Opening concert “Metamorphosen”

Alexander held the position of Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Munich Chamber Orchestra from 2006 – 2016. Their first collaborative CD, featuring works by Joseph Haydn and Isang Yun, was released to great critical acclaim in January 2008. The recent release “Requiem“ by Tigran Mansurian, with RIAS Kammerchor on the label ECM Classics received nominations for the Grammy Award 2018 and the ICMA Award 2018 in the category “Contemporary Music”.

As a guest conductor, Alexander has worked with many prestigious orchestras including the Concertgebouw Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra and Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich. Recent and future engagements include debuts with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta de Valencia and Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

He regularly performs with distinguished soloists such as Lisa Batiashvili, Krystian Zimerman, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Alban Gerhardt, Leila Josefowicz, and Isabelle Faust.

The close partnership with René Jacobs has produced many celebrated opera and oratorio productions. The latest interpretations of Mozart’s operas The abduction from the seraglio and The Magic Flute, as well as J. S. Bach’s St. John and St. Matthew Passion, has been highly praised by critics and audience.
The ensemble has also worked regularly with conductors such as Marcus Creed, Daniel Reuss and Hans-Christoph Rademann. The orchestra will be led by Emmanuelle Haïm, Bernard Labadie, Paul Agnew and Rinaldo Alessandrini in the upcoming seasons.
Most notable is the congenial cooperation with the RIAS Chamber Choir, whose quality is recognized by numerous award-winning recordings. Akamus works regularly with internationally renowned soloists like Isabelle Faust, Andreas Staier, Alexander Melnikov, Anna Prohaska, Werner Güra and Bejun Mehta. Moreover, Akamus has extended its artistic boundaries to work together with the modern dance company Sasha Waltz & Guests for innovative productions like Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Medea (music by P. Dusapin).
The international success of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin is highlighted by well over a million recordings sold to the public. Recording exclusively for harmonia mundi France since 1994, the ensemble’s CDs have earned many international prizes, including the Grammy Award, the Diapason d’Or, the Cannes Classical Award, the Gramophone Award, the Edison Award, the German Record Critics’ Award, the MIDEM Classical Award 2010 and the Choc de l’Année. The latest additions to the orchestra’s discography are CDs devoted to Handel’s Water Music, Bach’s St. John Passion conducted by René Jacobs and Mendelssohn’s Elias conducted by Hans-Christoph Rademann.
The orchestra has been honoured with the Telemann-Preis Magdeburg and in 2014 with the Bach Medaille Leipzig and the ECHO Klassik.

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Within the last years she joined productions such as Cavalieri’s Rappresentazione di Anima et Corpo (Anima) under René Jacobs at the Berlin State Opera, Schubert’s Fierrabras (Maragond) staged by Peter Stein at the Salzburg Festival (to be revived at Milan’s La Scala in 2018) and in La finta giardiniera (Ramiro) under Emmanuelle Haïm in Lille und Dijon. In 2016/17 she was performing in the new-production of The fairy Queen staged by Mariame Clément and conducted by Christophe Rousset at the Theater an der Wien and in a touring-production of Il ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria under René Jacobs.
On concert-stage she has recently sung with Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini (Haydn’s Arianna a Naxos), the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly (Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion), the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra and Ivor Bolton (Mozart’s c-minor-Mass) and the New Japan Philharmonic and Ingo Metzmacher (Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis).
Marie-Claude Chappuis sings frequently recitals accompanied by the lute player Luca Pianca and the pianists Malcolm Martineau, Cédric Pescia, Christian Chamorel and Michael Gees.
Her already extensive discography includes Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion with Riccardo Chailly (Decca), La Clemenza di Tito (Annio) with René Jacobs (nominated for a Grammy Awards and released by Harmonia Mundi), Idomeneo (Idamante) with Nikolaus Harnoncourt (Styriarte Festival DVD Edition) and the Telemann’s Brockes-Passion (Prix du Midem 2009).

The 2016/2017 season began with Robin Johannsen singing Rameau arias on tour with Teodor Currentzis and his orchestra MusicAeterna. She then recorded three new albums: Telemann cantatas with Concerto Melante, the title role in Vinci’s Didone with the Lautten Compagney, and Handel’s Parnasso in festa with Andrea Marcon and La Cetra Basel. Her season continued with Purcell’s King Arthur at the Berliner Staatsoper followed by her debut as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte on tour in Germany, Spain, and Asia with René Jacobs and the Freiburger Barockorchester. The soprano then made her debut in France singing Telemann’s Brockes Passion with Raphaël Pichon and his orchestra, Pygmalion, at the Paris Philharmonie and in five other French cities. In addition, she sang concerts with leading Baroque orchestras such as Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Concerto Köln, and the Freiburger Barockorchester. She was awarded an Edison Classical Music Award for her performance as Konstanze in the CD of Entführung aus dem Serail (René Jacobs, harmonia mundi).
Highlights of Robin Johannsen’s recent seasons include her acclaimed debut in the title role of Telemann’s Emma und Eginhard under René Jacobs at the Berliner Staatsoper; Venere/Giuturna in Amor vien dal destino also at the Berliner Staatsoper; her debut with Musikfest Bremen as Konstanze under Jérémie Rhorer and Le Cercle de l’Harmonie; the title role in Almira at the Hamburgische Staatsoper; and debuts at Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Gassmann’s L’Opera seria and at Teatro Regio Torino in Haydn’s Schöpfung under Antonello Manacorda. She sang Konstanze on international tour and recorded the role with Jacobs for harmonia mundi. In 2015, she debuted the role of Adina in L’elisir d’amore with the Hamburgische Staatsoper and appeared at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music in Jommeli’s Don Trastullo under Alessandro De Marchi. Additionally, she sang Pamina on tour with the Lautten Compagney and Amital in a staged production of Mozart’s Betulia liberata with the Kammerakademie Potsdam. In May 2014, Sony Classical (dhm) released Robin’s first solo CD, In dolce amore, a world premiere recording of baroque arias and cantatas by Antonio Caldara conducted by Alessandro De Marchi.
Robin Johannsen has been a frequent guest with the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alte Musik, the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, Academia Montis Regalis, and Belgium’s B’Rock. She has collaborated with conductors such as: René Jacobs, Alessandro De Marchi, Andrea Marcon, Antonello Manacorda, Attilio Cremonesi, Christopher Moulds, Helmuth Rilling, Ottavio Dantone, Howard Griffiths, Celso Antunes, Lukasz Borowicz, Christian Thielemann, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Marin Alsop, and Robert Page. Engagements have included performances with the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Berliner Staatsoper, Komische Oper Berlin, Oper Leipzig, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Oper Frankfurt, Vlaamse Opera, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, OSESP São Paolo, Bayreuth Festival, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, RIAS Kammerchor, Dresden Philharmonic, Freiburger Barockorchester, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Academia Montis Regalis, Café Zimmermann, Concerto Köln, NDR Hannover, Helsinki Philharmonic, Danish National Chamber Orchestra, Singapore Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and the Dallas Symphony. She has also performed at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Rheingau Musik Festival, Gasteig Munich, Essen Philharmonie, Berliner Philharmonie, Konzerthaus Berlin, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Bremen’s Glocke, Lucerne Festival, the Vatican, Conservatorio Torino, Auditorium del Lignotto – Torino, Grattacielo del San Paolo – Torino; Conservatorio di Milano; Tonhalle Zürich, and the Oregon Bach Festival.

Matthias Winckhler’s concert repertoire ranges from the passions, cantatas and oratorios of J. S. Bach and other Baroque composers, a number of Classical and Romantic oratorios, all the way to contemporary music and works by living composers. He has collaborated with conductors of the likes of Reinhard Goebel, Hans Graf, Matthew Halls, Günter Jena, Gianandrea Noseda, Helmuth Rilling, Jordi Savall, Masaaki Suzuki, Jos van Veldhoven and with outstanding ensembles such as the Salzburg Camerata, the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, the Netherlands Bach Society, Brandenburg State Orchestra, the Leipzig Baroque Orchestra, the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the instrumental ensembles “Les Cornets Noirs” and “La Banda”. Furthermore, he has worked in close collaboration with composers such as Friedrich Cerha, Gerhard Wimberger, Manfred Trojahn, Benedikt Burghardt and Nikolaus Brass.
Lied is another one of Winckhler’s strengths as a performer, and he makes frequent artsong appearances with the Viennese pianist Bernadette Bartos. In 2013, Mr Winckhler guested in Vienna at a Schubert matinee, and in 2014 he sang Lied repertoire in an appearance at Strasbourg Opéra National du Rhin. At the 2014 Leipzig Bachfest he presented a series of Lieder and odes by C. P. E. Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. Then, at the Kissingen Summer Festival in 2015, Winckhler gave his début performance accompanied by Jan Philip Schulze at the piano.
His broad range of repertoire and styles is well-documented on CD releases by Bavarian Radio (BR) and Oehms Classics, and on DVD’s of “Le Nozze di Figaro”, “Don Giovanni” (at the Salzburg Mozarteum), “L’elisir d’amore” and a release entitled “Death and the Maiden – a Schubertiade in Late Autumn”.

On the Opera Stage, Katharina Magiera has performed in the Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg, and in the Oper Frankfurt, where she has been a full time ensemble member since the fall of 2009. There Ms. Magiera has been seen as, Sphinx (Oedipe), Bradamante (Orlando furioso), Rosalia (Tiefland), Alisa (Lucia di Lammermoor), Tisbe (La Cenerentola), Untos Wife (Sallinens Kullervo), Stallmagd (Königskinder), Cornelia (Giulio Cesare in Egitto), the High priestess in Schoecks Penthesilea and as Flosshilde / Schwertleite (Ring), Ježibaba (Rusalka), Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), Dryade (Ariadne auf Naxos), Filosofia (LʼOrontea),Marzelline (Figaros Hochzeit), and in the Frankfurt Opera premiere of three one Act operas by Bohuslav Martinů, as Wanja (Iwan Sussanin) and Nancy (Martha).
In 2015 Ms. Magiera debuted with the Opéra Bastille Paris, as the Third Lady (Die Zauberflöte), and in the same year with the National Symphony of Poland Radio Orchestra under the baton of A. Liebreich, debuted at the Salzburg Festival under the direction of A. Orozco Estrada, and with MDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by K. Järvi. Future engagements for Katharina Magiera include the Salzburg Festival in 2017 as Schwertleite conducted by Christian Thielemann, and at the Vienna State Opera as the Third Lady in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte under René Jacobs.