The radioeins storytelling concert – “Orlando”

Susanne Blumenthal is one of the most versatile conductors of her generation.

Susanne Blumenthal performs with her ensemble MAM.manufaktur für aktuelle musik at numerous festivals such as Donaueschinger Musiktage, Darmstadt Ferienkurse, ECLAT, Acht Brücken Cologne, pgnm Festival Bremen, klub katarakt Hamburg, as well as the international Mixtur Festival Barcelona, Festival de Música Contemporánea Oviedo, Society for Contemporary Music Seoul and in numerous Southeast Asian countries.

She has worked with composers such as Helmut Lachenmann, Hans Zender, Nicolaus A. Huber, Friedrich Cerha, Johannes Kalitzke, Mark Andre, Georges Aperghis, Simon Steen-Andersen, Beat Furrer, Oxana Omelchuk, Gordon Kampe, Ying Wang, Vito Zuraj and many others.

Susanne Blumenthal has enjoyed repeated engagements with Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ruhr Piano Festival, Acht Brücken Cologne, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Münster Civic Theatre, Cologne Philharmonic, Bochum Symphony Orchestra, German National Radio and more.

She is the Artistic Director of the eos chamber orchestra, with whom she explores the boundaries between new and improvised music & jazz, and is a guest at numerous festivals such as the Moers Festival, Bonn Jazz Festival and the Monheim Triennale.

Having originally studied choral conducting, she has spent years directing numerous choirs, including the Bochum Philharmonic Choir.

She was a scholarship holder at the International Ensemble Modern Academy as well as the Bergische Symphony Orchestra.

Susanne Blumenthal was appointed Professor for Interpretation & Ensemble Practice New Music at the Cologne University of Music and Dance in 2021.

The actress and publisher Meike Rötzer, born in Bünde in 1971, completed her acting training at the Otto Falckenberg School in Munich. She made her debut at the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe in 1996 and performed at the Städtische Bühnen Kiel from 2000.
Further freelance productions followed, including at the Berlin theatre Berliner Sophiensæle. Her debut in front of the camera began directly on the big screen in cinema films such as ‘Einer meiner ältesten Freunde’ (1994) and ‘Ab nach Tibet! Meike Rötzer has been recording for radio plays and audio books since 2007, such as ‘Wir müssen die Liebe neu erfinden’ (2023) by Mona Chollet or ‘Eva’ (2023) by Verena Keßler.
For her work on Katja Petrowskaja’s ‘Vielleicht Esther’, she was nominated for the German Audiobook Award for Best Interpreter in 2023. In the podcast ‘NATURerKUNDEN’, which she produced, she has been discussing the topics of nature and animals with changing dialogue partners since 2021.
From 2008 to 2022, she worked as an editor for fiction at the publishing house Matthes & Seitz Berlin.
Rötzer founded Erzählbuchverlag in 2022, through which she publishes audiobooks. The dramas and novels of world literature are condensed and told in contemporary language. She performs with the narrative solos at the Deutsches Theater Berlin, Literaturhaus Frankfurt, among others, and radioeins has been broadcasting the narrative lounge “Richtig gutes Zeug!”, which she co-founded, since 2022.

Photo © Nik Konietzny

Acclaimed in the press for his “radiant power and emotion” (The Telegraph) and “sheer seductive beauty” (Gramophone Magazine), Canadian countertenor Michael Taylor began singing as a treble at St. Michael’s Choir School in Toronto, where he also studied the violin and piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music. After graduating with a degree in Physics and Neuroscience from McGill University, he took up further vocal studies in Montreal with a focus on Early Music. Michael subsequently came to Germany to pursue a specialisation in opera performance with Prof. KS Jeanne Piland as well as with several of Europe’s most talented Early Music specialists, including Andreas Scholl, Sara Mingardo and Michael Hofstetter. He is a prize-winner of the International Voice Competition Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg in Germany and the Gürel International Singing Competition in Istanbul, as well as a grant-holder of the Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation for Young Canadian Opera Singers.

Michael made his debut at the Lincoln Center in New York as a soloist in Handel’s MESSIAH, in London’s Cadogan Hall in the title role of Hasse’s DEMETRIO with Opera Settecento, and in Izumi Hall Osaka as a soloist in Bach’s ST. MATTHEW PASSION; he has performed on opera stages around the world with renowned companies such as the Hamburg State Opera, Opera Atelier Toronto, Lucerne Opera, Mainz State Opera, Halle Opera and the Venice Biennale. Highlights of his wide-ranging operatic repertoire include Goffredo (RINALDO), Tolomeo (GIULIO CESARE), Corindo (L’ORONTEA), Pisandro (IL RITORNO D’ULISSE IN PATRIA), Orfeo (ORFE ED EURIDICE), Artemis (PHAEDRA), L’Ospite (LUCI MIE TRADITRICI), Prince Go-Go (LE GRAND MACABRE) and Oberon (A MIDSUMMERNIGHT’S DREAM). Michael’s most recent album “Cantates pour Luther” featuring Bach’s Reformation Cantatas, is now available on the ATMA Classique Label worldwide.