Schumann’s Faust scenes

Chief Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic and Principal Guest Conductor of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra Ottawa, John Storgårds has a dual career as a conductor and violin virtuoso and is widely recognised for his creative flair for programming as well as his rousing yet refined performances. As Artistic Director of the Lapland Chamber Orchestra, a title he has held for nearly 25 years, Storgårds earned global critical acclaim for the ensemble’s adventurous performances and award-winning recordings.

Storgårds appears with such orchestras as WDR Sinfonieorchester in Cologne, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de France, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra as well as all major Nordic orchestras including Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra where he was Chief Conductor from 2008 to 2015. Further afield, he appears with the Sydney, Melbourne and NHK Symphony Orchestras as well as The Cleveland Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. Soloists with whom he collaborates include Yefim Bronfman, Sol Gabetta, Kirill Gerstein, Håkan Hardenberger, Kari Kriikku, Gil Shaham, Baiba Skride, Christian Tetzlaff, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Frank Peter Zimmermann as well as Soile Isokoski and Anne Sofie von Otter.

Storgårds’ vast repertoire includes all symphonies by Sibelius, Nielsen, Bruckner, Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert and Schumann, including the Finnish premieres of Schumann’s only opera ‘Genoveva’ and the early ‘Zwickau’ symphony, plus world premieres of Sibelius’ Suite op. 117 for violin and strings and the Late Fragments. As soloist, he gave the Finnish premiere of Schumann’s own violin transcription of the cello concerto, as well as the Violin Sonata No 3. Embracing contemporary repertoire in his programmes, Storgårds regularly performs world premieres with many works being dedicated to him including Per Nørgård’s Symphony No. 8 as well as Kaija Saariaho’s ‘Nocturne’ for solo violin. In opera he conducted the world premiere production of Sebastian Fagerlund’s ‘Höstsonaten – Autumn Sonata’ at the Finnish National Opera directed by Stéphane Braunschweig. The title was a finalist at the 2018 International Opera Awards and will be revived in autumn 2019.

Highlights of his 2019/20 season include Storgårds’ return to the BBC Proms with the BBC Philharmonic with whom he will embark on a major European tour this autumn. Following debut appearances last season with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Münchner Philharmoniker, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden as well as his subscription debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Storgårds returns to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, Oslo Philharmonic, Bamberger Symphoniker, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin as well as Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien at the Konzerthaus in Vienna as well as on tour to Asia.

Storgårds’ award winning discography includes recordings of works by Schumann, Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn but also rarities by Holmboe and Vasks featuring him as soloist. Two cycles of symphonies by Sibelius (2014) and Nielsen (2015) with the BBC Philharmonic were released to critical acclaim by Chandos. Their latest recording project includes works by the American avant-garde composer George Antheil. For BIS Records, John Storgårds and the Lapland Chamber Orchestra have released a critically acclaimed recording of Mahler’s 10th symphony in a special arrangement by Michelle Castelletti. Other successes include discs of works by Nørgård, Korngold, Aho and Rautavaara, the latter receiving a Grammy nomination and a Gramophone Award in 2012.

Storgårds studied violin with Chaim Taub and subsequently became concert master of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen, before studying conducting with Jorma Panula and Eri Klas. He received the Finnish State Prize for Music in 2002 and the Pro Finlandia Prize 2012.

The international acclaimed bariton Markus Eiche has “residential contracts” with the Vienna State Opera and the Bavarian State Opera, Munich. Apart from that he is invited during the next seasons for Donner in “Rheingold” at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, London, Wolfram in “Tannhäuser” at the Budapest Wagner Festival; at the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt as Ottokar in “Freischütz”; Wolfram in “Tannhäuser” in Hong Kong; Faninal in “Rosenkavalier” at the Semperoper Dresden; Graf Andrea Vitelozzo Tamare in Schreker’s “Die Gezeichneten” as opera concertante with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam; at the Bayreuth Festival 2019 Wolfram in the new production of “Tannhäuser”; Kurwenal in “Tristan und Isolde” at the Opera Nomori, Tokyo as well as Faninal in “Der Rosenkavalier” at the Metropolitan Opera, New York.

Markus Eiche has been invited to the Teatro alla Scala Milano, the Biennale, Munich, the Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Deutsche Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, and the Semperoper Dresden and the Staatsoper Stuttgart. With the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona he enjoyed a long collaboration. Furthermore Markus Eiche appeared at the Salzburg Festival. From 2007 to 2011 he sang Kothner in “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” at the Bayreuth Festival and had been re-invited for Gunther in “Götterdämmerung”, Donner in “Rheingold” and Wolfram in “Tannhäuser”. In 2011 the artist had been invited to the Garmisch Strauss Festival to sing Robert Storch in Strauss’ “Intermezzo”. Important projects during the recent years: The titlerole of “Cardillac” and Kunrad in Richard Strauss’ “Feuersnot” at the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Munich (role debut – with CD production), Bluebeard in “Bluebeards Castle” with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Fritz and Frank in “Die tote Stadt” at the Finnish National Opera, Helsinki, Lescaut in a new production of Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut” at the Bavarian State Opera with Kristine Opolais and Jonas Kaufmann, at the Munich Opera festival the role of Golaud in a new production of “Pelléas et Mélisande” and Beckmesser in “Meistersinger”. Markus Eiche’s versatility is shown in his broad concert repertoire which includes a big variety of styles and epochs: Orff’s “Carmina Burana”, Brahm’s “Requiem”, Britten’s “War Requiem”, Bach’s “St Matthew’s Passion”, “Christmas Oratorio”, “B-Minor Mass”, “St John’s Passion” and “Cantatas”, Handel’s “Messiah”, Beethoven’s 9th Sympony, Mahler’s “Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen”, ”Lied der Erde”, “Kindertotenlieder”, Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” and “Paulus” as well as works by Richard Strauss, Aribert Reimann, Luigi Dallapiccola, Judith Weir and Wolfgang Rihm. Markus Eiche studied at the Music Academies of Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. He has won several scholarships and has been prize winner of the International Singing Competition “Francesco Viñas“ in Barcelona.

Austrian soprano Christina Gansch is a graduate of Salzburg’s Mozarteum and the Royal Academy of Music and is the winner of the 2014 Kathleen Ferrier Award.

She has appeared at the Salzburg and Glyndebourne Festivals,the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Opéra national de Paris; Teatro alla Scala, Milan; the San Francisco Opera; Hamburgische Staatsoper and Deutsche Staatsoper, Berlin.

Highlights in Christina’s 2019/20 season include her debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich as Gretel (Hansel und Gretel); Marzelline (Fidelio) for the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and in a new production for the Glyndebourne Festival and the title role in a new production of Rodelinda for the Händel-Festspiele Göttingen.

In concert she sings Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh Festival with the BBC Symphony Orchestra/Semyon Bychkov; Zerlina in concert performances of Don Giovanni in Vienna and Lucerne with Musica Aeterna/Teodor Currentzis and Beethoven’s Egmont with the Camerata Salzburg/Jérémie Rhorer.

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 Klussmann 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 Vladimir Jurowski, Marek Janowski, Ingo Metzmacher, Helmuth Rilling, Marcus Bosch, Michael Gielen, Michael Sanderling, Karl Heinz Steffens and, in the field of historically informed performance, Marcus Creed, Václav Luks and Attilio Cremonesi.

Trained in Detmold and Cologne, 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, where her roles included Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Nannetta (Falstaff), Dorinda (Orlando), Wellgunde (Das Rheingold), Woodbird (Siegfried), Shepherd Boy (Tannhäuser) and the soprano part in Carmina Burana. In Halle and at the Komische Oper Berlin she gave the world premieres of two operas by the composer Christian Jost. At the 2013 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. Sophie Klussmann’s stage skills were honed by her long-term collaboration with American actor John Malkovich, who selected her for the theatre pieces The Giacomo Variations and The Infernal Comedy, which were staged in the US and around the world. In 2019 she debuted as Rosalinde (Fledermaus) at the opening production of the Festival Bad Hall Austria.

As a keen interpreter of song and chamber repertoire, Sophie Klussmann appears in recitals in Germany, at the Kuhmo Festival in Finland and the Musikus Fest Hong Kong. In 2015 her first solo CD, devoted to songs by Karl Weigl, was released on the Capriccio label. She also recorded pieces by Händel with the Akademie für alte Musik and Marcus Creed, released on the Harmonia Mundi label.

She has appeared with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB), Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Kammerakademie Potsdam, SWR Symphonieorchester, Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Budapest Festival Orchestra and, in music by Ligeti and Stockhausen, with the Cologne-based Ensemble Musikfabrik. Her career has taken her to venues such as the Philharmonie and Konzerthaus in Berlin, Musikverein in Vienna, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Tonhalle in Zurich, Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, Liszt Academy and Palace of Arts in Budapest, New York City Center, Power Center for the Performing Arts in Ann Arbor, Teatro del Bicentenario in León, Mexico, and the Concert Hall of the National Grand Theatre Beijing and HongKong Concert Hall.

Katharina Magiera studied elementary school music with a major in piano, before switching to vocal performance with Hedwig Fassbender in Frankfurt on the Main, and then completed her concert exam under Rudolf Piernay in Mannheim. She was awarded scholarships from the Villa Musica of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation Live music now, the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes and a former 1st Prize Winner of the Mendelssohn Competition. Her wide range of concert repertoire includes: the passions and numerous cantatas of JS Bach, the Requiems of Mozart, Verdi, Duruflé, Dvořák, Schnittke, and the oratorios of Handel, Mendelssohn, Honegger and Szymanowski. She has worked with such conductors as Paolo Carignani, Helmuth Rilling, Gabriel Garrido, Marko Letonja, Hans- Christoph Rademann, Alexander Liebreich, Kristjan Järvi, Constantinos Carydis, Ivor Bolton, Constantin Trinks, Sebastian Weigle, Ádám Fischer, Christian Thielemann, Jaap van Zweden, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Leo Hussain, René Jacobs, Henrik Nánási, Sylvain Cambreling, Krzysztof Urbanski, Teodor Currentzis and Robin Ticciati.

As a song interpreter she recorded in 2016 under the OehmsClassics label a solo album with guitarist Christopher Brandt to critical acclaim. The recording includes Goethe text settings by F. Mendelssohn, H. Wolf, F. Hensel, J. Kinkel, J. Lang and R. Schumann transcribed for voice and guitar.

Concert engagements for Katharina Magiera have included engagements with; the Munich Philharmonic, the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra, the Richard-Strauss Festival, the MDR Symphony Orchestra, the Salzburg Festival, the NDR Radiophilharmonie and the DSO Berlin. As the Third Lady (Magic Flute) she has appeared at the Opéra National in Paris and at the Theater an der Wien, as Hänsel (Hänsel and Gretel) at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, as Schwertleite (a Valkyrie) at the Semperoper Dresden, the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg, the Beijing Music Festival and the Salzburg Easter Festival. Katharina Magiera has been part of the ensemble in the Frankfurt Opera since the 2009/10 season, where she has performed Alisa (Lucia di Lammermoor), Tisbe (La Cenerentola), Lisa (The Passenger), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Erda (Rheingold), Flosshilde / Schwertleite (Ring), The Narrator / Saint Catherine (La damoiselle élue / Jeanne D’Arc au bûcher), Nancy (Martha / CD Oehms Classics), Margret (Wozzeck), Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro), Third Lady (The Magic Flute ), Annina (Rosenkavalier), alto in Handel’s Messiah, Hansel (Hänsel and Gretel), Filosofia (L Orontea), Ježibaba (Rusalka), Cornelia (Giulio Cesare in Egitto), Dryad (Ariadne on Naxos), Wanja (Ivan Sussanin ) and Emilia (Otello). In 2018/19 Ms Magiera debuted three new Handel Roles: Amastre (Xerxes), Irene (Theodora) and Eduige (Rodelinda). She also performed the Third Lady (Die Zauberflöte) with Glyndebourne Festival.

The tenor Bernhard Berchtold studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

Honored with several awards at international singing competitions he started his first engagement within the Händel-festival in Karlsruhe. From 2003/2004 until season 2011 the “Badische Staatstheater” has been Berchtolds main performing stage. There he could try out and develop a huge repertoire of mainly Mozart roles such as Belmonte, Ferrando, Don Ottavio, Tamino and Idomeneo, roles in Händels Almira, Ariodante, Giustino, La Resurrezione as well as Lenski (Eugen Onegin), Alfredo (La Traviata), Werther, Aschenbach (Death in Venice), Adolar (Euryanthe), Jan (Tagebuch eines Verschollenen) and Sänger (Der Rosenkavalier).

Bernhard Berchtold gave further guest engagements at Salzburg Festival, Bayreuth Festival, the Teatro Comunale Bologna, the Opéra de Nice, the Teatro Carlo Felice Genova, the Teatro Verdi Trieste, the “Theater an der Wien”, the “Deutsche Oper am Rhein”, the Scala di Milano as well as at the State Opera Houses Hannover, Munich and Budapest.

2019 he had huge success with his debut as Schostakowitsch’s  ”The Nose” at Hamburg State Opera.

The singer has worked with famous conductors as Helmuth Rilling, Nikolaus Harnoncourt or Masaaki Suzuki in concert repertory as the St. Matthew Passion, Four Seasons, Christmas Oratorio, or Messiah.

Originating from Saxony-Anhalt, the bass Stephan Klemm initially studied both German philology and science of art at the Martin-Luther-University in Halle before he decided to study voice at Leipzig’s university of music Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy having Helga Forner as a teacher. Later on, he was working with Brigitte Fassbaender.
Being still in his last year of university, he was already singing at the Hans-Otto-Theater in Potsdam where his advanced vocal development towards a fully-grown, reputable bass voice began.
Stephan Klemm was primarily singing at German operas, such as the theatres in Dessau and Dortmund, the Nationaltheater in Weimar and Mannheim as well as at the Hessische Staatstheater Wiesbaden, the Staatstheater Nuremberg, the Staatsoper Hannover, the Opera of Cologne and Leipzig, or the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz Munich.
Additionally, he was also able to work in productions in Cagliari, Innsbruck, or Warsaw, where he performed following parts in works of Wagner: Fasolt/ Fafner in Rheingold, Hunding in Walküre, Fafner in Siegfried, Hagen in Götterdämmerung, König Heinrich in Lohengrin, König Marke in Tristan, Landgraf in Tannhäuser and Daland in Holländer. But he could also proof himself as Kezal in Smetanas Verkaufte Braut, Gremin in Tschaikowkis Onegin, Ramphis in Aida, as well as Sarastro in Zauberflöte.
Especially noteworthy are his involvements in the ring cycle in Dessau (2013 – 2015), where he took part as Fasolt, Hunding and Hagen and in Leipzig where he once again appeared as Fasolt in Rheingold.
Stephan Klemm is highly devoted to both concerts and songs. That led him to perform on many international stages, on which he was able to work with the Warsaw Philharmonic, Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Nacional de Espaná or the Berlin Philharmonic under conductors such as Stefan Sanderling, Jac van Steen, Marko Letonja, Christof Prick, Howard Arman, Antoni Wit, Jacek Kaspszyk, Jeffrey Tate and Ulf Schirmer.
On the opening of the Sczceniner Philharmonic in 2014 Klemm worked with conducter Jacek Kaspszyk to perform Symphony No. 9 by Beethoven.
Furthermore, Stephan Klemm has devoted himself to educate the young generation of singers, which led him to Karlsruhe where he took the position of a visiting professor at the university of music.
2017 Stephan Klemm performed at the Semperoper Dresden and at the Liedfestpiele Engadin.

Der Rundfunk-Kinderchor wurde 1955 von Manfred Roost ins Leben gerufen und entwickelte sich unter seiner Leitung, wie in zahllosen Rundfunk- und Schallplattenproduktionen bezeugt, schnell zu einem der führenden Kinderchöre der DDR.

1974 wurde der DEFA Kinderfilm „Bunnebacke“ gedreht, bei dem der Chor mitspielte. Im Jahr 1975 fand eine Chorreise nach Artek (Sowjetunion, Halbinsel Krim) statt. Der Chor sang u.a. auf der Eröffnungsfeier des neuen Friedrichstadt Palastes. Um 1973 – 1975 erhielt der Chor einen Nationalpreis.

In den letzten Jahren bestritt das Ensemble – neben dem traditionellen Weihnachtskonzert im Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt – viele chorsinfonische Aufführungen, Rundfunk- und CD-Produktionen mit Werken von Bach bis Bernstein, insbesondere aber auch von zeitgenössischen Komponisten. Die Zusammenarbeit mit renommierten Dirigenten wie Zubin Mehta, Michael Gielen, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Kent Nagano oder Claudio Abbado trug dabei ebenso zur Stilsicherheit des Chores bei wie die Auftritte mit dem Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, den Berliner Philharmonikern, dem Rundfunkchor Berlin oder dem RIAS-Kammerchor.

Konzertreisen führten den Chor bisher in viele Länder Europas, nach Japan, Taiwan und in die USA. Im Januar 2002 übernahm Carsten Schultze die Leitung des Rundfunk-Kinderchores.