Musikfest Berlin

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.

In 2022/2023 he performed with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin in concerts in various cities in Germany, Italy and Antwerp in the Netherlands. The joint CD recordings of Vladimir Jurowski and the RSB began in 2015 with Alfred Schnittke’s Symphony No. 3, followed by works by Britten, Hindemith, Strauss, Mahler and soon again Schnittke.

Vladimir Jurowski has been the recipient of numerous awards for his achievements, including various international record prizes. In 2016, he was bestowed an honorary doctorate from Prince Charles at the Royal College of Music in London. In 2018, the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards named him Conductor of the Year. In summer 2020, Jurowski was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit by the Romanian President in recognition of his work as Artistic Director of the George Enescu Festival.

Georg Nigl, a celebrated “Wozzeck” at La Scala in Milan, “Lenz” in Brussels and Berlin (“Singer of the Year” 2015 by Opernwelt magazine) and Bach interpreter of international standing. Since his childhood the singer has closely been connected to music. As a soprano soloist of the Vienna Boys’ Choir he appeared on important stages. During his studies with Kammersängerin Hilde Zadek he received further important impulses for his subsequent career as a baritone.

His unmistakable timbre has taken him to all the important opera stages and festivals in Europe, whilst working under the direction of renowned conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Teodor Currentzis, Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, René Jacobs, Kent Nagano, Kirill Petrenko and Sir Simon Rattle. On top of that he worked with the most important directors of our time. Georg Nigl has gained special recognition not only as a performing soloist of numerous world premieres, but also as an impetus for compositions and publications by Friedrich Cerha, Pascal Dusapin, Georg Friedrich Haas, Wolfgang Mitterer, Olga Neuwirth and Wolfgang Rihm among others.

Highlights since 2021 have included Papageno and the title role in the world premiere of Pascal Dusapin’s “Macbeth Underworld” at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels. Also the title role in Monteverdi’s “Orfeo” and the world premiere of Beat Furrer’s “Violetter Schnee” at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin. He made guest appearances at the Vienna State Opera with the title role in Trojahn’s “Orest” and as Eisenstein in “Die Fledermaus”; he sang the title role in Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” at the Hamburg State Opera, and “Lenz,” which was celebrated by press and public alike, at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Reimann’s “Lear” at the Bavarian State Opera, and Pilate in Bach’s St. John Passion under Sir Simon Rattle in Peter Sellars’ production with the Berlin Philharmonic and on tour with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Georg Nigl’s 2021/2022 season began with his debut with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) at the Musikfest Berlin, where he interpreted Stravinsky’s “Abraham and Isaac” under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski. In September 2022, he will guest with Xenakis’ “Aïs” with the same cast at the same venue.

Other recent highlights include the title role in the new production of Monteverdi’s “Orfeo” at the Vienna State Opera and the Teatro Real in Madrid. Georg Nigl continues the Monteverdi cycle at the Vienna State Opera as Ulisse (“Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria”) and once again demonstrates his versatility with the role of Alberich in a concert performance of Wagner’s “Rheingold” conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. In the spring of 2022, he performed Rihm’s “Terzinen an den Tod” and the Wölfl-Lieder in Munich under the baton of Ingo Metzmacher. In the summer of 2022, he performed Zimmermann’s “Ecclesiastical Action” and Brahms’ Requiem at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.

Georg Nigl’s chamber music repertoire features a wide spectrum from the Baroque through the Viennese Classical period to the latest music – jointly developed and performed with Alexander Melnikov, Olga Pashchenko, Luca Pianca and Gérard Wyss. His recording “Bach privat” with Anna Lucia Richter was awarded the Diapason d’or in 2017, his album “Vanitas” with Olga Pashchenko and songs by Beethoven, Schubert and Rihm was celebrated as discovery of the year by many voices. In 2022/2023, song recitals will take him to the Ludwigsburg Schlossfestspiele, the Musikfest Bremen, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Schwetzingen, and the Berlin and Paris Philharmonics.

Born in 1968 in Illingen, Saarland, Dirk Rothbrust has established himself as a percussionist in demand worldwide. From 1986 to 1994 he studied in Saarbrücken and Karlsruhe with Franz Lang and Isao Nakamura. Since 1995 he has been a member of the Schlagquartett Köln, from 2001 to 2008 he played in the Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, and since 2005 he has been a member of the Ensemble Musikfabrik in North Rhine-Westphalia. In ensembles or as a soloist, Dirk Rothbrust performs at all the important European festivals for contemporary music and works with the most important composers and interpreters of our time, among them Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Martha Argerich and Maurizio Pollini, the saxophonist Peter Brötzmann or the electronic duo “Mouse on Mars”. As a soloist, Dirk Rothbrust premiered “void” by Rebecca Saunders, Beat Furrer’s “Xenos III” and Wolfgang Mitterer’s “Rasch”, among others, which – like many other works – were written especially for him.

2012 Credit Suisse Young Artists Award, concert with the Vienna Philharmonic under Bernard Haitink at the Lucerne Festival. 2016 acclaimed debut with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle, 2017/2018 again in Berlin and at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival under Ivan Fischer. 2021/2022 Artist in Residence with the Royal Stockholm Phiharmonic Orchestra, Focus Artist with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, engagements with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra with a concert at the Musikverein and on tour, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre and on tour in Korea, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, and a return to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

Born in Norway, violinist Vilde Frang was engaged by Mariss Jansons at the age of twelve and made her debut with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. She studied at the Barratt Due Musikkinstitutt in Oslo, with Kolja Blacher at the Musikhochschule Hamburg and with Ana Chumachenco at the Kronberg Academy. As a Borletti-Buitoni Trust scholarship holder, she worked with Mitsuko Uchida in 2007 and was an Anne Sophie Mutter Foundation scholarship holder from 2003 to 2009.

Since then, Vilde Frang has become one of the most sought-after violinists of our time, appearing in music centres worldwide with the most renowned artistic partners. She will be performing at the RSB for the first time in 2022. An avid chamber musician, she performs regularly at festivals in Verbier, Lockenhaus, Bucharest, Salzburg and Pragauf. In 2020 she was appointed to the artistic advisory board of the Oslo Chamber Music Festival.

Her recordings have won numerous awards, including Edison Klassiek Award, “Diapason d’Or”, German Record Award, Grand Prix du Disque and Gramophone Award.

Vilde Frang plays on a Guarneri del Gesu from 1734, generously made available to her by a European sponsor.