Artists performing at BrixenClassics 2022

"This outstanding master conducts in such a pointed, transparent and suspenseful way that it is a great pleasure to listen to this orchestra from the very first bar", was written about Daniel Geiss and the BrixenClassics Festival Orchestra on the first edition of BrixenClassics in the South Tyrolean daily newspaper "Dolomiten".

Daniel Geiss is considered one of the most versatile musicians of his generation: Since 2021, he has been Artistic and Musical Director of the Belgrade Chamber Orchestra. The BrixenClassics Festival also appointed him Music Director for three years in the fall of 2020. Daniel Geiss has been active as a conductor for nearly two decades, as well as a cellist and lecturer.

His first conducting engagements took him to orchestras in the USA. This was followed by projects at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, the Teatro Real Madrid and with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. Geiss conducted the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, the Philharmonie Südwestfalen and made his debut at the Berlin Philharmonie. The 2018/19 season took Daniel Geiss to Budapest, Linz, Ljubljana, St. Petersburg and Graz. His collaboration with Katharina Wagner as director began in 2019 - with a version of Der fliegende Holländer as a children's opera set up especially for the Spring Festival Tokyo. In 2019, he conducted at Musikfest Leipzig and made his Italian debut at the opening concert of the 44th Cantiere Internationale d'Arte Festival in Montepulciano. The first edition of BrixenClassics in June 2021 may be considered a great success: Here Daniel Geiss conducted concerts and concert opera productions. In the summer of 2021, he conducted an open-air concert as part of the Bayreuth Festival.

One of the most sought-after international voices, Welsh bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel has appeared in all the world's great opera houses and concert halls.

After winning the Song Prize at the 1989 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, he made his professional operatic debut in 1990 as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte at Welsh National Opera. His international operatic debut followed in 1991 in Die Zauberflöte at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, the same year he made his American debut. Roles that have been important in his career include the title role in Don Giovanni, Jochanaan in Salome, as well as the great Wagner roles: Dutchman in Der fliegende Holländer, Hans Sachs in Welsh National Opera's critically acclaimed production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Wotan in the Ring cycle at the Royal Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera, among others. Sir Bryn celebrated his 50th birthday with a gala concert at the Royal Albert Hall, presented by Hollywood star Michael Sheen.

Sir Bryn Terfel's concert highlights range from the BBC Last Night of the Proms to a gala concert with Andrea Bocelli in Central Park. Sir Bryn is a Grammy, Classical Brit and Gramophone award winner with a discography ranging from Wagner operas to Welsh songs. Among many other honors, he was knighted in 2017 for his services to music. Current plans for 2022 take Sir Bryn to the Vienna State Opera and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden with Peter Grimes, and to the Zurich Opera House as Falstaff.

Born in Finland, Camilla Nylund is one of the world's leading lyric sopranos today. She is a regular guest at the world's most renowned opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, the Vienna State Opera, La Scala in Milan, and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London.

Her repertoire includes all the great roles of the classical-romantic repertoire for a lyric-dramatic soprano. Camilla Nylund has repeatedly set artistic standards with her interpretations of Richard Wagner's Elisabeth, Elsa, Eva, Sieglinde, Senta and Richard Strauss' Marschallin, Arabella, Gräfin, Chrysothemis, Kaiserin and Ariadne. Camilla Nylund has already left her mark on the Bayreuth Festival for many years. The artist made her debut on the "Green Hill" in 2011 as Elisabeth, and also sang Elsa, Sieglinde and Eva there.

Camilla Nylund's repertoire was interestingly enriched in 2017 by her debuts as Marie in the new production of Wozzeck at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, as well as Jenufa at the Staatsoper Berlin (2021). Due to Camilla Nylund's longstanding artistic ties with the Vienna State Opera, she was awarded the title of Austrian Kammersängerin in 2019, and the Semperoper Dresden has also named the exceptional artist, who has received numerous awards, a Sächsische Kammersängerin. At the inaugural edition of BrixenClassics 2021, Camilla Nylund was celebrated as Artist in Residence.

Hannah Stone, the official harpist to the Prince of Wales from 2011 to 2015, studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, the University Mozarteum Salzburg and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff.

Hannah Stone has performed at many prestigious venues, including the Royal Albert Hall, the Museum of London and the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff. In 2010, she became principal harpist of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra and has appeared as guest soloist with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the English Chamber Orchestra, among others. In addition to performing for members of the Royal Family, she also played for Barack Obama, Angela Merkel and David Cameron at the 2014 NATO Conference at Cardiff Castle.

She has given recitals at the Edinburgh International Festival, Kings Lynn Festival and the Royal Chapel, Hampton Court Palace, as well as in Italy, Tokyo, Melbourne, Toronto and Vancouver. Recent engagements include concerts at the Sydney Opera House, performances at the Verbier Festival and the funeral service for Lord Snowdon at St. Margaret's Church, Westminster Abbey.

 "Musical maturity, sovereignty and strong stage presence," the FAZ attests to the Moscow-born pianist Julia Okruashvili. The musician's interpretations, full of liveliness, devotion and emotion, often reveal unexpected perspectives.

She has made chamber music the focus of her artistic work. She has performed in various formations in the most important music centres of Europe and Germany, such as the Berliner Philharmonie, Gasteig in Munich, Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Zeneakadémia in Budapest, Musikverein Wien, Athenaeum in Bucharest, and Philharmonie in Moscow. She is a welcome guest at major festivals such as the Mosel Music Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Bregenz Festival, the La Folle Journée Festival in Nantes, the Gent Festival van Vlaanderen, or the Tokyo Spring Festival. Julia Okruashvili has won several prizes. She teaches at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne.

Stanko Madić admitted to the Music Academy at the age of 14, began his orchestral career with the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra and in 2008 with the Staatskapelle Dresden. From 2011 he served as First Concertmaster of the Nuremberg State Philharmonic Orchestra, and since the fall of 2018 he has held the same position with the Munich Radio Orchestra.

Stanko Madić has received numerous awards, including three prizes at the International Violin Competition Rodolfo Lipizer in Gorizia (Italy). As a soloist, he has performed with the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Bremen Philharmonic and the Munich Radio Orchestra, among others. In addition, he has performed as a soloist and chamber musician with artists such as Zubin Mehta, Philippe Jordan, Dmitry Sitkovetsky and Bohdan Warchal.  The violinist is also a member of the early music ensemble Il terzo suono and has been playing in the piano trio Bavaria since 2020. Stanko Madić plays an instrument by Carlo Carletti (1908).

For his musical versatility and humanitarian commitment, British star violinist Daniel Hope was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2016, he succeeded Roger Norrington as Music Director of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and two years later became Music Director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra in San Francisco. In 2020, Hope succeeded Kurt Masur and Joseph Joachim as president of the Beethoven-Haus Bonn.

Hope first attracted attention as the youngest member of the Beaux-Arts Trio - today he performs at venues ranging from New York's Carnegie Hall to Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, from Aspen and Tanglewood to Salzburg, from Schleswig-Holstein to the BBC Proms. He has been an exclusive artist of Deutsche Grammophon since 2007 and, as one of today's most prolific classical artists, has already recorded more than 30 albums that have won many awards.

As an artist who uses his platform to engage in many areas, he curates and hosts salon-style Hope@9pm with cultural as well as political guests at the Berlin Konzerthaus, among others. During the pandemic, he created and hosted Hope@Home, produced for ARTE. It allowed the violinist and his renowned guests - including Christoph Eschenbach, Sir Simon Rattle, Christian Thielemann and Robert Wilson - to stay in touch with their audience from the safety of their Berlin living room. The format and its successors featured more than 400 musicians in 150 episodes, were streamed nearly eleven million times and raised thousands of euros for artists in need.

The Berliner Morgenpost wrote about the exceptional violinist Boris Brovtsyn that he "can always be found on international stages when the breeze of the exclusive, the high-caliber is blowing. His repertoire includes more than 50 violin concertos and hundreds of chamber music works, some of which he has premiered. Brovtsyn has appeared on stage with Sir Neville Marriner, Marek Janowski, Gerd Albrecht and Michael Sanderling, among others, and has been a guest soloist with the London Philharmonic, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Brovtsyn is also an enthusiastic chamber musician and has performed with Janine Jansen and Gidon Kremer, Mischa Maisky, Julian Rachlin and many others - at leading festivals such as the Salzburg Festival and the Verbier Festival.

Now based in Vienna, Boris Brovtsyn holds a professorship for violin at the MUK Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien and gives master classes all over the world.

French-Egyptian violist Sindy Mohamed is one of the most promising young musicians of her generation. A prizewinner of the 2017 International Anton Rubinstein Competition, she performed as a soloist in England with the Royal Northern Sinfonia under Lars Vogt, and Rolando Villazón invited her to appear on the ARTE program "Stars of Tomorrow." As a soloist and chamber musician, Sindy Mohamed is a regular guest at major festivals such as the Moritzburg Festival, the Schubertiade Hohenems and the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence. In the process, she plays with renowned colleagues such as Renaud Capuçon, Isabelle Faust and Alexander Sitkovetsky. Since 2013 she has been a member of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra under the direction of Daniel Barenboim. As part of Kronberg Academy's "Chamber Music Connects the World," she has performed with world stars such as Christian Tetzlaff and Gidon Kremer. Highlights of the 2021/22 season include her debuts at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Heidelberg Spring International Music Festival, among others.

Since the 2011/2012 season, Arthur Hornig has been principal cellist of the Deutsche Oper Berlin Orchestra. In 2018, he also took on this role in the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra. He is invited as a chamber musician to renowned festivals throughout Europe, Asia and South America. Born in 1987, he received his first cello lessons at the age of 5. From 2006, he studied in Prof. Michael Sanderling's cello class at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. Arthur Hornig has often taken part in the "Jugend musiziert" competition and has always won first prizes. In 2010 Arthur was a finalist of the international competition "Deutscher Musikwettbewerb". He was a scholarship holder of the German National Academic Foundation and was sponsored by the Yehudi Menuhin organization. For more than a decade he performed regularly with the "Trio NeuKlang" with classical as well as contemporary repertoire and crossover programs. In 2016 he won the ECHO Klassik with his "Berolina Ensemble".

Michael Volle is a fixed star of all major opera houses and festivals worldwide - from the Metropolitan Opera and the State Operas of Munich and Vienna to the Teatro alla Scala and the Opéra National de Paris. He maintains a particularly close relationship with the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. He is also a regular guest at the Salzburg and Bayreuth Festivals.

The 21/22 season brings no less than four exciting roles at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden for the versatile baritone: he can be heard in the title role of Verdi's Falstaff, as well as the High Priest in Samson et Dalila, Jack Rance in La fanciulla del West and in the title role of a new production of Mozart's Don Giovanni. He returns to the Metropolitan Opera New York with Hans Sachs, one of his parade roles, sings Wolfram at the Staatsoper Dresden and Wotan (Das Rheingold) at the Leipzig Opera, among others, as part of the Wagner Festival. Michael Volle is equally active on the concert stage: he begins the season with pianist Martha Agerich at the Lausitz Festival, sings Bach's St. John Passion with the Munich Bach Choir in Bucharest, Mahler's Lied von der Erde at the Elbphilharmonie and much more.

His parade roles include the title role in Wagner's Flying Dutchman, Wotan/Wanderer in the Ring of the Nibelung, Amfortas (Parsifal) as well as the Strauss roles Barak (Die Frau ohne Schatten), Johanaan (Salome), Orest (Elektra) and Mandryka (Arabella), but also Alban Berg's Wozzeck.

Volle also appeared as Kaspar in "Freischütz" in the opera adaptation by Jens Neubert (2010).

Christopher Ventris is considered one of the world's leading heroic tenors, enjoying an unparalleled reputation as an outstanding Siegmund and Parsifal - making him predestined for the heroic role of Max in "Freischütz," which he currently also sings at the Vienna State Opera and the Zurich Opera House. His acclaimed Bayreuth Festival debut as Parsifal in Stefan Herheim's new production was followed by countless appearances in the role, for example at the Opéra national de Paris, the San Francisco Opera and the Zurich Opera House. As Siegmund, he has appeared at the Bayreuth Festival, the Semperoper Dresden, Washington National Opera, Dutch National Opera and the Vienna State Opera.

Ventris' recent role debut in Tristan und Isolde at the Théâtre de la Monnaie was received with great acclaim. In addition to the major Wagner roles, however, he has also caused a stir as Peter Grimes, Florestan (Fidelio), Sergei (Lady Macbeth of Mzensk) and Jimmy Mahoney (Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny). Števa in Janáček's Jenůfa was his Metropolitan Opera debut, and most recently he sang Laca in Dmitri Tcherniakov's new production at Zurich Opera House.

In the current season, Christopher Ventris will appear as Siegmund (Walküre) with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and Eva Ollikainen, among others - and as Tambour-Major (Wozzeck) at Carnegie Hall.

The 21/22 season brings great challenges for Gabriela Scherer: Her role debut in the title role of Puccini's Tosca at Theater Dortmund - and that as Elsa in a new production of Lohengrin by Katharina Wagner at Oper Leipzig. Her Agathe in Brixen's Freischütz fits perfectly into this series.

Born in Zurich, Gabriela Scherer studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, completing her training at the Zurich Opera Studio and with master classes with Angelika Kirchschlager, Francisco Araiza and Barbara Fink.

 In 2021 Gabriela Scherer took on a gala concert with the Salzburg Philharmonic Orchestra at short notice, and in May 2020 she could be heard singing excerpts from Strauss' Arabella and Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer alongside Michael Volle at the Staatstheater Wiesbaden. In summer 2020 she sang several concerts, including an open air concert alongside Michael Volle, Massimo Giordano and Barbara Frittoli under the baton of Markus Bosch with the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie.

"When we are asked what kind of music we make, we all always push around a bit. After a while, sometimes the answer is the new German word zapping, because it's a bit like fulfilling the wish you have when zapping between radio programmes: at the end of a nice piece, to switch to another frequency and hear exactly the beginning of a completely different, but just as nice piece there." This is how Aluna describes itself: A quartet that is actually a quintet. Viola, two guitars, double bass and trombone, plus five singing voices. Ten instruments, so to speak, a combo, only with five and without drums. With Umberto Carrescia, Zeno Braitenberg, Gigi Grata, Hartwig Mumelter, Gregor Marini. An idiosyncratic line-up that promises pleasurably exciting listening pleasure.

Magnus Dietrich is a member of the international opera studio at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, where he has already made his debut as Tamino in Mozart's "Die Zauberflöte". Dietrich is also a scholarship holder of the Liz Mohn Culture and Music Foundation. The young tenor's most recent engagements also include performances with the Staatskappelle Berlin of Robert Schumann's "Das Paradies und die Peri" at the Berlin and Hamburg Philharmonies under the baton of Marc Minkowski. In the upcoming 22/23 season Magnus Dietrich will again be heard as Tamino at the Berlin State Opera as well as, among others, as the Steersman in Wagner's "Der fliegende Holländer" and 1st Jew in Strauss' "Salome". The Munich tenor studied singing with KS Prof. Andreas Schmidt at the Munich University of Music and Theatre and privately with Hartmut Elbert. Master classes with Andrew Watts, Neil Shicoff, Bo Skovhus and Hedwig Fassbender complete his training. Magnus Dietrich maintains an active concert schedule and has already made guest appearances at festivals such as the international Hugo Wolf Academy, the Bach Festival Leipzig, the Kissinger Sommer, the Festival de Santes and the Bach Academy France.  Concert tours with the soloist ensemble Vox Luminis have also taken him to France, Belgium and the Netherlands. He has a lively collaboration with the conductor Johanna Soller in various projects such as the concert series "Cantate um 1715" as a member of the "capella sollertia" or the Kammeroper München. Magnus Dietrich is the first winner of the BrixenClassics Young Artist Award. A CD with Brahms duets together with the pianist Doriana Tchakarova and Felicitas and Judith Erb will be released on the MDG label in May 2022.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

After graduating from high school, Dutchman Anton Saris trained as a singer at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. After six years as a lyric baritone he switched to tenor. In 2001 he made his debut in Antwerp as soloist in Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Saris has worked as a soloist with many well-known orchestras such as

Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, Brabants Orkest, Noord Nederlands Orkest, Bochumer Symphoniker, Oldenburger Staatsorchester, Staatsorchester Halle, Neue Elblandphilharmonie, and opera ensembles such as Opera Comique (Paris), Flemish Opera (Antwerp), Staatsoperette Dresden, Staatsoper Bourgas, Opera Amsterdam, Hoofdstad Operette (Amsterdam), Vaasa Opera and Opera House Valladolid. He sang Florestan, Rienzi, Kalaf, Eisenstein, Rodolfo, Count Zedlau, Idomeneo, Erik, "Lohengrin" Act 3 and "Die Walküre" Act 1, among others. Arias and recitals have taken him to Helsinki, Gothenburg, London, Amsterdam, Dresden and New York. In recent years, he has increasingly devoted himself to the art of song. In 2016, he became artistic director of the Liedkunst am Weißen Hirsch series in Dresden. After taking on the role of Erik in the Flying Dutchman at the premiere of BrixenClassics 2021, he returns to Brixen this year as director of the BrixenClassics Singing Academy.

Christian Unterhofer, choir director of the BrixenClassics Festival Choir, is one of the most successful choir directors in South Tyrol. After his training, including at the Brixen Church Music School, the Kapellmeister course in Klagenfurt, singing lessons with J. Oberwalder, organ lessons with Prof. Otto Rubatscher and conducting courses in Austria and abroad under Erwin Ortner, Johannes Hiemetsberger, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and others, he has been and continues to be very active in a wide variety of fields. His professional stages include: Music teacher in Bruneck, conductor of the Musikkapelle Lappach, choirmaster of the Ahrntaler Männerchor, choirmaster of the Kirchenchor Taufers, choirmaster of the Jugendchor Ahrntal, conductor of the Tauernquartett, choirmaster of the Männerchor Taufers, choirmaster of the Männergesangverein Brixen, leader of the Brixen Viergesang, conductor of the Wolkenstein music band, choirmaster of the Lappach church choir, leader of the Gasslquartett, bandmaster of the Gufidaun music band, leader of the musiKultur Taufers vocal ensemble and bandmaster of the Teis music band.

The Belgrade Chamber Orchestra with concertmaster Miljana Popovic Materni is a young ensemble that impresses with its emotionality  and virtuosic playing.  Under the artistic direction of Daniel Geiss, the BCO has also made a name for itself internationally.  We are happy to welcome the BCO for the second time as part of the festival BrixenClassics.  A special highlight will be the concert "Balkan Folkmusic" which the BCO will play on June 15th as part of the "City Sounds" chamber concerts.

After studying history, art history and musicology in Freiburg, the music journalist and publicist Axel Brüggemann first worked as a journalist for "Die Welt" and the "Frankfurter Rundschau", among others. In 2004, he became text editor of the "Welt am Sonntag". From 2006 to 2008, he was editor-in-chief of the classical music magazine "crescendo". He is still true to his journalistic home, print journalism, and now writes for "Cicero", "Der Freitag", the "Jüdische Allgemeine" and continues to write for "crescendo". Another focus of his work is narration in documentary films, which he has written and shot for "ZDF", "ARD", "arte", "3sat", "SKY" and other broadcasters. He appears as a presenter on television, of concerts or in his own talk shows. He developed the concept for the multi-hour live programme "Bayreuth die Show", which he also hosted. For this, he was nominated for the Grimme Award in 2018. In 2019, he received the Bavarian Television Award in the categories of moderation and book.Since 2019, Brüggemann has been working as a moderator for "Klassik Radio".

Born in Bolzano/Bozen, Anna Zangerle was brought up bilingually. After graduating in law, she pursued her passion for communication and the media by embarking on a career in journalism, and now has experience working for television channels RTTR, SDF and VIDEO 33 under her belt. Since 2019, she has been a freelance editor for Rai Südtirol. Thanks to her professionalism and warm personality as a presenter, Anna is often invited to speak at a range of events, panel discussions, presentations, award ceremonies and press conferences in both German and Italian. Together with Axel Brüggemann, she hosted A Night at the Opera starring Camilla Nylund and Juan Diego Flórez on the opening night of BrixenClassics in 2021.

Baritone Wolfgang Vater studied singing in Hannover and was a member of the ensemble at the Staatstheater Wiesbaden theatre in Germany from 1991 to 2014. He has guest starred at numerous venues, including the Gärtnerplatztheater in Munich and opera houses in Frankfurt am Main, Mannheim, Bonn, Dortmund, Essen, Bremen, Paris, Metz and Genoa. He also teaches voice production at the University of Mainz. On top of his career as a singer, Wolfgang is a popular presenter and speaker in the classical music world on both the stage and radio.

Yvonne Miracolo, born in Bolzano/Bozen, has been an intrinsic part of the Rai Südtirol team since 1999. A true specialist in classical music, she has a wide range of experience as a presenter, programme editor, news producer, floor manager and newsreader. Her in-depth knowledge of classical music has made her one of the most sought-after experts in this field in South Tyrol. At BrixenClassics 2021, she hosted the two evening performances A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Genius Wagner – The Flying Dutchman alongside Axel Brüggemann.