Sarah Wegener has become an internationally sought-after performer for opera, concert, chamber music, Lieder and contemporary music within a very short time. Following her double bass-studies, she joined the singing class of Prof. Bernhard Jaeger-Böhm at the Conservatory in Stuttgart. After graduating with honours, she joined the class for Lieder interpretation of Prof. Cornelis Witthoefft and took part in master-classes with Dame Gwyneth Jones and Renée Morloc.

In recent years, the British-German soprano has been invited to the Festival Styriarte in Graz, the Salzburg Biennale, Bozard Brüssel, De Doelen Rotterdam, Konzerthaus Berlin, Alte Oper Frankfurt and Opéra Garnier Paris.

In 2011, she performed the main role of Nadja in the world premiere of Friedrich Haas’ opera Bluthaus, for which she was nominated in the category ›Singer of the Year‹ by Opernwelt magazine. In 2009, she had already premièred a work by the same composer for the WDR Cologne: his Lieder cycle ›…wie stille brannte das Licht‹ was written especially for the soprano, drawing on her unique ability to interpret microtonal music and her extensive range.

The results of this collaboration include a Cd recording of arias by Justin Heinrich Knecht. The lyrical soprano also features on the CDs of the SWR2 and Carus-Verlag’s singing with children Lieder project. Sarah Wegener also actively promotes singing in older age.

Finnish-born tenor Jussi Myllys started his international career in 2005, singing Don Ottavio in Turku and at the Komische Oper Berlin. Immediately following were several concerts in Prague and Riga with Peter Schreier and in Japan along with the RIAS Kammerchor. In Turku he also recorded a performance with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

The young graduate of the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki is working with Elisabeth Werres and also has a versatile education as a dancer and singer.

During his time as a member of the Frankfurt Opera, Julius Myllis debuted at the Semper Opera in Dresden, the Grand Théâtre de Genève and at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki. At the beginning of the 2009/2010 season Jussi Myllys joined the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. His concert repertoire includes such works as Bach‘s St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation and Seasons, Mendelssohn’s Hymn of Praise, Mozart’s Requiem as well as the Requiem by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Most recently, Jussi Myllys sang ›Ferrando‹ at the Opéra Bastille and the Frankfurt Opera and for a number of seasons has guested at the Bavarian State Opera. In the summer of 2012 he also interpreted the role of ›Tamino‹ in the Magic Flute at the renowned Savonlinna Opera Festival.

Founded by Helmuth Rilling in 1954, the Gächinger Kantorei has enjoyed the sponsorship of the International Bach Academy Stuttgart since 1981 and is today considered one of the world’s most outstanding concert choirs. During its long history which spans more than 60 years, the choir has performed hundreds of concerts, made countless guest appearances, Radio and CD recordings and can lay claim to inestimable influence through its various notable credentials, for example its collaborations with renowned guest conductors and orchestras, including Masaaki Suzuki, Krzysztof Penderecki and Sir Roger Norrington as well as the Vienna Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic.

During the 2016/17 season, the Bach Academy’s vocal and instrumental ensembles underwent a fundamental change and have since been performing under the one shared name of ›Gaechinger Cantorey‹. The deliberately archaic spelling unites the choir – which Academy Director Hans-Christoph Rademann has been gradually reforming since his appointment in 2013 – with the newly-formed Baroque orchestra. Based on the historical traditions of the Bach era and with its roots in live performance history, the Gaechinger Cantorey stands for a holistic musical approach and the aesthetic sound-ideal of the Baroque. This authentic sound is achieved today through the use of Baroque instruments and musicians who are experts in Baroque performance practices, as well as choirs whose singers are as talented as ›Ripienists‹ (ensemble singers) as they are ›Concertistas‹ (soloists).

Hans-Christoph Rademann is a immensely versatile artist with an extensive repertoire. Conductor and choral sound specialist, he devotes himself to Early Music as passionately as he does Contemporary Music. Born in Dresden in 1965, he grew up in the Erzgebirge where he was greatly influenced by the cantorial heritage and the musical tradition of central Germany. He studied Choral and Orchestral Conducting at the Music College Dresden, founding the Dresden Chamber Choir while still a student and, through his continued direction, has moulded it into the world-class ensemble it is today.

Between 1999 and 2004, Hans-Christoph Rademann was Chief Conductor of the NDR Choir and from 2007 until 2015, Chief Conductor of the RIAS Chamber Choir. He has been Director of the International Bach Academy Stuttgart and its own Gaechinger Cantorey since 2013. In addition, the conductor also makes regular appearances as Guest Conductor with international and prestigious ensembles such as the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, The Academy of Ancient Music, the Rotterdam Philharmonic or the Staatskapelle Dresden. Many of his CD recordings are considered ground-breaking. Hans-Christoph Rademann has received many awards for his artistic work including the ›German Record Critics’ Award‹, the ›Grand Prix du Disque‹ and the Diapason d’or‹. He is Professor for Choir Conducting at the Carl Maria von Weber Music College in Dresden and also Artistic Director of the Erzgebirge Music Festival.

Gerhild Romberger completed her vocal studies with Heiner Eckels at the Detmold College of Music, where she obtained her Concert Exam. Further vocal performance courses with Mitsuko Shirai and Hartmut Höll rounded her studies. She has been Professor of Vocal Studies at Detmold College of Music since 2003.

Her artistic focus lies in concert performance. Her wide repertoire encompasses all the great alto and mezzo roles of the oratorio and concert literature, from the Baroque to the 20th century. Her work with Andris Nelsons and Gustavo Dudamel and the Berlin and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras, with Herbert Blomstedt and the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra as well as concerts with Manfred Honeck have been important milestones of her career in recent years.

In the 2018/19 season, Gerhild Romberger dedicated herself to the music of Mahler, giving concerts featuring ›Lied von der Erde‹ in Monte Carlo, Mahler’s 2nd Symphony at the Accademia Nationale di Santa Cecilia in Rome with the Berlin Philharmonic as well as his 3rd Symphony with the Stavanger Orchestra. Further to this, she returned to Hamburg and the Elbphilharmonie to perform Ligeti’s ›Requiem‹ and another performance of Mahler’s 2nd Symphony with Kent Nagano, before closing the season with Dvorak’s Stabat Mater and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence. Her CD recording of Mahler’s 3rd Symphony with Bernard Haitink the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra was awarded ›Recording of the year‹ in 2018 by the BBC Music Magazine.

Jochen Kupfer, with his deep baritone, is one of Germany’s most sought-after singers of the younger generation. His guest appearances in the world’s opera houses and concert halls have been internationally celebrated.

When he was only nine years old, he got his first singing lessons at the music school of his native town of Grimma. He studied with Helga Forner (Musikhochschule Leipzig) and attended masterclasses with Theo Adam, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, completing his studies with Rudolf Piernay, Harald Stamm and Dale Fundling.

Jochen Kupfer gave his much lauded role debut as ›Mandryka‹ in Arabella in February 2014. Highly acclaimed role debuts in preceding seasons have included Kurwenal (Tristan und Isolde) and Spirit Messenger (Die Frau ohne Schatten) as well as Orest (Elektra), the title role in Rossini’s Guillaume Tell and Giorgio Germont (La Traviata). His debut as Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Staatstheater Nürnberg) in 2011 was described as »just brilliant« (Opernwelt) in the press.

Jochen Kupfer has appeared with famous conductors including Giuseppe Sinopoli, Kurt Masur, Riccardo Chailly, Philippe Herreweghe, Jeffrey Tate, Enoch zu Guttenberg, Christof Prick, Kent Nagano, Fabio Luisi, Yuri Temirkanov, Paavo Järvi and Herbert Blomstedt.

He makes regular guest appearances at international festivals such as the Salzburger Festspiele, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn, Lincoln Center Festival New York, Festival of Early Music in Boston and the Menuhin Festival Gstaad.

Jochen Kupfer is a prizewinner in the Mozart Festival Competition in Würzburg, the international Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig, the National Singing Competition in Berlin, the Mendelssohn Bartholdy Competition in Berlin and the Meistersänger Competition in Nuremberg.