Sarah-Jane Brandon studied at the Royal College of Music in London.  This season, this South African soprano is currently enjoying her debut as ›Jenufa‹ in a new joint production by the Greek National Opera, Dijon Opera and Caen Opera. She has also returned to both Palm Beach Opera as Donna Anna in ›Don Giovanni‹ and to the Semper Opera. To date, she has performed with numerous orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and with such renowned conductors as Sir Andrew Davis, Bernard Haitink, Sir Roger Norrington, Omer Meir Wellber, Iván Fischer, Kurt Masur and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Her many opera engagements include the role of the Contessa in ›The Marriage of Figaro‹ at the Semper Opera Dresden, the Glyndebourne Festival, the Savonlinna Opera Festival and Dijon Opera. Other roles include Micaela from ›Carmen‹ for the Deutsche Opera Berlin and for the Teatro São Carlos in Lisbon, Antonia from ›Tales of Hoffmann‹ at the Semper Opera Dresden, Handel’s ›L’Allegro‹ for the Teatro Real in Madrid, among numerous others. Further debuts are planned at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo and at the Bavarian State Opera. On the concert stage, Brandon can be heard as a guest performer with the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, where she will be performing in Haydn’s ›Nelson‹ Mass. She will also be performing Haydn’s ›Creation‹ together with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra at the BBC Proms and Mozart’s C minor Mass with Rai Torino.

In its 150-year history, the Gewandhaus Choir has traditionally been closely linked to the Gewandhaus Orchestra. Many famous conductors have already worked with the orchestra, including the incumbent Thomaskantor and Gewandhaus Kapellmeister, most recently Herbert Blomstedt, Riccardo Chailly and Andris Nelsons. Since the 2007 season, Gregor Meyer has directed the choir, which regularly performs on stage with the Gewandhaus Orchestra, as well as with other instrumental and choral ensembles. The Gewandhaus Choir repertoire is extremely wide-ranging and requires a high degree of flexibility in the voice, as well as a willingness to constantly engage in new programmatic approaches.

Special projects in past seasons have been, among others, the collaboration of the star trombonist Nils Landgren with the all-embracing Herbert Feuerstein, the actresses Katharina and Anna Thalbach, a dramatised performance of Bach’s ›St Mark’s Passion‹ in a version for the deaf and a collaboration of the innovative piano-electro artist Martin Kohlstedt in the 2017/18 season. Further highlights of the choir’s work are their many tours abroad which most recently have taken the choir to Vienna, the Vatican, the Lucerne Festival, the BBC Proms, India and Vietnam. The choir has also appeared in extraordinary locations such as the Monument to the Battle of Nations in Leipzig, the crematorium at Leipzig Cemetery and the cult Cologne pub, ›Weißer Holunder‹. In the successful documentary ›Sound of Heimat‹ (Sounds of Home), the singers even appeared on the big screen. Various CD, television, radio and DVD productions give testament to the multifaceted artistic work of the Gewandhaus Choir.

Omer Meir Wellber is one of the leading conductors of opera and orchestral repertoire. He is Music Director at the Volksoper in Vienna, Music Director of the Teatro Massimo Palermo and Artistic Director of the Toscanini Festival. He is also a regular guest with renowned orchestras such as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Wiener Symphoniker, the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin and the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich.

Omer Meir Wellber’s long-standing collaboration with the Semperoper Dresden culminated in his position as Principal Guest Conductor from 2018 to 2022. Since 2010, he has been conducting new productions and re-recordings as well as symphony concerts with the Sächsische Staatskapelle. Highlights as Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic include concerts at the BBC Proms and the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival. Despite his many international engagements, Omer Meir Wellber still maintains close ties with ensembles in his native Israel, for example as Music Director of the Raanana Symphonette with whom he is particularly committed to music education and outreach. In addition, Wellber is also active as a writer and published his first novel ‘Die vier Ohnmachten des Chaim Birkner’ (The Four Faints of Chaim Birkner) in autumn 2019, also translated into Italian and French. He has already collaborated several times with the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen in concerts and on joint tours.

Werner Güra grew up in Munich and, after completing his studies at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, continued his vocal training with Kurt Widmer in Basel, Margreet Honig in Amsterdam and with Wessela Zlateva in Vienna. Today, he is regarded as a master of his craft and is valued worldwide as a lieder and oratorio singer. After several early engagements in Frankfurt and Basel, Güra became a member of the Semper Opera Ensemble in Dresden in 1995, where he has performed major roles in several Mozart and Rossini operas. He has also performed at the Berlin State Opera with the conductor Daniel Barenboim, has guested at the Opera National de Paris as well as at the Innsbruck Early Music Festival and has sung the role of Don Ottavio at the Baden-Baden Festival with conductor René Jacobs.

Equally at home on the concert stage and in oratorios, Werner Güra has performed in many of the major European concert halls with renowned orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, the Vienna Philharmonic and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, with Riccardo Chailly, Daniel Harding or Sir Roger Norrington conducting. He has also featured in a concert tour of Japan with Nikolaus Harnoncourt. As a lieder singer, Werner Güra has performed at London’s Wigmore Hall, in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, at the Lucerne Festival, at the Lincoln Center in New York and has performed in several Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg and Barcelona. He has received both the Diapason d’or and an ECHO Prize for his CD recordings and has been teaching Singing at the Music College in Zurich since 2009.