Sounds of the Sea

Celebrated recently for his conducting of Brett Dean Hamlet and Britten Peter Grimes at the Metropolitan Opera, Nicholas Carter is one of the leading opera conductors of his generation. Since 2021 he has been Chief Conductor and Co-Operndirektor of Bühnen Bern, following his positions as Kapellmeister at the Staatsoper Hamburg and the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and as Chief Conductor of the Stadttheater Klagenfurt and the Kärntner Sinfonieorchester from 2018 to 2021. Serving as Principal Conductor of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra from 2016 to 2019, Carter has since been in international demand in the symphonic field.

At the heart of Nicholas Carter’s tenure in Bern is the new production of Wagner Der Ring des Nibelungen, which he also conducted at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in the 2023/2024 season. In 2024/2025, he leads a new production of Prokofiev’s Gambler at Staatsoper Stuttgart and returns to Staatsoper Hamburg for Mozart’s Figaro. In previous seaons, he has also worked with the Wiener Staatsoper, Oper Zürich, Oper Köln, Santa Fe Opera and Deutsche Oper am Rhein as well as at the Glyndebourne Festival. His extensive operatic repertoire ranges from Mozart, Verdi, Wagner and Strauss to Russian and French works and contemporary composers such as Brett Dean, with whom he has a close artistic relationship.

Alongside regular collaborations with Australia’s leading symphony orchestras, Carter’s recent and forthcoming symphonic highlights include appearances with the Seattle Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Oregon Symphony, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain, Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre National de Lille, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Bochumer Symphoniker, Brucknerorchester Linz, Seoul Philharmonic and Hong Kong Philharmonic, among others.

Her critically acclaimed debut recording of Schubert Lieder (Sony) was followed by equally acclaimed discs of Bach Cantatas (Harmonia Mundi), Strauss Lieder with Roger Vignoles (Hyperion) and Mozart arias with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Christian Baldini (Linn Records); works by Alessandro Scarlatti with the English Concert and Laurence Cummings (Harmonia Mundi); and Couperin Leçons de Ténèbres with La Nuova Musica and David Bates (Harmonia Mundi). Most recently she has recorded works by Vaughan Williams with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins (Hyperion), and Dyson Choral Symphony with the Bach Choir and David Hill (Naxos).

Plans this season and beyond include Britten Spring Symphony with the LSO and Sir Simon Rattle; Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle with the LPO and Gustavo Gimeno; Brahms German Requiem with the OAE and Marin Alsop; Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony with the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin and Nicholas Carter; Fauré Requiem with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and Christian Vasquez; Mozart arias with the Bremen Philharmonic and Christian Zacharias; and Ligeti Le Grand Macabre with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Alan Gilbert. Forthcoming Bach performances include Christmas Oratorio with the Nederlands Kamerkoor and St John Passion with RIAS Kammerchor Berlin. She will also make appearances with the Academy of Ancient Music, RIAS Kammerchor Berlin and Bachakademie Stuttgart; and a return visit to Wigmore Hall.

Recent concerts have included Bach St John Passion with NDR Hannover and Andrew Manze, and with the Oslo Philharmonic and Herbert Blomstedt; Ligeti Le Grand Macabre with the LSO and Rattle; Mahler Symphony no. 4 with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra; and Mahler Symphony no. 2 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakami Oramo for the 2017 BBC Proms. She made several appearances at the 2018 BBC Proms, singing Schubert songs with the BBC Philharmonic and John Storgards; and the roles of La chauve-souris/La chouette/Une pastourelle in Ravel L’enfant et les sortilèges with the LSO and Rattle, a concert also repeated at the Lucerne Festival. She has worked with other conductors including Richard Egarr, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Michael Tilson Thomas, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Hans-Christoph Rademan and Ottavio Dantone, and ensembles including the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Akademie für Alte Musik and the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.

Opera roles have included Zerlina Don Giovanni and Marzelline Fidelio for the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; Susanna Le Nozze di Figaro for Santa Fe Opera and WNO, for whom Elizabeth has also sung Donna Elvira Don Giovanni, Pamina Die Zauberflöte and Fiordiligi Così fan tutte, and the Countess in both Mozart’s opera and a sequel Figaro Gets A Divorce by Elena Langer; Almirena in Handel Rinaldo for Glyndebourne on Tour and, in concert, Josephine HMS Pinafore at the 2015 Edinburgh Festival and Minerva Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria with the AAM.

Elizabeth was a chorister at Norwich Cathedral and studied archaeology at Sheffield University before studying singing at the Royal College of Music in London. She was awarded an Hon DMus by Sheffield in 2013 and became a Fellow of the RCM in 2017.

Grammy-nominated Baritone Anthony Michaels-Moore is the first British winner of the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition (Philadelphia, 1985) and has since appeared regularly at many of the world’s top opera houses, and recorded and performed concert repertoire with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors of note. In a 30-year career Anthony has sung over 60 leading roles at the Wiener Staatsoper, Teatro alla Scala, Opéra National de Paris, Bayerische Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper and Staatsoper Berlin, Opernhaus Zürich, the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera and numerous other stages across Europe, Asia and the Americas. His home theatre is the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden where his performances in leading roles totals more than 300. Opera News has praised Anthony with having “one of the most the most gorgeous voices on the stage today. …His sound has a real presence and its honeyed opulence dominated every scene in which he appeared.”

Anthony has distinguished himself as a specialist in Verdi and Puccini roles, most renowned for his portrayals of Rigoletto, Falstaff, Simon Boccanegra, Nabucco, Iago in Otello, Germont in La traviata, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, and Scarpia in Tosca. Of his Rigoletto at the ENO, The Times wrote, “As befits such a dark opera, deep voices dominate. Michaels-Moore’s Rigoletto is in a class apart because he somehow manages to be gloriously lyrical and terrifyingly baleful at the same time. He joins the notes together in beautifully sustained lines; a masterclass for young singers. Yet the power he musters is properly monstrous, and that is matched by his sinister lurches across the stage.”

Performance highlights in recent seasons include 2 world premiere operas, plus numerous house and role debuts. Most notably, Anthony made an exciting return to Teatro alla Scala, starring in the world premiere of Giorgio Battistelli’s opera C02, a work inspired by Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. Michaels-Moore earned high praise in the main role of climatologist Dr. David Adamson in a production directed by Robert Carsen. Wrote Mundoclasico, “una voz de importancia, de sólida técnica… Se mueve con gran distinción sin ser ‘frío’, y, primera vez que lo oigo cantar en su lengua materna, tiene una dicción y articulación del inglés que tiene un valor agregado incalculable.” Anthony also returned to The Santa Fe Opera in another highly-anticipated world premiere: Cold Mountain by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon.

Anthony’s most recent house debuts include Nederlandse Reisopera (La Traviata, 2017), Opera Philadelphia (Cold Mountain, 2016) Lyric Opera of Kansas City (La traviata, 2015 ), Los Angeles Opera (Billy Budd, 2014), Theatro Municipal São Paulo (Aida, 2013), Teatro dell’Opera di Roma (Curlew River, 2013), Oper Leipzig (Nabucco, 2013), Korean National Opera (Falstaff, 2013), Oper Köln (Tosca, 2012), Sugi Opera (Tosca, 2012), Saito Kinen Festival in Japan (Madama Butterfly, 2012), Valencia’s La Palau de la Musica (Les Dialogues des Carmelites, 2011), Opernhaus Zürich (Falstaff, 2011), Opéra de Montréal (Rigoletto, 2010), and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (Falstaff, 2010).

Michaels-Moore has performed with the world’s top conductors including Vladimir Jurowski, Fabio Luisi, André Previn, Riccardo Muti, Michael Tilson-Thomas, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Neville Marriner, Sir Edward Downes, Sir Mark Elder, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Leonard Slatkin, Bernard Haitink, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Andris Nelsons, Seiji Ozawa, Daniele Gatti and James Conlon, in a repertoire ranging from Haydn’s Creation to Orff’s Carmina Burana. He has appeared at the First Night of the BBC Proms, and has performed with the Royal Concertgebouw Orkest, London Symphony Orchestra, and Wiener Philharmoniker. Most recently Anthony sang Bruckner’s Mass in F minor with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Daniel Harding and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 at the Edinburgh International Festival lead by Donald Runnicles.

In 1995 Anthony was honoured with the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award, the highest recognition for live classical music making in the United Kingdom. His most recent CD recording, Songs of the Sea, Songs of Travel, has been hailed by Classical Source as “A perfect gem sensitively performed…” It is available for purchase and digital download through all major music sources. Michaels-Moore’s discography also includes commercial recordings for Pentatone (Cold Mountain), Deutsche Grammophon (Carmina Burana), Sony (La Vestale, Lucia di Lammermoor), Teldec (Fairy Queen), Conifer (The Puccini Experience), Opera Rara (Mercadante’s Orazi e Curiazi), LSO Live (Peter Grimes), Philips (Yeoman of the Guard, Aroldo), BMG (La Favorite, Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater), Decca (Falstaff), and Chandos (A Masked Ball).

In addition to a Master of Music/Master of Arts degree in Opera from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music and History from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, Anthony holds a Postgraduate Certificate of Education from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne. He began his career as a teacher in the English school system teaching Primary school age children in all subjects, including music. Since that time he has taught and presented Masterclasses all over the world including for the English National Opera Harewood Artists Programme, British Youth Opera, the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University, the New Mexico School for the Arts, the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program for Singers, and the University of New Mexico. He is passionate about music education and helping to guide the next generation of great singers. For Masterclass inquiries or more information on Anthony’s private studio please visit Opera Studio de Santa Fe.

Anthony is also an avid road cyclist. He divides his time between Santa Fe, New Mexico and Prien am Chiemsee in Bavaria with his wife Emily and their two children.

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.

In 2016/17 Benjamin Goodson took up his post as assistant of the principal conductor of the Rundfunkchor Berlin. Born in London in 1990 the British conductor studied music and musicology at the University of Oxford. Furthermore he studied conducting with renowned teachers and conductors like Sir Colin Davis, Paul Spicer and Ulrich Windfuhr.

In England he is the musical director of the award-winning Bath Camerata, which he took over in 2015. In the same year – by the age of 24 – he was named by the university to become Oxford’s youngest director of music, a position that he gave up for the Berlin engagement, while he still holds the position as chorus master at the Dorset Festival Opera. Moreover he is a regular guest conductor of various choirs and orchestras with a broad repertoire ranging from early music to contemporary works. In the season 2017/18 he worked with the, the MDR Rundfunkchor Leipzig, the NDR Chor Hamburg, the Netherlands Radio Choir and the London Symphony Chorus, which he prepared for a performance at the BBC Proms.

In the Rundfunkchor Berlin’s 2018/19 season Benjamin Goodson prepares the choir for several works such as Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “Sea Symphony” und Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. In 2020/21 he will become principal conductor of the Netherlands Radio Choir.