HANS-CHRISTOPH RADEMANN
Conductor Hans-Christoph Rademann is an internationally sought-after interpreter with a wide repertoire, ranging from the rediscovery of early music to premieres of contemporary works. He specialises in composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Heinrich Schütz. He has recorded Schütz’s complete choral works for the Carus Verlag label. In the 2023/24 season he performed all the cantatas from Bach’s first yearly cycle as Kantor of St. Thomas’s Leipzig with the Gaechinger Cantorey under the title VISION.BACH, which are also being produced in 10 double CDs on the Hänssler Classic label.

Born in Dresden, Hans-Christoph Rademann grew up in a Kantor’s family in Schwarzenberg in the Ore Mountains (Saxony). He sang in the famous Kreuzchor in Dresden and studied choral and orchestral conducting at the Musikhochschule Dresden. Shortly after embarking on his studies, he founded the Dresdner Kammerchor which he led to international fame. Hans-Christoph Rademann was director of the Singakademie Dresden, chief conductor of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk Chorus, and from 2007 to 2015 conductor of the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin. In 2013 he was appointed Akademie Director of the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart as successor to Helmuth Rilling. He refounded its resident ensemble, the Gaechinger Cantorey, as a period instrument ensemble. With the “BachBewegt!” programme he has expanded an extensive educational programme at the Bachakademie Stuttgart, unique of its kind.

Guest performances have taken him all over the world – to North and South America, China, Taiwan, Hongkong, Japan, India, Sri Lanka, South America and to almost all the European centres of music. In November 2022 he opened the Bachfest Montréal with an acclaimed performance of Bach’s St John Passion. He is regularly invited to conduct leading ensembles such as the Netherlands Bach Ensemble, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Collegium 1704, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Dresden Philharmonic and Stuttgart Philharmonic.

Hans-Christoph Rademann has been awarded numerous prizes for his artistic work and his social engagement, including the Saxon Constitutional Medal, the Art Prize of the City of Dresden, the Johann Walter Plaque, the Heinrich Schütz Prize, the European Church Music Prize and the George Frideric Handel Ring 2025. CD recordings from his extensive discography have received the German Record Critics’ Annual Award, the Grand Prix du Disque, Gramophone Classical Music Award, Diapason d’or and Opus Klassik.

Hans-Christoph Rademann was appointed Professor of Choral Conducting at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden in 2000. He is also Artistic Director of the Erzgebirge Music Festival, an ambassador for the Ore Mountains region and patron of the Christlicher Hospizdienst Dresden (Christian Hospice Service Dresden).

GAECHINGER CANTOREY
The Gaechinger Cantorey is the ensemble of the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart. It combines a baroque orchestra and a hand-picked choir which together form a perfectly-blended early music ensemble. Under the baton of Akademie Director Hans-Christoph Rademann, the ensemble flies the flag for the “Stuttgart Bach style” on the international stage. The backbone to this distinctive Bach style sound is embodied in two replica instruments commissioned by the Bachakademie of originals from the workshop of Bach’s legendary contemporary Gottfried Silbermann (1683–1753): in 2016 the Akademie acquired a copy of a chamber organ by Silbermann discovered in Seerhausen, Saxony, and a copy of a Silbermann harpsichord completed the ensemble’s keyboard instruments in 2021. These two examples of a baroque sound faithful to the original form the heart of the Gaechinger Cantorey’s distinctive sound.

Since its refounding as the Gaechinger Cantorey in 2016, the Internationale Bachakademie’s ensemble has made numerous appearances in Germany, performing at the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, Bachwoche Ansbach, Bachfest Leipzig, Rheingau Musik Festival, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Dresden Kulturpalast and the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie. Further afield, performances at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, at the Internationales Bachfest Schaffhausen, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées Paris, in the USA (Fort Lauderdale, Chapel Hill, Norfolk, Princeton, Los Angeles, Irvine, Williamsburgh), in Canada (Montréal) and in South America (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Lima, Santiago de Chile, Bogotá) have further established the ensemble’s reputation.

As well as live performances, the Gaechinger Cantorey and its director Hans-Christoph Rademann has a busy recording schedule. The ensemble released the Christmas Oratorio, Cantatas and the two Passions by J. S. Bach, Handel’s Messiah, Haydns The Creation and further works on the Stuttgart Carus label and on the accentus music label. Numerous podcasts and concert streams with the Gaechinger Cantorey have been made available to watch in the Bachakademie Mediathek.

From May 2023 to June 2024, the Gaechinger Cantorey, conducted by Hans-Christoph Rademann, performed all of J. S. Bach’s cantatas from his first year as Leipzig’s Thomaskantor – exactly 300 years after the historic event of 1723/1724. CD recordings of all concerts in churches and concert halls in Stuttgart and surroundings are being released by Hänssler Classic. Volume I already received the coveted OPUS KLASSIK award in the summer of 2024.

The Gaechinger Cantorey is committed to the Internationale Bachakademie’s varied music outreach initiatives, regularly participating in the “BachBewegt!” programme which actively invites children and young people to sing, dance and experience music, either on stage or as listeners in the concert hall. This includes family concerts, joint performances of Haydn’s « Seasons » and « Creation », Handel’s « Messiah » and Vivaldi’s « Gloria » as well as danced interpretations of Bach’s works, Vivaldi’s « Seasons » and Mozart’s Requiem. In 2017, the dance interpretation of Bach’s « St. Matthew Passion » was released on DVD by accentus music.

Carolyn Sampson – soprano
Equally at home on the concert and opera stages, Carolyn Sampson has enjoyed notable successes in the UK as well as throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

The 23/24 season marked an incredible achievement for Carolyn as she celebrated her recording legacy with the release of her 100th album as a featured solo artist. Over the last twenty-five years of her career, she has sung with countless world-class musicians and these recordings serve as testament to both her versatility as an artist and the scope of her repertoire. In 2024 she was awarded an OBE in the King’s New Year Honours, was elected an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music and was the winner of the Gramophone Artist of the Year Award.

On the opera stage she has appeared with English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Berlin Staatsoper, Scottish Opera and Opéra de Paris, amongst others, and she regularly performs at the BBC Proms and with orchestras including the Bach Collegium Japan, Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra and with numerous orchestras in the UK & USA. A recent highlight was her debut at Berlin Staatsoper singing Créuse in a new Peter Sellers production of Charpentier’s Medée conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.

A consummate recitalist, Carolyn Sampson appears regularly at the Wigmore Hall and has given recitals at the Oxford International Song Festival, Leeds Lieder, Saintes and Aldeburgh Festivals as well as at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Barcelona, Freiburg, Oper Frankfurt, Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin, Vienna Konzerthaus, Carnegie Hall and on tour in Japan.

Carolyn has an extensive discography appearing on the Harmonia Mundi, BIS, Hyperion, Virgin Classics, DG Archiv, Linn Records, BIS and Vivat labels. Her recording with Ex Cathedra, ‘A French Baroque Diva’ won the recital award in the 2015 Gramophone Awards, and her disc of Bach Cantatas with Freiburger Barockorchester was awarded a Diapason D’or. The past seasons have seen the release of many acclaimed recordings, notably Carolyn’s first solo orchestra CD, Canteloube ‘Chants d’Auvergne’ with Tapiola Sinfonietta and Pascal Rophé and the acclaimed album Trennung: Songs of Separation with Kristian Bezuidenhout, both under the BIS label.

This season includes Berlioz Hermine with Kammerakademie Potsdam, Stravinsky Pulcinella with Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana under Charles Dutoit, Mahler’s 2 nd Symphony under Osmo Vänskä and Bach St Matthew Passion under Laurence Cummings both with Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Bach Christmas Oratorio with Netherlands Kammerkoor, and a programme of Mozart and Telemann with Handel & Haydn Society of Boston.

Marie Henriette Reinhold alto
German Mezzo-soprano Marie Henriette Reinhold was born in Leipzig. She completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Musicology, and in 2011 began her vocal studies with Professor Elvira Dreßen at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy” Leipzig, which she passed with distinction in 2020.

Marie Henriette Reinhold is in great demand as a soloist across Germany and abroad. She has appeared as a soloist eg. with the Gaechinger Cantorey, the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, the Collegium Vocale Gent, the Münchener Bachchor, the Concerto Köln, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Staatskapelle Halle, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Kölner Kammerorchester, the Windsbacher Knabenchor, the baroque orchestra “La Scintilla”, the Zürcher Sing-Akademie, and the Kammerchor Stuttgart.

She has sung under the baton of many renowned conductors, such as Hans-Christoph Rademann, Thomaskantor Andreas Reize, Kreuzkantor Martin Lehmann, Christoph Gedschold, Dima Slobodeniouk, Florian Helgath, Frieder Bernius, Philipp Herreweghe, Semyon Bychkov, Herbert Blomstedt, Paavo Järvi, Christian Thielemann et.al.

The summer of 2019 marks her debut at the Bayreuth Festival as one of Klingsors Zaubermädchen in Wagners Parsifal. Since then she is a regular guest there singing Grimgerde in Walküre as well. Under the baton of Pablo Heras Casado she has been singing one of Klingsors Zaubermädchen and The Voice from Above  in the new production of Wagners Parsifal 2023.

Also in 2024 and 2025 she has been singing there: not only in Parsifal and Walküre, but also in Rheingold and Götterdämmerung as Floßhilde under the baton of Simone Young. In the jubilee year 2026 she will sing again in Parsifal and participate in the new Ring as Floßhilde under the baton of Christian Thielemann.

Masterclasses with Jonathan Alder, Alexander Schmalcz, Götz Payer, Thilo Dahlmann and Peter Schreier provided valuable insights into lied interpretation. She was Junior Prize Winner of the Bundeswettbewerb Gesang Berlin 2012, a Prize Winner of the Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg in 2014, and was awarded a Richard Wagner scholarship in 2017.

Marie Henriette Reinhold has many CD recordings to her name on a variety of labels, including Max Reger’s Choral Cantatas and his Requiem (Op.144b), Haydn’s Stabat Mater with the Kammerchor Stuttgart under Frieder Bernius, Friedrich Schneider’s oratorio Das Weltgericht, a world premiere recording of Gustav Schreck’s oratorio Christus, der Auferstandene, a live recording of J.S. Bach’s St John Passion in the St. Thomas Church Leipzig, under the direction of Peter Schreier,  and Bach’s St Matthew Passion and Magnificat under the baton of Hans-Christoph Rademann. Together with his Gaechinger Cantorey she is a significant part of the project Vision.Bach in which every cantata of the year 1732 will be recorded and released by Haenssler.

Benedikt Kristjansson ténor
Benedikt Kristjánsson was born in in Húsavík, Iceland. He started singing lessons at age of 16 under the tutelage of his mother, Margrét Bóasdóttir, at the Reykjavik Academy of Singing and Vocal Arts in Iceland.

Jonathan Mayenschein Contre-ténor (DE)
Born: 1997 – Baden-Baden, Baden-Württemberg, Germany The German counter-tenor, Jonathan Mayenschein, received at the age of 6 singing lessons from Kai-Rouven Seeger and was a member of various choirs, including the Aurelius Sängerknaben, Calw und Cantus Juvenum, Karlsruhe, both under the direction of Hans-Jörg Kalmbach. During his time at Cantus Juvenum in 2007 he was the first boy to appear in a production of W.A. Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. At the age of 11 he became a singer with the renowned Windsbacher Knabenchor under Karl-Friedrich Beringer and performed in almost 400 concerts up to his high school graduation in 2015. Concert tours to the USA, China and Europe rounded off his musical training. A highlight was the solo appearance in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam with Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols accompanied by harpist Xavier de Maistre. The end of his time in Windsbach marked the beginning of the newly founded ensemble Sonat Vox, consisting of former Windsbachers, under the direction of Justus Merkel, where he has held the position of first counter-tenor since it was founded. Jonathan Mayenschein has been studying singing with Professor Hartmut Zabel at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden in Dresden since the 2016 winter semester. Currently, he is a member of Dresdner Kammerchor (Director: Hans-Christoph Rademann) and Gaechinger Cantorey (Director: Hans-Christoph Rademann).

Tobias Berndt basse
The native Berliner Tobias Berndt began his musical training with the Dresden Choir of the Church of the Holy Cross. He studied with Hermann Christian Polster at the University of Music and Theatre Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Leipzig and continued his training with Rudolf Piernay at the Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts. During further studies and master’s courses, he worked with Theo Adam, Wolfram Rieger, Norman Shetler, Irwin Gage, Axel Bauni, Julia Varady and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

Accredited with multiple scholarships, he was a prize winner at the National Song Contest Berlin 2004, the International Song Contest at the Hugo-Wolf Academy in Stuttgart 2007, the International Summer Academy of the Mozarteum in Salzburg 2008 and the International Contest “Franz Schubert und die Musik der Moderne” in Graz 2009. His most recent accolades include winning 1st prize at the International Johannes-Brahms Contest in Pörtschach 2008 and at the Cantilena Song Contest in Bayreuth 2009, as well as winning the Thomas Quasthoff initiated contest “Das Lied – International Song Competition” in February 2009 in Berlin.

Important points in his singing career have included concerts with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester, The English Concert, L’arpe festante, the Thomanerchor Leipzig choral group, the Saxony Vocal Ensemble and the MDR Radio Choir. He has sung under renowned conductors such as Peter Schreier, Helmuth Rilling, Howard Arman, Ludwig Güttler, Gewandhaus organist Michael Schönheit and Andreas Spering and could be heard at international festivals.