Cesare, Romilda Serse, Sophie, Gretel and the title role in The Cunning Little Vixen for Oper Frankfurt.
On the concert platform she sings Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle and his Symphony No. 4 with the Bayerisches Statsorchester/Vladimir Jurowski, Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen with Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia/Jakub Hrůša and Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Kirill Petrenko. Previous highlights include Strauss’s Four Last Songs with the Ulster Orchestra/Daniele Rustioni at the BBC Proms, the title role in Theodora at the BBC Proms and at the Kozerthaus in Vienna with Arcangelo/Jonathan Cohen; the title role in Semele on tour with the Monteverdi Choir/Sir John Eliot Gardiner; Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethes Faust with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Gardiner, Messiah with the New York Philharmonic/Harry Bicket, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Tokyo Philharmonic/Jonathan Nott, and Mozart Arias at the Salzburg Mozartwoche with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra/Daniel Harding.
Louise is a passionate recitalist, appearing at Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Wigmore Hall, BBC Proms, the Musikverein in Graz, Oper Frankfurt, Madrid’s Fundación Juan March and the Fundación Privada Victoria de los Ángeles in Barcelona, Birmingham’s Barber Institute, the Bath Mozart Festival, Snape Maltings, the Brighton and Oxford Lieder Festivals and in the Perth Concert Hall with pianists Helmut Deutsch, Joseph Middleton, Gary Matthewman, Julius Drake and Roger Vignoles.
Her recordings include Chère Nuit: French Songs featuring songs from Ravel to Yvain (Chandos), The Russian Connection programming songs by Rachmaninov, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Medtner and Britten (Chandos) and a disc of Strauss Lieder, Through Life and Love, (Orchid Classics), with pianist Joseph Middleton; Lucia The Rape of Lucretia (Opus Arte) and Silandra in Cesti’s L’Orontea (OEHMS Classics/Oper Frankfurt).

Sophie Harmsen travelled extensively at an early age, her parents being German diplomats, and continues this in her professional career as an internationally successful and acclaimed mezzosoprano.Concerts and Opera productions have enabled her to experience some of the worlds most beautiful concert halls and opera houses as the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Teatro Real in Madrid, Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, Wigmore Hall in London, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Wien, Philharmonie de Paris, Shanghai Grand Theatre and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.

Sophie is frequently and recurringly invited to perform with symphony orchestras such as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, SWR Symphonieorchester, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester (Constantinos Carydis), Swedish Royal Symphony Orchestra (Daniel Harding), Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (Andreas Spering), Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest (Jos van Veldhoven), Orchestre National de Paris (Vaclav Luks), musicAeterna (Teodor Currentzis), Konzerthausorchester Berlin (Iván Fischer), Düsseldorfer Symphoniker (Ádám Fischer), NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester (Thomas Hengelbrock) and the Freiburger Barockorchester (Jeremie Rhorer).

In the past years Sophie has continually extended her repertoire. After numerous concerts, solo recitals and CD recordings with some of the the most celebrated baroque ensembles she is glad to now feel equally at home in more romantic repertoire. Concerts and CD recordings with Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder (Kent Nagano), Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde as well as the “Rückert Lieder” (Markus Stenz), Dvorak’s Requiem (Philippe Herreweghe), Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis (Frieder Bernius, René Jacobs) and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (Teodor Currentzis, Pablo Heras-Casado) are now equally represented in her calendar. Many of her CD recordings have received awards, for example Bruckner’s Missa Solemnis with the RIAS Kammerchor (Diapason d’Or) and the complete recording of J.S. Bach’s Luther Kantaten with Christoph Spering (Echo 2017).

After her beginnings at Cape Town Opera with roles including Hermia (Britten, A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Graf Orlowsky (Strauss, Die Fledermaus), Mercedes (Bizet, Carmen) and Cherubino (Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro) she expanded her repertoire performing Annio (Mozart, La Clemenza di Tito) at the Teatro Real Madrid, Dorabella (Mozart, Cosi fan tutte) at the Opéra de Dijon and the Opéra de Luxembourg, Stephano (Gounod, Romeo et Juliette) at the Tiroler Landestheater in Innsbruck, Argene (Myslivecek, L’Olimpiade) at the opera houses Prague, Caen and Theater an der Wien to now singing repertoire by Richard Strauss (Octavian, Der Rosenkavalier). In her work with renowned directors such as Robert Wilson, Ursel and Karl-Ernst Herrmann, William Kentridge and Andreas Dresen she was able to hone her already convincing and much praised acting skills.

Sophie is a frequent performer at international festivals. The Salzburger Festspiele, Mozartwoche Salzburg, Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival, Rheingau Musikfestival, International Händelfestspiele Göttingen and Halle and the Bachfest Leipzig, amongst many others.

This season she looks forward to her debut as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier in the Felsenreitschule in Salzburg, a return to the Hamburgische Staatsoper and Ballett John Neumeier for Bach’s B Minor Mass, a tour of Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium with Christophe Rousset, her first Verdi Requiem with Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and Philippe Herreweghe, Mahlers Das Klagende Lied at the Mahler Festival Leipzig with the Gewandhausorchester and Dennis Russel Davies and Mendelssohn’s Walpurgisnacht with SWR Synfonieorchester under Pablo Heras-Casado.

Sophie Harmsen studied at the University of Cape Town and with Prof. Dr. Edith Wiens, has been mentored by Tobias Truniger for many years and now lives in Berlin with her family.

A prolific concert performer, Andrew has appeared with the Berliner and Wiener Philharmoniker, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with Sir Simon Rattle; the Orchestre de Paris, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra with Daniel Harding; the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the ScottishChamber Orchestra with Robin Ticciati; the Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest, the Orcherstre Métropolitain and the Philadelphia Orchestra with Yannick Nézet-Séguin; the Accademia Santa Cecilia with Semyon Bychkov; and the Staatskapelle Berlin with Daniel Barenboim.

Andrew made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Jacquino Fidelio, returning for Flamand Capriccio, Tamino Die Zauberflöte, Tichon Katya Kabanova and Narraboth Salome. He has also appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, the National Theatre Prague; La Monnaie  Brussels; the Salzburger Festspiele; Hamburgische Staatsoper, Theater an der Wien, the Lucerne Festival and the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Recent and future engagements include his Metropolitan Opera debut as Andres Wozzeck, Nicias in concert performances of Thais with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Das Lied von der Erde with the New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Budapest Festival Orchestra. Further future engagements include returns to the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Bayerischer Rundfunk Munich.

The Stuttgart-born baritone with Hungarian roots began his musical career with the Stuttgarter Hymnus-Chorknaben and studied singing, song interpretation and conducting with Rudolf Piernay, Irwin Gage and Klaus Arp in Mannheim and Saarbrücken. In master classes he received important impulses from Charles Spencer, Cornelius Reid and Rudolf Piernay, who accompanies him to this day.
Important repertoire roles such as Papageno (Magic Flute), Conte (Le nozze di Figaro), Wolfram (Tannhäuser), Valentin (Faust), Jeletzki (Pique Dame), Marcello (La Bohème), Albert (Werther), Frank/Fritz (Die dead city), Dr. He was able to work on Falke (Die Fledermaus) at the two former parent houses, the Komische Oper Berlin and the Oper Frankfurt, as well as the title role in Britten’s Owen Wingrave or Jason in Reimann’s Medea. He remains connected to these two houses: Frankfurt most recently as Spielmann (Humperdinck: Die Königskinder), Berlin most recently as Count Tamare (Schreker, Die Gezeichten) and Eugen Onegin in a guest performance at the Edinburgh Festival.
In the concert area, tried and tested repertoire is mixed, including Brahms’ Requiem in Neumarkt under Thomas Hengelbrock and on tour in Spain, Mahler’s Songs of a Journeyman with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra under chief conductor Jakob Hrusa, Mendelssohn’s Elias with the Chorwerk Ruhr at the Ruhrtriennale or the Requiem by Gabriel Fauré under Risto Joos in Groningen with the premiere of Sciarrion’s Piogge diverse in Dresden, the premiere of Héctor Parra’s Wanderwelle under the direction of Andris Poga at the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne or the performance of the unknown oratorio Prophecy and Fulfillment under the direction of Duncan Ward at Basel Symphony Orchestra.
A central form of concerts are recitals for the artist. With a selected repertoire he performs in Copenhagen, among other places, together with Gerold Huber and Malcolm Martineau (Schubert’s Winterreise and Brahms’ Liebesliederwalzer).
The 2021/2022 season promises to be varied again: at the Bavarian State Opera there will be a revival of Braunfels Die Vögel (director: Frank Castorf, conductor: Ingo Metzmacher) and a new production of Strauss’ Capriccio (director: David Marton, Conductor: Lothar Koenigs); at the Vienna State Opera Michael Nagy makes his debut as Conte in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro under Adam Fischer as well as in a concert version of Haydn’s L’Orfeo (Kreonte) at the Tonhalle in Düsseldorf (conducted by Adam Fischer) and in Lyon the role of Dr . Falcon in Strauss – The Bat under Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider. In the summer of 2021, he briefly attracted the party of Don Alfonso in Christof Loy’s Così fan tutte production at the Salzburg Festival, conducted by Joana Mallwitz.

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.