“Mache dich auf, werde Licht”

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.

With a voice that is warm, wide-ranging and dark-hued, and commanding a repertoire that extends from the baroque to the present day, German-born soprano Sophie Klussman is in demand as a concert singer, as a recitalist and on the opera stage.

In recent seasons her engagements have included a world tour of Mozart concert arias with Martin Haselböck and the Wiener Akademie, and performances and recordings of 20th century music with the Berlin’s Scharoun Ensemble, the pianist Oliver Triendl and a variety of other partners. Over her career to date she has collaborated with such conductors as Marek Janowski, Ingo Metzmacher, Helmuth Rilling, Michael Gielen, Michael Sanderling, Karl Heinz Steffens and, in the field of historically informed performance, Marcus Creed, Václav Luks and Attilio Cremonesi. Her career has taken her to such venues as the Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein, Zurich Tonhalle, Amsterdam Muziekgebouw, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, New York City Center and the Concert Hall of the National Grand Theatre Beijing.

Sophie Klussmann numbers Thomas Quasthoff, Dunja Vejzovic, Margreet Honig and Klesie Kelly-Moog among her mentors. From 2009 to 2011 she was a member of the Halle Opera, singing a variety of soprano role, and in Halle and at the Komische Oper Berlin she gave the world premieres of two operas by the composer Christian Jost. In 2013, at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival, she covered Anna Netrebko in the role of Donna Anna, while 2016 brought her debut as Micaëla (Carmen) in Wuhan, China. She also enjoyed a long-term international collaboration with American actor John Malkovich on the theatre pieces The Giacomo Variations and The Infernal Comedy.

Sophie Klussmann is a keen interpreter of song and chamber repertoire and in 2015 her first solo CD, devoted to songs by Karl Weigl, was released on the Capriccio label.

Hamburg-born mezzo-soprano Verena Usemann performed a great variety of the lyrical mezzo repertoire as an ensemble-member of the Landestheater Coburg 2010-2017.  She appeared as Rosina (Der Barbier von Sevilla), Varvára (Káťa Kabanová), Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Olga (Yevgény Onégin) as well as in the leading role of Handel’s Rinaldo.

During the 2013/2014 season Verena was nominated for “Nachwuchssängerin des Jahres” (young artist of the year) by Opernwelt for her performances of Mélisande (Pelléas et Mélisande) and Orpheus (Orfeo ed Euridice).

Following maternity leave, she returned to the stage in 2016 as Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier), Dido (Dido and Aeneas) and was critically acclaimed for her interpretations of Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro ) and The Raven by Toshio Hosokawa (German premier).

From 2008-2010 Usemann was engaged at the Theater für Niedersachsen (Hildesheim) where she started building up her repertoire with Frau Reich (Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor), Mercedes (Carmen), Zaida (Il Turco in Italia), Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro), Prinz Orlowsky (Die Fledermaus), Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel) and Magdalene (Die Meistersinger).

Usemann also appeared as Hänsel with the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra in Doha and as Dorabella (Cosí fan tutte) at the Opernfestival Gut Immling.

The young mezzo-soprano takes special interest in contemporary music. In December 2018, she jumped in a Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin production at the Konzerthaus Berlin under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski singing the mezzo part of John Adams´ “El Niño“.

She has performed with the LINOS-Ensemble, the ensemble risonanze erranti as well as with the Kammerensemble für Neue Musik Berlin and made her debut  with the NDR symphony orchestra in „Moses and Aron“ (A. Schönberg) 2017 at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.

Verena Usemann studied in Leipzig (Regina Werner-Dietrich), Vienna (Claudia Visca) and Berlin (Prof. Robert Gambill) and graduated summa cum laude. The foundations of her musical education were years of training in cello and piano as well as her membership of the children’s choir at the Staatsoper Hamburg.

Since 2018 she has been working freelance and is based in Berlin.

Cantus Domus opens up the traditional concert set-up towards vivid stagings and ground-breaking cooperations, presenting its audience new approaches to choir music.

While being a classical choir, Cantus Domus frequently seeks out ways off the beaten track of performance routine, by performing in unusual locations (J. S. Bach: Mass in B minor, Kraftwerk Berlin, 2015) or by involving the audience (J. S. Bach: Matthäuspassion, Kammermusiksaal der Berliner Philharmonie, 2018). Trademark of the choir are their „ConceptConcerts“. Initiated in 2008 by Paul Liebrecht and refined ever since, these concerts regularly present elaborate choreographies and ambitious musical performances in intriguing locations (e.g. the German premiere of J. Wolfe: Anthracite Fields, 2018, A. Honegger: Le Roi David at Vollgutlager, Alte Kindl Brauerei in cooperation with choreographer Christoph Winkler, 2017, SYNTHESIS for choir, synthesizer and DJ at Kindl-Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst und Kultur, 2015 or SINGINGPOOL at Stadtbad Steglitz).

Cantus Domus was founded in 1996 by Lena Schönfelder and has since been directed by Ralf Sochaczewsky. The choir transcends genre boundaries, has a wide variety of artistic expression and its performances develop a force that can be overwhelming. In the last two years alone, Cantus Domus – in groups of varying size and composition – performed in five different countries, cooperated with 30 orchestras, choirs or bands in over 40 performances and staged the brilliantly reviewed premiere of an opera for choir they had commissioned (F. Schwemmer: Macbeth, 2016, stage direction: C. Rindfleisch, Libretto U. Küchler und J. Fraune). Inspiring international encounters recently took place with Bang on a Can All Stars and Wood River from New York, Vox Humana from Oslo, and with the Georgian choirs Shavnabada and Tutarchela. Cantus Domus has worked with the Kammerakademie Potsdam and Antonello Manacorda (2018), the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and Neeme Järvi (2018), Konzerthausorchester Berlin (2013), Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Jonathan Nott (2012) as well as with Rundfunkchor Berlin and Simon Halsey (2007).

In addition different chamber ensembles of Cantus Domus do side projects that often cross the boundaries between classical and indie/pop music, such as performances at festivals like PEOPLE or Haldern Pop, or cooperations 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.

Cantus Domus is a member of the Chorverband Berlin and is funded by the Berlin Senat Department for Culture and Europe. The choir has been awarded the first prize at the choir competition of the Landesmusikrat Berlin as well as the third prize at the eighth German choir competition of the Deutscher Musikrat 2010.