After her international solo debut with Concerto Köln in Nantes in 2008, Johanna Winkel quickly established an excellent reputation in oratorio. Numerous engagements followed, for example with the NDR Radiophilharmonie, the Hamburg Symphoniker, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and also with the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno as well as the choirs of RIAS and NDR. Since then, she has been steadily expanding her repertoire to include romantic and modern music and thus has travelled extensively. In addition to concerts in Brussels, Oslo, Paris and Moscow, she has toured with the Kammerchor Stuttgart to Vancouver and Montréal and with the International Bach Academy Stuttgart to Lima, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Johanna Winkel has also sung Britten’s ›War Requiem‹ at the Tonhalle Zurich, Handel’s ›Messiah‹ at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Brahms’ ›Deutsche Requiem‹ in Tel Aviv and has made guest appearances in China with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. She also makes frequent appearances on the opera stage, including at the Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth. Winkel also features as soloist on numerous radio recordings and CDs. Her recording of ›Moses und Aron‹ with Sylvain Cambreling and the SWR Symphony Orchestra received a Grammy nomination. The recording of Spohr’s oratorio Oratorium ›Die letzten Dinge‹ with the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen was included in the German Record Critics’ Best List.

Florian Sievers studied singing at the Leipzig College of Music and Drama, where, in 2021, he graduated as a master student with distinction and who now works as a freelance singer. Despite his young age, he has developed a busy international concert schedule as a soloist, which regularly takes him to major music centres. A highlight of the 2022/23 season was his USA debut at the Boston Early Music Festival. In the coming season, he will be performing as the Evangelist in Bach’s ›St John Passion‹ with the RIAS Chamber Choir and the Akademie für Alte Musik in Berlin and Paris.

Florian Sievers has performed with conductors such as Jordi Savall, Frieder Bernius, Lionel Meunier and Wolfgang Katschner, as well as with ensembles such as the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and many others. As a much sought-after Lieder singer, he also regularly performs innovative programmes. In 2021, for example, he initiated an experimental project in which he arranged Franz Schubert’s famous ›Erlkönig‹ for two electric guitars and voice. Opera productions also play an important role in his work. In the 2024 performances in The Netherlands and Germany of the opera ›J. S. Bach – The Apocalypse‹  which premiered in 2022, Sievers will once again take the leading role of Jan van Leyden. Numerous CD, video and radio recordings with works ranging from Baroque to contemporary opera also bear witness to the great diversity in Sievers’ repertoire.

Thomas E. Bauer is one of the most fascinating vocal artists of the present day, who is successful and in demand as a concert, opera and Lieder singer. Thomas E. Bauer was artist in residence at BOZAR Brussels and has performed with internationally renowned orchestras such as Bernard Haitink and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Concentus Musicus, Orchestra Zubin Mehta and Filarmonica della Scala, Herbert Blomstedt and the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. At the Salzburg Festival, Bauer recently performed Schubert’s ›Lazarus‹ under Ingo Metzmacher and Schönberg’s ›Jacob’s Ladder‹ at the Berlin Philharmonie.

In recent seasons Bauer has performed the song cycle ›An die Ferne Geliebte‹ at the Beethovenfest Bonn, among others, and appeared with Simone Young and the MDR Symphony Orchestra and with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra to perform Jörg Widmann’s orchestral song cycle ›Das Heiße Herz‹ as well as Bach Cantatas with Kent Nagano and the Philharmonische Staatsorchester Hamburg. Recent season highlights also include the world premiere of Peter Ruzicka’s ›Benjamin Sinfonie‹ with the hr Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer. On the opera stage, Bauer most recently celebrated a great success with Zimmermann’s ›Die Soldaten‹ at the Teatro alla Scala. Bauer is also the initiator and artistic director of the prize-winning Blaibach Concert Hall in the Bavarian Forest.

Born in 1985, Magnus Piontek is a highly sought-after opera and oratorio singer. His signature roles include the great Wagnerian roles as well as those of the romantic oratorio. In the 2022/23 season he is performing, among other roles, Colline (›La Bohème‹) at the Semperoper Dresden and as King Marke in ›Tristan und Isolde‹ with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. Next year he will debut as King Treff in Prokofiev’s ›Love for Three Oranges‹ in Bonn. In previous seasons, he has already given debuts at Oper Leipzig and Staatstheater Kassel to great critical acclaim. The Komische Oper Berlin’s tour of Asia in autumn 2019, where he appeared as Sarastro in ›Die Zauberflöte‹, was another highlight of this freelance singer’s career.

In addition to his operatic activities, Magnus Piontek devotes himself intensively to the oratorio repertoire and has been convincing in his interpretations of Verdi’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s ›Paulus‹, Bach’s B-minor Mass, Martin’s ›In Terra Pax‹  and Haydn’s ›Schöpfung‹ among others. Guest appearances have taken this singer to the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Mozart Festival in Würzburg, the Easter Festival in Baden-Baden and the Berlin Philharmonie. In radio and CD productions Piontek has sung, among other roles, the part of Hunding in Wagner’s ›Die Walküre‹ alongside Klaus-Florian Vogt and Catherine Foster. Magnus Piontek lives in Leipzig and also has a great interest in languages: He speaks German, English, Russian, Arabic, Italian, French and has started learning Korean.

In 1968 Frieder Bernius laid the foundation stone for his extraordinary career with the founding of the Kammerchor Stuttgart – to this day one of the leading ensembles of its kind. He also directs the Stuttgart Baroque Orchestra and the Hofkapelle Stuttgart, a special ensemble dedicated to performing music from the early 19th century. The Stuttgart Classical Philharmonic, which plays works from the 19th to the 21st century on modern instruments, also enjoys his direction. Whether vocal works by Bach, dramatic music by Mendelssohn or symphonies by Haydn, Bernius constantly strives to combine his unmistakeably personal tone with an original sound-ideal. He is equally dedicated to rediscovering operas of the 18th century as to the premieres of contemporary compositions.

Frieder Bernius’ stylistic versatility is widely recognised across the globe. This Mannheim Music Academy Honorary Professor has led concert tours to all the important international festivals. In 1987 he founded the Stuttgart International Festival for Ancient Music (known since 2004 as the Festival Stuttgart Baroque), which, in a single stroke, made the city a centre for historically informed performance practice. In addition, Bernius has so far made around 120 recordings which have been awarded 40 international prizes. For the 2009 Felix Mendelssohn year, he was able to complete his twelve-part recording of the composer’s spiritual vocal works in their entirety. In addition to many other honours, Frieder Bernius has been awarded the Federal Cross of Merit Ribbon for his services to German musical life.

Originally from Constance, Maximilian Vogler performs as soloist throughout Germany and its neighbouring countries. He first studied at Detmold College of Music with Gerhild Romberger and with Werner Güra at Zurich College of the Arts, where he graduated with distinction. He is a prizewinner of the Rheinsberg Chamber Opera and has won awards from the Richard Wagner Association and his hometown of Constance. In recent years, Vogler has performed with various ensembles, including the AKAMUS Berlin, the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Philharmonie Zuidnederland, the lautten compagney Berlin and the Baroque orchestras La Stagione Frankfurt, L’Arco Hannover, La Scintilla Zürich, La Banda Augsburg, L’arpa festante and others. In addition, Vogler supports several chamber music ensembles, where his special focus is on the Lied.

In 2019 Maximilian Vogler debuted at the Zurich Opera House, where he took part in a children’s production. In 2022 he debuted at the Philharmonie Berlin and in spring this year at the Staatsoper Stuttgart in a staged adaptation of Bach’s ›Johannes-Passion‹. Also released this year was his first CD as soloist in the ›Johannes-Passion‹ with the Baroque ensemble Gli Angeli Genève, conducted by Stephan Macleod. In the summer of 2023, Vogler could be heard in Giovanni Paisiello’s ›La Molinara‹ at Rheinsberg Castle. This tenor also has a close collaboration with the Swiss Origen Festival Cultural, where he regularly curates and designs concert programmes.

Arttu Kataja began his musical education with oboe lessons at the age of nine and later studied singing at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Since 2006, this baritone has been a permanent ensemble member of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, where he has worked with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Gustavo Dudamel, Andris Nelsons, Sir Simon Rattle, Omer Meir Wellber and many others, singing roles such as Papageno (›Die Zauberflöte‹), Peter Besenbinder (›Hänsel und Gretel‹), Marcello in ›La Bohème‹ and many more. In addition, guest performances have taken him to many international theatres from Vienna to Santiago de Chile. This Finnish performer is also in great demand as a recitalist and Lieder singer.

In recent years, Arttu Kataja has also toured the world as Count Almaviva in a semi-concertante version of ›Le Nozze di Figaro‹ with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. Other concert highlights included Handel’s ›Messiah‹ conducted by Michael Sanderling at the Dresden Philharmonie. In the 2021/22 season, Arttu Kataja performed Sibelius‘ ›Kullervo‹ at the Sibelius Festival and also at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.  At his home in Berlin, the singer took part in the world premiere of Peter Eötvös‘ opera ballad ›Sleepless‹, a production that he also premiered at the Grand Théâtre Genève in spring 2022 and which was named ›World Premiere of the Year‹ by Opernwelt magazine.

Prior to his vocal studies at Würzburg College of Music, Felix Rathgeber began his musical training in the Windsbacher Knabenchor. His solo repertoire includes almost all of the standard liturgical works in the repertoire, which he has performed across Germany and Europe under conductors such as Frieder Bernius, Ralf Otto, Michael Schneider, Karl-Friedrich Beringer and Jörg Straube. In addition, he has sung Monteverdi’s ›Vespers for the Blessed Virgin‹ und Bach’s ›St John Passion‹ in South Africa, as well as Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium in Beijing and Ekaterinburg. Rathgeber has also performed contemporary music in Kanazawa, Japan.

In addition, this young singer is on tour with his own song programmes, in which texts have been added to existing songs. Here he has a long-standing artistic partnership with Christian Rohrbach and the narrator Clemens Nicol. Rathgeber has also performed various opera roles, such as Rocco in Beethoven’s ›Fidelio‹, Titurel in Wagner’s ›Parsifal‹ and Mozart’s ›Figaro‹. Engagements have taken him to the Opera Studio of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, to the Landestheater Coburg and to the Heidenheim Opera Festival. His many years as an ensemble soloist and chorister have also taken him to the Kammerchor Stuttgart, the Balthasar Neumann Choir, the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the MDR Rundfunkchor and the Berliner Rundfunkchor. Today he is a permanent member of the WDR Rundfunkchor Köln.

The Kammerchor Stuttgart counts as one of the best ensembles of its kind. In the 50 years since its inception, its founder and conductor Frieder Bernius has shaped the choir into something exceptional, celebrated by both the media and the public.  The choir’s repertoire ranges from the 17th to the 21st century. »No superlative is wasted on praising this choir« wrote the newspaper ›Zeit‹ about this outstanding vocal ensemble. The vocal brilliance is almost unrivalled – a perfect purity of intonation and an unsurpassable vividness in textual diction.

Not surprising, then, that the ensemble invitations to perform at all the important European festivals and has performed in countless renowned concert halls. On the occasion of the 1st, 4th and 10th World Symposium for Choral Music, the Stuttgart choir was invited to Vienna, Sydney and Seoul. Its worldwide history also shows regular North American and Asian tours since 1988, as well as a tour of South America. This top ensemble has also been making guest appearances in Israel every two years since 1984. Of its 90 plus CD recordings – including those made with The Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen – over 40 have been awarded prizes. For example, in 2017 the Kammerchor was awarded the German Record Critics Prize for its Mendelssohn CD ›Lieder Im Freien Zu Singen‹.