Philippe Herreweghe

Philippe Herreweghe was born in Ghent and studied at both the university and music conservatory there. During this period he started conducting and founded Collegium Vocale Gent in 1970.
Philippe Herreweghe’s energetic, authentic and rhetorical approach to baroque music was soon drawing praise. In 1977 he founded the ensemble La Chapelle Royale in Paris, with whom he performed music of the French Golden Age. He founded several ensembles with whom he made historically appropriate and well-thought-out interpretations of repertoire stretching from the Renaissance to contemporary music. They include the Ensemble Vocal Européen, specialised in Renaissance polyphony, and the Orchestre des Champs Élysées, founded in 1991 with the aim of playing pre-Romantic and Romantic repertoire on original instruments. Last season Philippe Herreweghe, together with soloists Magdalena Kožená and Andrew Staples, presented Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde in historic timbres.
Highlights of the 2022/23 season include guest appearances with the Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Wiener Symphoniker, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. Together with the Collegium Vocale Gent and the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, he will tour Europe and Asia with, among others, the Missa Solemnis by Ludwig van Beethoven.
In September 2021, Philippe Herreweghe will return to the Musikfest Bremen with concerts together with Orchestre des Champs-Élysées and Collegium Vocale Gent. Having already made his Musikfest debut in 1996 with the choir and orchestra of the Collegium Vocale Gent, he will be honoured in 2021 with the Musikfest Award Bremen for his outstanding artistic work.
In addition, Herreweghe was awarded the “Ultima” cultural prize for general cultural merit by the Flemish government in the same year. Philippe Herreweghe has received numerous awards for his consistent artistic imagination and commitment. In 1990 the European music press named him “Musical Personality of the Year”. Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent were appointed “Cultural Ambassadors of Flanders” in 1993. A year later he was awarded the Belgian order of Officier des Arts et Lettres, and in 1997 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of Leuven. In 2003 he received the French title Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. In 2010 the city of Leipzig awarded him its Bach-Medaille for his great service as a performer of Bach. In 2017 Philippe Herreweghe received an honorary doctorate at Ghent University.

Hanna-Elisabeth Müller is considered one of the leading song and concert interpreters of our time and is also celebrated on the opera stage. The soprano celebrated her international breakthrough as Zdenka in Richard Strauss’ Arabella under the baton of Christian Thielemann at the 2014 Salzburg Easter Festival, for which she was voted “Young Artist of the Year” by Opernwelt magazine. She is a regular guest at the world’s leading opera houses and festivals such as the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Vienna State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Dresden Semperoper, the Teatro alla Scala, the Royal Opera House, the Zurich Opera House and the Salzburg Festival.
In the 2022-23 season, Hanna-Elisabeth Müller will once again demonstrate her incomparable versatility. She makes her highly anticipated debut as Wagner’s Eva in a new production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Vienna State Opera and returns to Vienna later in the season as Countess Almaviva in a new production of Le Nozze di Figaro. She also sings Cordelia in Reimann’s Lear in Munich and the title role in Arabella conducted by Christian Thielemann in Dresden. The sought-after concert and lied singer Hanna-Elisabeth Müller sings the Four Last Songs by Strauss with the Berlin Staatskapelle and gives concerts in Milan, Dresden and Munich, among other places.
Recent engagements include Marzelline (Fidellio) and Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) at the Metropolitan Opera New York and Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) at La Scala, Vienna and Munich State Opera. In 2018 she made her debut at the Zurich Opera House in Mozart’s Idomeneo as Ilia and as Elettra at the Bavarian State Opera. From 2012-2016 she was a member of the ensemble of the Bavarian State Opera and has been a returning guest ever since. She accompanied the Bavarian State Orchestra on tours to Japan (Pamina, The Magic Flute), to Carnegie Hall New York (Sophie, Rosenkavalier) and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris.
Notable concert performances include Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Sächsische Staatskapelle conducted by Christian Thielemann, Mahler’s 2nd Symphony with the Orchester de Paris.L, Strauss’ Four Last Songs and Orchestral Songs with the WDR-Sinfonieorchester Köln and Christoph Eschenbach, Bergs Seven early songs with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Paavo Järvi as well as Schumann’s Faust Scenes at Daniel Harding’s opening concert with the Orchester de Paris.
As a celebrated concert interpreter, Hanna-Elisabeth Müller has made guest appearances in important houses such as La Scala in Milan, London’s Wigmore Hall, Heidelberger Frühling, Cologne Philharmonie, De Singel Antwerp, Teatro de la Zarzuela Madrid, Schubertiada Vilabertran and the Rheinvokal Festival.
Hanna-Elisabeth Müller is a Pentatone exclusive artist. Her debut album Traumgekrönt was released in 2017 and contains songs by Strauss, Berg and Schönberg. Her second song album Reine de Coeur with works by Schumann, Zemlinsky and Poulenc will follow in 2020.
The soprano studied with Rudolf Piernay, with whom she still works closely today. The award-winning soprano attended master classes with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Julia Varady, Elly Ameling and Thomas Hampson.

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.

Swiss tenor Mauro Peter was born in Lucerne and completed his studies at the University of Music and the Performing Arts in Munich. In 2012 he won both first prize and the audience prize at the International Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau and made his highly acclaimed recital debut at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg with Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin. He has since appeared as a regular guest at the festival and in leading concert halls and opera houses internationally such as the Canadian Opera Company, Bavarian State Opera, Opéra de Lyon, Opéra national de Paris, the Royal Opera House in London, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Teatro Real in Madrid, Theater an der Wien, Zurich Opera House and the Salzburg Festival.

Among the highlights in recent seasons were a new production of Mozart’s Magic Flute (Tamino) at the Opéra de Paris and his Boston and Carnegie Hall debuts in spring 2022 with a concert performance of Berg’s Wozzeck (Andres) conducted by Andris Nelsons. Alongside numerous recital performances in the 2022/23 season, Mauro Peter could be heard in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 under Andris Nelsons and the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Mozart’s C minor Mass under Manfred Honeck in Rome, as well as in Bach’s St. John Passion under Stefan Gottfried and Concentus Musicus at the Vienna Musikverein. In summer 2023, the tenor celebrated two important role debuts, first at the Graz Musikverein as Eisenstein in a concert performance of Strauss’ Fledermaus, and with Concerto Köln, singing his first Loge in Wagner’s Rheingold under the baton of Kent Nagano as part of the Musikfest Dresden, at the Kölner Philharmonie, and the Ravello and Lucerne festivals.

The 2023/24 season began with Mendelssohn’s “Lobgesangs-Symphonie” with the Kioi Hall Chamber Orchestra under Trevor Pinnock in Tokyo, and with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Marie Jacquot at the Vienna Musikverein. This was followed by an appearance at the ZDF Advent concert in Dresden’s Frauenkirche under Christian Thielemann, as well as Haydn’s The Seasons under Jan Willem de Vriend, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under Antonello Manacorda, Bach’s St John Passion with the Concertgebouw Orkest under Trevor Pinnock and then with the Montréal Symphony Orchestra under Masaki Suzuk. Mauro Peter additionally made his debut with Verdi’s Requiem in Lucerne. Most recently, he appeared on-stage as Ferrando in Mozart’s Così fan tutte at the Zurich Opera House and as Tamino in Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Semperoper Dresden.

Upcoming highlights include Haydn’s The Seasons in Copenhagen and at the Haydn Days at the Musikverein Graz under Adam Fischer, as well as Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the Concertgebouw and the Gewandhaus Leipzig. He will also make his role debuts as Max in Weber’s Der Freischütz at the Bregenz Festival and as the Prince in Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges at the Semperoper Dresden. At his home theatre in Zurich, he will be performing the tenor part in a staged production of Mendelssohn’s Elijah.

Mauro Peter is particularly devoted to the Lied repertoire, having appeared in varied recital programmes at the Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus, the Pierre Boulez Hall in Berlin, the Cologne Philharmonie, the Prinzregententheater in Munich, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Verbier Festival, Lucerne Festival, London’s Wigmore Hall and the Salzburg Festival. In the 2024-2025 season, he will perform Hugo Wolf’s Italian Songbook alongside Louise Alder and Joseph Middleton at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Vienna Musikverein, the Frankfurt Opera and in Barcelona.

Following a recording of Die schöne Müllerin live from Wigmore Hall, he went on to release a debut album for Sony Classical in 2015, featuring some of Schubert’s Goethe settings, and a recording of Dichterliebe and a selection of other Schumann lieder in 2016.

Johannes Kammler is one of the most promising German baritones of his generation and is equally engaged internationally for opera, symphonic concerts and recitals.
In February 2019 Johannes Kammler was engaged for the first time at the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto as Guglielmo in COSI FAN TUTTE. In August 2018 he made his successful debut at the Salzburg Festival with the opera DER PROZESS by Gottfried von Einem.
He was then invited by Rolando Villazón and ZDF/ARTE to the television show “STARS VON MORGEN” in Berlin and in summer 2020 he made his debut at the Bregenz Festival with a song recital and in summer 2021 at the Glyndebourne Festival with Mahler’s LIEDER EINES FAHRENDEN GESELLEN under Robin Ticciati . Johannes Kammler has been part of the ensemble of the Stuttgart State Opera since the 2018/2019 season and sings there, for example, Malatesta / DON PASQUALE, Guglielmo / COSI FAN TUTTE, Marcello / LA BOHEME, Conte / LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, Papageno / THE MAGIC FLUTE or Oreste in Gluck’s IPHIGÉNIE EN TAURIDE.
Recent engagements at the Staatsoper Stuttgart include his role debut as Figaro/ IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA or as Don Giovanni in Mozart’s opera of the same name. But also recitals, e.g. in London’s Wigmore Hall, Barcelona’s Palau de la Música and symphony concerts, including Orff’s CARMINA BURANA and Mendelssohn’s WALPURGISNACHT with the Duisburg Philharmonic. As a guest, the charismatic baritone was last seen with a scenic interpretation of Haydn’s PAUKENMESSE at the Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam under Lorenzo Viotti and with his role debut as Donner in Wagner’s RHEINGOLD under Kent Nagano. A tour with Beethoven’s IX followed. SYMPHONY to Athens, St. Petersburg and Moscow under Teodor Currentzis and his orchestra musicAeterna, as well as several concerts with Bach’s MATTHEW PASSION together with the CollegiumVocal Gent under Philipp Herreweghe in the largest concert halls in Europe.
Future engagements again include international song recitals, e.g. together with Roger Vignoles, Malcolm Martineau or Cornelius Meister on the grand piano, his debut as Don Giovanni at the Mozart Weeks in Salzburg, Figaro in BARBIERE at Garsington Festival in England and several big concerts, e.g. with the Bach Academy in Stuttgart or again with the Collegium Vocale Gent.
In addition to his work in Stuttgart, Johannes Kammler is regularly in Europe
numerous concerts: e.g. with Handel’s MESSIAH, Mendelssohn’s ELIAS, Donizetti’s REQUIEM, Haydn’s SEASONS or Bach’s MATTHEW PASSION and CHRISTMAS ORATORIO or EIN GERMAN REQUIEM by Brahms and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
In the seasons 2015/16 & 2016/17 Johannes Kammler was a member of the Opera Studio at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and was subsequently a member of the ensemble there accepted. With roles such as Ruggiero in Halévy’s LA JUIVE, John Sorel in Menottis THE CONSUL, Scherasmin in Weber’s OBERON or Graf Dominik in ARABELLA the charismatic baritone received excellent reviews without exception.
In August 2015 he made his Verbier Festival debut as Marcello in Puccini’s LA BOHEME. In the summer of 2016 he made his house debut at Den Norske Opera in Oslo for one scenic production (Calixto Bieito) of Britten’s WAR REQUIEM and in summer 2017 his role debut as Belcore in Donizetti’s L’ELISIR D’AMORE at New Generation Festival in Florence.
Johannes Kammler has already sung with such important conductors as: Kirill Petrenko, Bertrand de Billy, Oksana Lyniv, Andrea Battistoni, Asher Fisch, Marco Armiliato, Constantin Trinks, Ivor Bolton, Simone Young, Cornelius Meister, Gustavo Dudamel, Thomas Hengelbrock, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Mark Elder, Marin Alsop, HK Gruber, Teodor Currentzis and Bernard Labadie.
Cooperation with orchestras such as Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra. Johannes Kammler conducted the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar de Venezuela so far e.g. to London, Berlin, Hamburg, Baden-Baden, Porto, Moscow, Caracas and Los Angeles.
Johannes Kammler is also very active and successful as a lieder singer. For example was in October 2016 by the renowned Oxford Song Festival for one invited recital together with Roger Vignoles, with whom he has been performing throughout Europe ever since and is repeatedly engaged for joint recitals; e.g. also at the Wigmore Hall in London, De Doelen in Rotterdam, in Schloss Elmau or at the Beethoven Festival Bonn. He also sings recitals together with his wife, Soprano Anna El-Khashem.
Born in Augsburg, the artist received his first musical training from the Augsburg Cathedral Boys’ Choir. Later he studied singing u. a. in Freiburg im Breisgau, Toronto and at the Guildhall in London. Johannes Kammler was a finalist and winner at the international singing competitions NEUE STIMMEN and OPERALIA.

In 1970, on the initiative of Philippe Herreweghe, a group of student friends decided to found the Collegium Vocale Gent. The ensemble was one of the first to apply the new insights in the performance practice of Baroque music to vocal music. This authentic, text-directed and rhetorical approach paid attention to a transparent sound, as a result of which the ensemble soon made guest appearances on all the major concert podiums and music festivals worldwide.

Meanwhile, Collegium Vocale Gent organically evolved into an extremely flexible ensemble with a wide repertoire from different stylistic periods. The greatest asset is that the best possible instrumentation is brought together for each project. Renaissance music is performed by an ensemble of six to twelve singers. German Baroque music and especially the vocal works of J.S. Bach have been and remain a centerpiece. Nowadays the Collegium Vocale Gent performs this music preferably with a small ensemble, where the singers perform both choral and solo parts. More and more, the Collegium Vocale Gent also deals with the romantic, modern and contemporary choral repertoire. The Collegium has been supported by the EU Culture Program since 2011, and this has enabled the creation of a mixed symphonic concert choir in which young talents from all over Europe sing side by side with experienced colleagues.

To realize these projects, Collegium Vocale Gent collaborates with various historically informed ensembles such as the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, but also with internationally renowned symphony orchestras.

Collegium Vocale Gent is supported by the Flemish Community, the Province of East Flanders and the City of Ghent. From 2011 to 2013, the ensemble was an ambassador of the European Union.