This boys’ choir, to which Anton Bruckner once belonged, has been in existence since 1071. For centuries, its core tasks have included the organisation of church music in St. Florian. Now. it gives concerts all over the world. The St Florianer‘s singers have already performed at many important music festivals including the Salzburg Festival, the Wiener Festival Week and the Festival d’Aix en Provence. This choir also regularly appears with renowned conductors and orchestras such as the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Cleveland Orchestra.  Conductor Franz Welser-Möst, Principal Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, is Honorary President of the Association of Friends of the St. Florianer Sängerknaben.

The Sängerknaben perform either purely as a choir of upper voices or together with their male voice choir which was founded by Artistic Director Franz Farnberger in 1989 in order to expand the repertoire of the boys’ choir. The soloists of the St. Florian Sängerknaben often sing the roles intended for boys in opera productions. The choir also has a rich discography that includes traditional Austrian music, folk and Christmas songs as well as recordings of early music. Since autumn 2018, the former St. Florian choirboy Markus Stumpner has been the choirmaster.

With her charismatic stage presence, a voice of sumptuous range and crystalline purity, American soprano Kathryn Lewek is at the centre of several major international productions. Indeed, ›The New York Times‹ praised Lewek’s singing in her parade role as Mozart’s Queen of the Night, which ultimately encapsulates »the opera’s magic« at the New York Metropolitan Opera. In addition to the New York productions in the family and evening versions, she is also singing the role this season at the Berlin Opera. Since her first appearance as Mozart’s antiheroine in 2011, Lewek has sung this demanding role more than 300 times at leading theatres around the world and is now regarded as the reigning Queen of the Night. In the current season, Kathryn Lewek is also expanding her repertoire with role debuts in two opera classics, as Micaela in Bizet’s ›Carmen‹ at Nashville Opera and as Puccini’s Musetta in ›La Bohème‹ at Opera Colorado.

In addition to her worldwide successes in other important coloratura roles, this soprano’s other concert highlights include ›Celebrating Leonard Bernstein at 100‹ with the Washington National Opera, Bach’s Mass in B minor with the Ensemble Soli deo Gloria from Chicago, Orff’s ›Carmina Burana‹ with the Dallas Symphony and Haydn’s ›Creation‹ conducted by John Nelson. Kathryn Lewek has won two main prizes at the Operalia World Opera Competition 2013, including the coveted Audience Favourite Award.

Born into a Swiss-Hungarian family of artists in 1995, Äneas Humm joined the Zurich Boys‘ Choir at the age of six and went to boarding school at the Vorarlberg State Conservatory in Feldkirch at the age of 15. This baritone then completed his vocal training at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen and at the Juilliard School in New York. In 2022, he was honoured with the Opus Klassik award as Young Artist of the Year. Prior to this, this singer received the Deutschlandfunk sponsorship award. While still a student, he made his debut at the Bremerhaven Municipal Theatre and accepted guest engagements at the Osnabrück Theatre. Permanent engagements took him to the Nationaltheater Weimar and the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. Äneas Humm was a member of the ensemble at the St. Gallen Theatre until summer 2023, where he appeared as Papageno in Mozart’s ›Zauberflöte‹, among other roles. This was followed by debuts at the Opera di Roma as Papageno and as Harlequin at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice.

Äneas Humm is also in great demand singing concert and lied repertoire and is always a welcome guest with renowned European ensembles, at festivals and in various concert halls. In 2020, he performed Beethoven songs at Berlin’s Schloss Bellevue at the invitation of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. In December 2023, he once again performed Bach’s ›Weihnachtsoratorium‹ in John Neumeier’s choreography at Hamburg Staatsoper. Lieder recitals have taken this singer to the Weill Recital Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, the Enescu Festival in Bucharest, the Heidelberger Frühling, the Bremen Music Festival, the Beethoven House in Bonn and the two major Swiss festivals in Davos and Lucerne.

Born and raised in Munich, Manuel Winckhler received most of his vocal training with Lars Woldt at the Munich College of Music and Drama. Prior to this, he studied with Andreas Macco and Fenna Kügel-Seifried at the Salzburg Mozarteum. During his studies, this singer developed an extensive stage repertoire; he has already appeared in numerous opera productions and made guest appearances at Munich’s Gärtnerplatztheater. He has been part of the Berliner Staatsoper International Opera Studio Unter den Linden since the 2024/25 season and has appeared on stage there as the Jailer in Puccini’s ›Tosca‹, the High Priest in Verdi’s ›Nabucco‹ and the One-Armed Man in Strauss’ ›Die Frau ohne Schatten‹ among others. He won first prize in the opera/operetta category at the Bundeswettbewerb Gesang 2024.

Manuel Winckhler has also enjoyed great success on the concert stage, including with works such as ›A German Requiem‹ by Johannes Brahms, Joseph Haydn’s ›Creation‹ and Mozart’s ›Requiem‹. This singer has already worked with major orchestras such as the Deutschen Radio Philharmonie, the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and the Styriarte Festival Orchestra as well as with celebrated conductors such as Zubin Mehta and Philippe Herreweghe and many others.

With a vocal range and versatility that includes both mezzo-soprano and soprano repertoire, Iris van Wijnen is a welcome guest at many renowned opera houses, concert halls and festivals including the Bayerischen Staatsoper, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Aldeburgh Festival, the Dutch National Opera and Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam. Her current and future roles include the Maid Marianne Leitmetzerin in Strauss’ ›Rosenkavalier‹, Gertrud in Humperdinck’s ›Hänsel und Gretel‹, Grimgerde in Wagner’s ›Walküre‹ and many more.

This soprano is also in demand as a concert performer, oratorio soloist and Lied interpreter. In concert, she has sung works such as ›Shéhérazade‹ by Ravel, ›Quatres Instants‹ by Saariaho, ‘Les Nuits D’été’ by Berlioz, Bach cantatas and Handel’s ›Messiah‹ as well as Wagner’s ›Wesendonck-Lieder‹. Iris van Wijnen has performed her own song recitals at the Heidelberger Frühling festival, among others.

Marcell Bakonyi was born in Győr, Hungary, in 1980. He first studied singing at the Conservatory of Music in Budapest and then with Julia Hamari at the Stuttgart College of Music. Whilst still a student, he appeared in productions at the Stuttgarter Opernschule, including ›Le Nozze di Figaro‹ and ›A Midsummer Night’s Dream‹. He was also a member of the ensemble at the Heidelberg Theatre, the Opernstudio Zurich and the Salzburg Theatre. In 2011, this bass won the International Rolando Nicolosi Competition in Rome and was awarded a special prize at the Marcello Giordani Competition in Catania.

Marcell Bakonyi has appeared as a guest in numerous productions in Europe, the USA, Canada and South America, including as Lord Sidney in ›Viaggio a Reims‹ at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro, as Ezio in Handel’s ›Ezio‹ at the Schwetzingen Festival, in Oslo with ›Il ritorno di Ulisse in Patria‹ and at the Crested Butte Festival in Colorado, USA, as the narrator in ›Die Zauberflöte‹. This singer also celebrated great success in the role of Timur in ›Turandot‹ in Lima, Peru and as Figaro in Calagary, Canada in 2023.

This boys‘ choir, to which Anton Bruckner once belonged, has been in existence since 1071. For centuries, its core tasks have included the organisation of church music in St. Florian. Now. it gives concerts all over the world. The St Florianer‘s singers have already performed at many important music festivals including the Salzburg Festival, the Wiener Festival Week and the Festival d’Aix en Provence. This choir also regularly appears with renowned conductors and orchestras such as the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Cleveland Orchestra.  Conductor Franz Welser-Möst, Principal Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, is Honorary President of the Association of Friends of the St. Florianer Sängerknaben.

The Sängerknaben perform either purely as a choir of upper voices or together with their male voice choir which was founded by Artistic Director Franz Farnberger in 1989 in order to expand the repertoire of the boys’ choir. The soloists of the St. Florian Sängerknaben often sing the roles intended for boys in opera productions. The choir also has a rich discography that includes traditional Austrian music, folk and Christmas songs as well as recordings of early music. Since autumn 2018, the former St. Florian choirboy Markus Stumpner has been the choirmaster.

Romain Gilbert initially studied piano and opera singing at the Paris Conservatoire and completed a degree in engineering before turning to arts and cultural management. He went on to earn a master’s degree in music management at the University of La Sorbonne in Paris. After various experiences in production management, he became production manager of the Musiciens du Louvre and then turned increasingly to staging. He assisted at various European theatres, including the Monnaie de Bruxelles, the Royal Opera of Versailles and the Royal Opera of Copenhagen. Romain Gilbert was involved in Claus Guth’s production of ›Parsifal‹-at the Gran Teatre del Liceu and in the production of ›Samson‹ at the Aix-en-Provence Festival.

As a director, Romain Gilbert is a welcome guest at the Bordeaux Opera, for example, where he staged ›Carmen‹ in 2021 and ›Werther‹ in 2022, among others. For semi-staged programmes, he has already worked with the Orchestre de chambre de Paris, the Orchestre National de Lyon and the Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse, among others. He has also created semi-staged opera programmes at the Whitsuntide Festival in Salzburg, the Festival Radio France and the Enescu Festival in Bucharest. This year, Gilbert returned to Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie for a production of ›Wozzeck‹ and celebrated the 150th anniversary of ›Carmen‹ with revivals of his production in Versailles, Hong Kong and Hanoi.

»…talent of the century«, so described the Tagesspiegel Tarmo Peltokoski. This Finnish conductor was appointed ›Principal Guest Conductor‹ by the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen in January 2022 – the first conductor to hold this position.

In recent seasons, Peltokoski has debuted at many major festivals, including the Rheingau Music Festival and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, as well as in the great concert halls such as the Köln Philharmonie and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. In addition, he has given debuts with the hr-Sinfonieorchester, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Rotterdam Philharmonic. At just 22, Peltokoski conducted his first complete Ring Cycle as well as another significant Wagner work – Tristan und Isolde – at the Eurajoki Bel Canto Festival. In the same year, he was also appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonisch Orkest, Musical and Artistic Director of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Designate of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.

In the 2022/23 season, Tarmo Peltokoski is due to conduct the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, the RSB Berlin, The Hallé, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Göteborgs Symfoniker, San Diego Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the Hollywood Bowl.

In 2023 Tarmo Peltokoski was awarded the OPUS Klassik for his recording with the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen.

In addition to piano and conducting, Peltokoski also studied composition and arranging and has a particular penchant for musical comedy and improvisation.

A citizen of France and Denmark, Elsa Dreisig has quickly established herself as one of the most captivating lyric sopranos of our time. Since joining the Studio of the Berliner Staatsoper in 2015 and later the ensemble, she has made role debuts at leading theatres across Europe, from Paris to Zurich, from Vienna to London. Mozart occupies a central place in her career. She has already appeared at the Paris l’Opéra as Pamina in ›Die Zauberflöte‹ and Zerlina in ›Don Giovanni‹. In summer 2020, she sang the role of Fiordiligi in a new production of ›Così fan Tutte‹ at the Salzburg Festival. In 2022, Elsa Dreisig returned to the Da Ponte trilogy with Daniel Barenboim and the Berliner Staatsoper where she made her debut as Donna Elvira after her debut as the Countess the previous year.

Elsa Dreisig’s artistic insight is rooted in her spirit of curiosity. Her interpretations are characterised by her commitment to constantly discovering new facets of a role. This also means overcoming historical constructs to make the performance credible. For the soprano, no female character – whether Manon, Juliette, Violetta or Fiordiligi – should ever be a victim: »This is the modern blood that flows in my veins and should also flow through my singing.«

After completing her studies, soprano Miriam Kutrowatz began her career in 2020 as a member of the Junges Ensemble des Theater an der Wien, where she made her successful debut at the Vienna Kammer Oper as Idaspe in Vivaldi’s›Il Bajazet‹. In the same year, she wowed audiences at the Styriarte as Zerlina in Mozart’s ›Don Giovanni‹ and was also a guest at the Styrian festival in the ensuing years. At the 2021 Salzburg Festival, Kutrowatz made her debut in the title role in the children’s opera ›Vom Stern, der nicht leuchten konnte‹. ›Der Standard‹ praised her »crystal-clear soprano«. From 2022 to 2024, Miriam Kutrowatz was a member of the Wiener Staatsoper opera studio. She also took part in various programmes at the Wiener Konzerthaus.

Other engagements to date have seen Miriam Kutrowatz working with renowned conductors such as Christian Thielemann, Adam Fischer, Bertrand de Billy, Phillipe Jordan, Alexander Soddy, Gianluca Capuano, Semyon Bychkov and Pablo Heras-Casado. She returns to the Zurich Opera House this season. Further debuts are also planned, including at the Komische Oper Berlin and with Mahler’s 8th Symphony under Klaus Mäkela at Het Concertgebouw. The collaboration with the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen and Tarmo Peltokoski is a further eagerly awaited debut.

Andreas Conrad has a large and varied repertoire that includes over 80 roles. As an internationally acclaimed tenor, he is a regular guest on the world’s major stages. His engagements have taken him to festivals in Salzburg and Bayreuth, to Opera houses in Vienna, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. In Australia he performed in the roles of Mime in Rheingold and Siegfried in the new production of the RING CYCLE at the end of 2023, roles he took to the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Washington National Opera and the Opéra National de Paris, as well as many other renowned opera houses. In April 2024, he was invited by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Montréal to take part in three concert performances of Stravinsky’s ›Les Noces‹ under the direction of Kent Nagano. He also returned to the Teatro Real Madrid as Edmund in Aribert Reimann’s ›Lear‹. Previously, Andreas Conrad appeared in the role of Mime in the concert performance of ›Siegfried‹ by the Latvian Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Tarmo Peltokoski.

Throughout his long career, Andreas Conrad has worked with renowned conductors including Philippe Auguin, Asher Fisch, Pablo Heras-Casado, Marek Janowski, Philippe Jordan, Fabio Luisi, Susanna Mälkki, Kent Nagano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Kirill Petrenko, Peter Ruzicka and Christian Thielemann. Directors such as Harry Kupfer, Patrice Chéreau, Calixto Bieito, Frank Castorf, Andreas Kriegenburg, Hans Neuenfels and Robert Carsen and many others have also appreciated the stage presence and vocal charisma of this sought-after tenor.

This Finnish soprano studied with Eeva-Liisa Saarinen at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where she graduated in 2018. In the same year, she made her opera debut as Countess Almaviva in ›Le nozze di Figaro‹ at the Estonian National Opera, where she is now a regular guest. She made her debut at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki as the soprano soloist in Christian Spuck’s choreographed production of Verdi’s Requiem. Her operatic repertoire also includes Leonore in ›Fidelio‹, Sieglinde in Wagner’s ›Walküre‹, Helena in ›A Midsummer Night’s Dream‹ and several others.

Last season, Silja Aalto sang Vaughan Williams’ ›A Sea Symphony‹ with Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre and Saariaho’s ›Mirage‹ at the Royal Albert Hall in London. She has also performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Orchestra National du Capitole de Toulouse under the baton of Tarmo Peltokoski. Silja Aalto has already been honoured with many awards including the Grand Prize in the opera section of the Metropolitan International Vocal Competition in New York in 2017 and the song prize at the Elizabeth Connell Prize international singing competition in Sydney.

Mezzo-soprano Marie Seidler completed her concert exam under Hedwig Fassbender at the College of Music and Performing Arts Frankfurt am Main. She previously completed her studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London with honours. This singer is a prize winner of the international competition for Liedkunst at the Hugo Wolf Academy in Stuttgart and winner of the Trude Eipperle-Rieger Prize.

Various opera engagements have taken Marie Seidler to the Staatstheater Mainz, the Innsbruck Early Music Festival, the Göttingen Handel Festival and the Frankfurt Opera, among others. In 2021, she made her debut with Mozart’s Sesto in ›La Clemenza di Tito‹ under the direction of Daniele Squeo and the role of Arsamene in Handel’s ›Serse‹. In recent seasons, she has appeared as Margaretha in Schumann’s ›Genoveva‹, as Charlotte in Massenet’s ›Werther‹ at Den Jyske Opera in Aarhus and as Dryad at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. Marie Seidler is also in demand as a Lied and concert singer and has performed internationally, including under the direction of Maxim Emelyanychev in Moscow and under the direction of Aapo Häkkinen in Lausanne. Lieder recitals have also taken her to the Schubertiades in Hohenems and Vilabertran, to Barcelona, London and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. She was the soloist in Mahler’s 8th Symphony under the direction of Neeme Järvi.

Founded in 1999, this vocal ensemble is one of Germany’s top choirs, regularly delighting audiences with music from all eras to the present day. With its extraordinary ability to meet the special requirements of soloists as well as the perfect fusion of choral sound, this ensemble has established itself as one of the most highly respected artistic symbols of the Ruhr metropolitan region. Its multi-award-winning conductor Florian Helgath has been in post as Artistic Director since 2011.

The vocal ensemble’s discography is also wide-ranging and includes music from the 16th and 17th century collection ›Florilegium Portense‹ as well as recordings of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s ›Carré‹ and Maurice Kagel’s ›Chorbuch‹, for which the ensemble received the German Record Critics’ Award in August 2022. A highly acclaimed recording of Sergei Rachmaninov’s ›Ganznächtlicher Vigil Op. 37‹ was released in spring 2024 and the recording of Antonín Dvorák’s ›Stabat Mater‹ in November the same year.