»He is the forerunner of a new generation of lieder singers« (British Gramophone Magazine).

In 2016 Benjamin Appl received the Gramophone Award for ›New Artist of the Year 2016‹, in 2014, the BBC nominated him as a ›New Generation Artist‹ and between 2014 and 2016 as well as during the 2015/16 season, Benjamin Appl sang in the ›ECHO Rising Stars‹ series of song recitals, held in some of Europe’s most important concert halls. In May 2016 Benjamin Appl signed a long-term exclusive contract with Sony Classical. His Debut-CD ›Heimat‹ with songs by Schubert, Brahms, Strauss and Grieg, among others, was released in February 2017.

Benjamin Appl received his first voice training with the Regensburger Domspatzen. Alongside the successful completion of a Business Studies Degree, Appl also graduated with honours from the College of Music and Performing Arts in Munich as well as from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. As his last pupil, Appl was greatly influenced by the lieder-singing legend Dietrich Fischer-Diskau.

Benjamin Appl can be heard regularly in major concert halls such as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall and at Schubertiads and song recitals in Schwarzenberg and Hohenems respectively. In addition, he has given many guest performances at international music festivals such as the Heidelberger Frühling, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Piano Festival Ruhr and the Chicago Ravinia Festival.

Benjamin Appl has been teaching at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London since 2016. We are very pleased to welcome Benjamin Appl for his debut with the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen.

In recent years, Duncan Ward has established himself as one of the most exciting and versatile conductors of his generation, whose lively interpretations of the classical repertoire are praised as much as his interpretations of 20th century masterpieces. Duncan Ward has been Chief Conductor of Philzuid since 2021. In addition to concerts in the Netherlands, the 2026/27 sees Duncan return to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Osaka Philharmonic and Kioi Hall Chamber Orchestra, and debut with the Tampere Philharmonic, Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, Norwegian Radio Orchestra and Warsaw Philharmonic.

Highlights of the previous three seasons have included debuts with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, WDR Sinfonieorchester and NDR Radiophilharmonie; alongside returns to the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, London Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony, Gürzenich-Orchester, Orchestre Philharmonique du
Luxembourg, Musikkollegium Winterthur and Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen.

Duncan made his North American debut conducting ›Die Zauberflöte‹ at The Metropolitan Opera in 2022.

Recent opera credits have included ›A Midsummer Night’s Dream‹ for Opernhaus Zürich, ›Turn of the Screw‹ for English National Opera, ›Così fan tutte‹ for Opéra National de Lyon, ›Death in Venice‹ for Stuttgart Staatsoper, ›Peter Grimes‹ for Oper Köln and ›Bluthochzeit‹ for Oper Frankfurt.

Duncan’s passion for a wide range of repertoire has seen him work with leading specialist ensembles ranging from Les Siècles and Balthasar Neumann Orchestra to Ensemble Modern and Ensemble intercontemporain. He studied Indian classical music with Ravi Shankar as a result of his charitable work in Europe and Asia.