Andoni Sierra was born in Donostia in 1971 and holds advanced diplomas in piano, harpsichord, music theory and orchestral conducting. His teachers include Jorma Panula, Enrique García Asensio, Maciej Pikulski, Jacques Ogg, Angeles Renteria, Loreto Fernández Imaz and Carles Guinovart.

In 1998 he founded the groups Fiat Musica and Capilla Ad Litteram, and four years later the combination of these two groups gave rise to the group Conductus Ensemble, which characterise Sierra’s professional activity.

He has given numerous concerts in major halls with music from the Renaissance to the 20th century. With a wide repertoire that goes back to the music of the 20th century, he has conducted the most important masterpieces of all these eras.

In the 2014-2015 academic year, he created a concert series entitled »Our Lady of the Choir Music Chapel« which he has organised every year since. Since 2015 he has been the director of the Andra Mari Choir. Andoni Sierra is also a graduate of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Deusto.

After his studies with Brigitte Fassbaender and his beginnings at the Tyrolean Landestheater, Martin Mitterrutzner joined the ensemble of Oper Frankfurt where, between 2011 and 2019, he performed various roles including Fenton in Verdi’s ›Falstaff‹. Most recently, this singer appeared in his debut as Flamand in Richard Strauss’ ›Capriccio‹ and as Don Ottavio (›Don Giovanni‹). In the 2023/24 season, Martin Mitterrutzner is also appearing as guest performer in the role of Tamino (›Die Zauberflöte‹) at the Semperoper Dresden and the Volksoper Wien.

Further invitations have taken this Tyrolean-born tenor to the Theater an der Wien, the Salzburg Festival and the Bayerische Staatsoper. He has also performed at the International Bach Academy in Stuttgart, with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and the Palau de la Musica in Valencia.

The current season has taken him back to the Cleveland Orchestra and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester in Hamburg. Further appearances are planned in Berlin, Essen and at the Bruckner Festival in the Basilica of St Florian.

Two further highlights are his performances in a concertante Salome for the reopening of the Valencia Concert Hall and the new production of Káťa Kabanová (at the Semperoper, Dresden where, under Váňa Kudrjaš, he will be making his debut in Czech repertoire.

His recording of Schubert’s ›Die schöne Müllerin‹ with the renowned guitarist Martin Wesely was recently released.

Mezzo Soprano Rachel Frenkel is a regular guest on international opera and concert stages, especially as an interpreter of Mozart and Rossini. She has sung her leading role of Cherubino in ›Le Nozze di Figaro‹ at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich under the baton of Ivor Bolton, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel, as well as at the Edinburgh International Festival and the Mostly Mozart Festival New York with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer.

Recent operatic highlights include her house debuts as Cherubino at the Opéra National de Paris and as the Composer ›Ariadne auf Naxos‹  at La Scala, Milan, Olga ›Eugene Onegin‹ and Isabella ›Italiana in Algeri‹ (New Israeli Opera), Idamante ›Idomeneo‹ (Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Opéra de Lille), Sesto ›La Clemenza di Tito‹ (Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse) and Dorabella ›Cosi fan tutte‹ (Semperoper Dresden).

On the concert stage, she has sung Berlioz’s ›Les nuits d’été‹ with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1 with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Omer Meir Wellber, works by Robert Schumann with the Choeur Accentus in Paris and the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Beethoven’s ›Missa Solemnis‹ with Concerto Köln and Kent Nagano, Beethoven’s Mass in C with the BBC Philharmonic under Omer Meir Wellber, Bernstein’s ›Songfest‹ with the MDR Sinfonie Orchester Leipzig and Bach’s ›Magnificat‹ with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Ton Koopman.

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.

»Stober’s Instrument« makes »the rest of the world listen«, writes the American specialist journal ›Opera News‹ about the soprano with the outstanding lyric voice and incisive stage personality. Heidi Stober has been an audience favourite at leading opera houses on both sides of the Atlantic for many years. Since her critically acclaimed debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in autumn 2008, this singer has enjoyed a long-standing relationship with this opera house, performing roles such as Eva in ›Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg‹, Donna Elvira in ›Don Giovanni‹ and Micaela in ›Carmen‹. In the 2023-24 season, Heidi Stober is performing Pamina and Rahel in Detlev Glanert’s Die Jüdin von Toledo (world premiere) for Semperoper Dresden; Musetta for the Metropolitan Opera and Pat Nixon Nixon in China for Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Highlights of her concert career include Stravinsky’s Cantata with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen, Handel’s ›Messiah‹ with the New York Philharmonic, Mozart’s Requiem and the world premiere of Stephen Hartke’s Symphony No. 4 with Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.  Forthcoming concert engagements include Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Boston Baroque Orchestra and Mozart’s Requiem with the San Francisco Symphony.

Heidi Stober’s appearance with the Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen will be a further exciting debut.

The opera, Lieder and oratorio singer Stefan Cerny, who studied at the conservatory in his home town of Vienna and graduated with distinction in 2004, is regularly engaged at all three Viennese opera houses. He is particularly closely associated with the Volksoper Wien, where he is currently a permanent ensemble member and sang the role of Bartolo in Mozart’s ›Le Nozze di Figaro‹ in 2022. In recent years, this singer has also made guest appearances at London’s Royal Opera House Covent Garden (as Sarastro in ›Die Zauberflöte‹), Opera Köln, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Bregenz Festival and on tour in Japan. His repertoire includes roles such as Daland (›Der Fliegende Holländer‹), Rocco (›Fidelio‹), Timur (›Turandot‹) and Swallow (›Peter Grimes‹).

Stefan Cerny’s artistic path has been marked by collaboration with directors such as Christof Loy, Peter Konwitschny, Tobias Kratzer, Robert Carsen, Barrie Kosky, Josef E. Köpplinger, Harry Kupfer, as well as conductors Philippe Jordan, Antonio Pappano, Adam Fischer, Cornelius Meister, Thomas Hengelbrock and many others. Cerny is a prizewinner of the Vienna Fidelio Competition. He was also awarded the Austrian Music Theatre Prize in 2019 for his portrayal of the Doctor in ›Wozzeck‹ at the Theater an der Wien.

Founded in 1966 by José Luis Ansorena in Errenteria, the Coral Andra Mari can look back on a long and intensive concert career in the field of choral music – both in the Basque Country and across Spain. It has collaborated with many renowned orchestral formations, conductors and soloists and participated in numerous recordings. With its broad repertoire, the Andra Mari choir covers all choral genres, including opera and the typically Spanish zarzuela.

Basque music is one of the choir’s specialities. Almost 50 years ago, the choir founded ›Musikaste‹, a Basque music week in Errenteria. In this context, the choir and its founder also created the Basque Music Archive ›Eresbil‹, which is dedicated to the collection, preservation, protection and dissemination of the Basque musical heritage and, in particular, the work of Basque composers.