Christina Landshamer is a versatile artist who, as recitalist as well as with her varied concert and opera repertoire, is in international demand. Her collaborations with renowned conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Manfred Honeck, Alan Gilbert, Marek Janowski and many others regularly result in concerts with major international orchestras – from the Berlin Philharmonic to the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra to the Orchestre de Paris. In The States, this soprano has also appeared with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as with the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Montreal Symphony Orchestras.

Christina Landshamer has given opera performances at the Komische Oper Berlin, at the Theater an der Wien with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and also with Sir Simon Rattle at the Salzburg Festspiele. At the Nationaloper Amsterdam, she has sung ›Pamina‹ in Simon McBurney’s ›Zauberflöte‹ and ›Woglinde‹ in Wagner’s ›Rheingold‹ at the Bayerischen Staatsoper with Kirill Petrenko conducting. She has also performed in a spectacular La-Fura-dels-Baus production of Haydn’s ›Schöpfung‹ in Paris as well as at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York. With her warm, lyric soprano voice, Christina Landshamer is as welcome as a Lieder singer at the Schwarzenberg Schubertiade as she is in London, New York or Tokyo.

She has over 50 CD and DVD recordings to her name and was called to take up a professorship for Vocal Studies at the Trossingen College of Music in 2021.

The German Camber Choir was founded 15 years ago by professional singers with the objective to pool their wealth of experience as impassioned ensemble choristers and practiced soloists in a vocal ensemble. The responses of the public and the media, as well as invitations from renowned conductors (e.g. Marcus Creed, Heinz Holliger) and orchestras (Ensemble Modern, Basel Chamber Orchestra) to perform on Europe’s most important recital stages are impressive testimony to this commitment. The openness of the German Chamber Choir to all music at the cutting edge is demonstrated by the diversity of its artistic collaborations, most recently with pianist Sir András Schiff at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.

Concerts have taken the ensemble to such prestigious venues as the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Great Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna. At the invitation of Germany’s Federal President, the German Chamber Choir performed one of the traditional Advent concerts at the official residence, Schloss Bellevue, and a choral concert in the Hagia Eirene in Istanbul on the occasion of a state visit.

CD recordings and radio broadcasts attest to the choir’s high performance capacities. Critics from renowned German dailies have expressed their appreciation of the »ensemble’s exceptional homogeneity and versatility, as well as the lightness, fluidity, differentiation, transparency and virtuosity of its performances«.

Estonian conductor and Grammy Award winner Paavo Järvi has been Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen since 2004. One of the many highlights of this collaboration has been the acclaimed, globally celebrated performances of the Beethoven cycle, for which Järvi received numerous awards including the ›Echo Klassik Conductor of the Year‹ award and the prestigious annual ›German Record Critics‹’ award. Their Beethoven project was followed by an intensive exploration of the symphonic works of Schumann and Brahms; both cycles also received numerous awards. Since autumn 2021, the focus has been on Joseph Haydn’s twelve London symphonies, and since 2024, an intensive exploration of Franz Schubert’s symphonies.

Paavo Järvi has been Music Director of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich since the start of the 2019/2020 season. He is also the founder and Artistic Director of the Estonian Festival Orchestra and the Pärnu Music Festival, which he established in 2011. He regularly appears as a guest conductor with major orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the London Philharmonia Orchestra, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 2015, he was named ›Artist of the Year‹ by both the British magazine Gramophone and the French magazine Diapason. This was followed in 2019 by the Opus Klassik award for ›Conductor of the Year‹. Other awards include a Grammy Award for his recording of Sibelius’ Cantatas with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and the title ›Commandeur de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres‹, awarded by the French Ministry of Culture. In 2015, Paavo Järvi also received the Sibelius Medal in recognition of his work in bringing this Finnish composer’s music to a wider audience, and in 2012 he received the Hindemith Prize for Art and Humanity. As a committed supporter of Estonian culture, Paavo Järvi was awarded the Order of the White Star by the President of Estonia in 2013.

Tallinn Children’s Choir, the predecessor of Ellerhein Girls’ Choir, was created in 1952 by Professor Heino Kaljuste (1925-1989), who conducted and developed the choir until the end of his days. Since 1970, Tiia-Ester Loitme started to work with the choir as second conductor and she was head conductor of the choir from 1989 to 2012. The choir was renamed Ellerhein in 1969, on the 100th anniversary of the Estonian Song Festivals. Over the years, Ellerhein has become a choral studio, which includes Ellerhein Preparation Choir, Ellerhein Children’s Choir and Ellerhein Girls’ Choir. Apart from giving concerts, all singers receive training in vocal, solfeggio, and harmony classes. The choir uses the relative Kodaly system when learning new repertoire.

In June 2012, Ellerhein celebrated its 60th birthday with a grandiose concert in Estonia Concert Hall.

Since 2012, the position of head conductor is held by Ingrid Kõrvits. The choir’s repertoire consists of both classical and contemporary choral music by outstanding composers from all over the world.

Ellerhein has been successful in many international choral competitions: In 2012, the choir received the Second Prize Gold Level in the International Choral Competition ›Ave Verum‹ in Baden, Austria. In 2013 Ingrid Kõrvits received the prize for Best Conductor in the International Choral Competition ›Tallinn 2013‹ while the choir obtained second place in the youth choirs’ category. In the same year they received the third prize in the female choirs’ category and the second prize in the folk music category in the 31st International Choral Competition of Cantonigros in Spain.