Sounds of the Sea

The 2022/2023 season is Nicholas Carter’s second season as Chief Conductor and Co-Opera Director of the Bern Opera, with “Die Walküre” (Wagner), “L’enfant et les sortilèges” (Ravel) and “Iolanta” (Tchaikovsky). A guest for the first time at Zurich Opera House, he will conduct Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers”. He makes his debut at the Dresden Semperoper with Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte”. He returns to the Metropolitan Opera New York with “Peter Grimes”, and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin he conducts a ballet production with the music of Verdi’s Requiem. Since 2019 (Dean, Vaughan Williams) it is his second time conduction the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin .

From 2018-2021 Nicholas Carter was principal conductor of the Stadttheater Klagenfurt and the Kärntner Sinfonieorchester. His repertoire there included “Tannhäuser”, “Pelleas et Melisande”, “Simon Boccanegra”, “Rusalka”, “Elektra”, “Cendrillon” and “La Clemenza di Tito”.  In his debut at the Santa Fe Opera, he conducted “Die Fledermaus”, returned in 2021 with “Eugene Onegin” and also conducted “Don Carlo” and “Don Pasquale” at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein.

The Melbourne-born conductor maintains an ongoing relationship with all of Australia’s major orchestras, particularly the Adelaide Symphony, where he served as principal conductor from 2016 to 2019. In Europe, he was assistant to Simone Young at the Staatsoper Hamburg, then Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper Berlin since 2014, where he worked closely with GMD Donald Runnicles.

Nicholas Carter is equally present in opera houses and on concert stages. He has recently conducted symphonic repertoire with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Lille, the Orchestre Métropolitain (Montreal), the Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec, the Bochum Symphony Orchestra, the MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig, the Dallas and Oregon Symphony Orchestras and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

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 round about 60 concerts per season, CD-recordings and international guest performances the Rundfunkchor Berlin is one of the world’s outstanding choral ensembles. Three Grammy® Awards alone mark the success of the ensemble. The exceptional breadth of its repertoire, an unmistakable warm, richly nuanced sound, absolute precision and delight in experimentation all contribute to making it one of the chosen partners of international orchestras and conductors such as Kirill Petrenko, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle, or Yannick NézetSéguin. It is the permanent partner of the Berliner Philharmoniker as well as of Berlin’s Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester and their Principal Conductors.
Rundfunkchor Berlin’s experimental project series has attracted great worldwide attention. In collaboration with artists from diverse disciplines, the chorus breaks down the classical concert formation and adopts new modes of choral music for a new audience. The interactive scenic version of Brahms’s »Ein deutsches Requiem« staged by Jochen Sandig and a team of Sasha Waltz & Guests – »human requiem« – became a milestone within the choir’s experimental repertoire with guest performances in New York, Hongkong, Paris, Adelaide and Istanbul. In its project »LUTHER dancing with the gods« the choir cooperated with director Robert Wilson and reflected upon Luthers impact within the arts in an extraordinary concert performance with music by Bach, Nystedt and Reich in march of 2017. In the season 2020/21 the Rundfunkchor Berlin presented the transdisciplinary project THE WORLD TO COME based on Beethovens »Missa solemnis«. Directed by Tilman Hecker, contemporary music genres are fusing with the masterpiece by Beethoven, guiding the audience on a musical journey into the world of tomorrow. National and international Artists including Moor Mother, Mohammad Reza Mortazavi, Planningtorock, Colin Self and Birke J. Bertelsmeier, came together to realize the heart of the new season in Berlin’s Vollgutlager.
With its community projects for various target groups – the big Sing-along Concert in the Berlin Philharmonie, the Festival of Choral Cultures for international choirs and the Liederbörse (Song Exchange) for children and young people – Rundfunkchor Berlin invites people of all ages to become immersed in the world of singing. Its long-term education programme SING!, encourages singing in Berlin’s elementary schools as an ongoing staple in everyday classes. With its Academy and Schola for young professional singers as well as the Berlin International Masterclass for highly qualified young choral conductors it supports the next generation.
Founded in 1925 the choir celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2015. Since its foundation the ensemble was shaped by conductors including Helmut Koch, Dietrich Knothe, Robin Gritton and Simon Halsey. As of season 2015/16 Gijs Leenaars has taken up his post as Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of Rundfunkchor Berlin. Simon Halsey was appointed Conductor Laureate and will retain his ties to the ensemble as regular guest conductor.
Rundfunkchor Berlin is an ensemble of RundfunkOrchester und -Chöre gGmbH Berlin (Shareholders: Deutschlandradio, the Federal Republic of Germany, the State of Berlin and Radio BerlinBrandenburg).

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.