Opening Concert of the 94th Bach Festival of the Neue Bachgesellschaft e.V.
Figuralchor of St. John’s Church Rostock
Programme
Johann Sebastian Bach:
Cantata „Wir müssen durch viel Trübsal“ BWV 146
Antonín Dvorák:
Stabat Mater op. 58
Performers
Okka von der Damerau, alto →
Jörg Dürmüller, tenor →
Tobias Berndt, bass →
Allhelgona Motettkör Lund (Sweden) →
Figuralchor of St. John’s Church Rostock →
Rostock motet choir →
Frank Dittmer, organ →
Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock →
Markus Johannes Langer, conductor →
Organizer
Bachverein Rostock e. V.
Julia Sophie Wagner
Biography
Julia Sophie Wagner studied voice at the universities of music in Weimar and Leipzig and at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She is famed for her interpretations of Johann Sebastian Bach’s oratorios but has also added the great classical and Romantic oratorios to her repertoire in recent years. She has sung in important venues throughout Europe and North America. Her debut in the Kennedy Center Washington, where she sang Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis”, was chosen by the Washington Life Magazine as “Kennedy Center Event of the Year 2014”.
Jörg Dürmüller
Biography
The Swiss tenor Jörg Dürmüller studied violin and voice at the conservatory of Winterthur and the University of Music and Performing Arts Hamburg. He has worked in concert and opera under Riccardo Chailly, Christoph Eschenbach, Christopher Hogwood and Bruno Weil, among others. Jörg Dürmüller is a renowned interpreter of the evangelist parts of J. S. Bach’s works. In 2007 his interpretation of the Carlo in Krenek’s opera “Sardakai” won him an ECHO Klassik award. He has been teaching since 2010 at the University for Music Lausanne HEMU in Switzerland.
Tobias Berndt
Biography
The baritone Tobias Berndt received his first musical education as a member of the famous Dresdner Kreuzchor. He went on to study in Leipzig and Mannheim with tuition from Hermann Christian Polster and Rudolf Piernay and was also coached by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Thomas Quasthoff. He has repeatedly won prizes and scholarships at major international competitions. Tobias Berndt is a renowned singer for opera, concert and Lied and sings regularly at Europe’s great concert venues, as well as touring the Americas, South Africa, Russia, Japan and China.
Allhelgona Motettkören Lund (Sweden)
Biography
The motet choir Allhelgona Motettkör Lund of All Saint’s Church of Lund (Sweden) was founded in 2002 but had its first concert in Stralsund, just 80 kilometres from Rostock. The choir often performs during services but has also given many concerts both in and outside Sweden and has participated in a number of radio and television broadcasts. Its repertoire includes music from all epochs, from Palestrina’s “Missa Papae Marcellus” and Bach’s Passions all the way to the works of contemporary composers such as Arvo Pärt and John Taverner. The choir’s conductor is Johan-Magnus Sjöberg.
Figuralchor of St. John’s Church Rostock
Biography
Numbering around 110 singers, the Figuralchor of the St.-Johannis-Kirche Rostock is the largest choir of St. John’s Church Rostock. Since its foundation in 1962, the choir has regularly sung during church services, but the big oratorios are its most important focus for the choir. Collaborating with renowned soloists and various orchestras, the choir has staged Johann Sebastian Bach’s Passions and his Christmas Oratorio, masses by Mozart, Rossini, Haydn, Kodály and Schubert over the years, as well as works by Brahms, Dvorák, Strawinsky, Britten, Honegger and Szymanowski, among others.
Rostocker Motettenchor
Biography
Founded in 1964 by Hartwig Eschenburg, the Rostock Motettenchor has sung in East Germany’s most important venues, such as Dresden Frauenkirche, St. Thomas’ Church and the Gewandhaus Leipzig, and the Konzerthaus Berlin. After 1990, the choir toured several European countries as well as the US to participate in the 1995 Oregon Bach Festival, where it took part in a staging of Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem”. Their widespread repertoire includes a-cappella and oratorio music from Heinrich Schütz up to Arvo Pärt. Since 2012, there have been collaborations with the King’s Singers on several occasions.
Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock
Biography
Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock. The formation of the Municipal and Theatre Orchestra Rostock in 1897 lay the foundations of the orchestra that is today the largest in the state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. It offers a broad variety of concerts, such as philharmonic concerts, “Classic Light” concerts and other orchestra concerts, special concerts for a younger audience and various formats to make young people familiar with classical music. The Norddeutsche Philharmonie has played in a large number of cities both in and outside Germany and has recorded film music as a member of the European FilmPhilharmonic Institute.
Markus Johannes Langer
Biography
While still at school, Markus J. Langer studied organ with tuition from Hedwig Bilgram in Munich. He subsequently studied Protestant church music and choir conducting at the same university. He was choirmaster of Laudatekirche, Munich until 1999. Since 2000, he has been church musician of Rostock’s St. John’s Church, where he leads one of North Germany’s largest church music departments, numbering around 400 musicians. He has taught choral conducting and interpretation oratorio at the University of Music and Performing Arts Rostock since 2000. He was appointed Kirchenmusikdirektor in 2009.
Okka von der Damerau
Biography
Okka von der Damerau is engaged at the most important opera houses worldwide: the State Opera Munich, Berlin, Stuttgart, Vienna, Teatro Real Madrid, la Scala, Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera Chicago. She works with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestras Vienna, Berlin and Munich, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Cleveland Orchestra, performed at the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festival. Renowned conductors like Zubin Mehta, Kirill Petrenko, Antonio Pappano, Kent Nagano, Franz Welser-Möst, Fabio Luisi, Valery Gergiev and Edward Gardner invite her regularly. Okka von der Damerau dedicates herself to singing Lied with great passion.
Frank Dittmer
Biography
Frank Dittmer, born in the Emsland, received his first education in ‚C-Kirchenmusikerausbildung‘ in Oldenburg. Afterwards he studied Protestant Church Music and Organ under Prof. Michael Schneider and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Stockmeier at the University of Music in Cologne. After his work as a church music director and organist at St. Nikolai in Stralsund, he has been working as an organist at the Greifswald ‘Dom St. Nikolai’ since 2002. Since 2012 he has been ‘Landeskirchenmusikdirektor’ of the Lutheran-Protestant Church in North Germany. In May 2011 he was awarded an honorary professorship of the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald.