Concerts

Concert details:

September 14, 2023:

Mandolin quartet – NOROC-Quartett
Works by Vivaldi, Beethoven, Gál and Kuwahara

The Noroc Quartet was founded in the summer of 2021. Charlotte Kaiser, Jolina Beuren, Maja Schütze and Philipp Lang, all active as soloists and in various chamber music ensembles, are prize winners of national and international competitions or scholarship holders of renowned support programs and got to know each other in the Federal Youth Plucked String Orchestra . In 2022, the Noroc Quartet participated in the German Music Competition and reached the final round. The mandolin is the instrument of the year 2023.

September 28, 2023:

Piano Duo – Mona Bard & Rica Bard
Works by Bizet, Fauré, Saint-Saëns et al.

Piano duos are the skating couples of classical music: the formation stands for perfect musical harmony down to the smallest fingertip, and it is no coincidence that many of the most famous duos are siblings, sometimes even identical twins. The spirited sisters Mona and Rica Bard are not identical twins, but their somnambulistic ensemble playing has already led many a reviewer to praise them.

October 10, 2023 (Tuesday):

Piano trio  – Max Brod Trio
Works by L. v. Beethoven and R. Schumann

The Max Brod Trio has earned a name for itself among the leading piano trios. "„Great musicians with innate cohesion and sheer expertise relate music as it is. Their love and sheer fun in making music is outstanding.” Stephen Hall, UK.

Regular tours take this extraordinary and award-winning trio to the Czech Republic, the UK, France, China and the USA. Its special concerns include openness to new concepts and initiatives as well as unusual cultural projects.

October 26, 2023:

Enoch Arden – melodrama (Jochen Kowalski & Günther Albers)
Ballad by Alfred Tennyson, melodrama by Richard Strauss

"When words are no longer enough, music comes along." Chamber singer Jochen Kowalski is one of the most versatile and successful alto singers of his generation. Together with Prof. Günther Albers, he devotes himself to melodrama.

November 9, 2023:

Piano recital – Ben Kim
Works by Rachmaninoff, Skrjabin and Mozart

American pianist Ben Kim enjoys a growing international reputation as a musician of unusual maturity and integrity. His 1st prize at the ARD Music Competition in Munich in 2006 marked the beginning of a successful career. Since then, he has performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Suntory Hall, and the Berlin Philharmonic, and has made guest appearances at the Aspen Festival, the Ravinia Festival, and the Ruhr Piano Festival. The pianist plays alongside top orchestras such as the symphony orchestras and philharmonic orchestras of Baltimore, Seoul and St. Petersburg, as well as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the MDR Symphony Orchestra.

November 23, 2023:

Winterreise / Winter Journey - Maria Hilmes and Günther Albers
Song cycle by Franz Schubert

Maria Hilmes studied singing at the universities of Hamburg and Cologne. She was awarded first prize in the singing competition of the Landesmusikrat NRW, was a finalist at the Belvedere Competition in Vienna and at the Meistersinger Competition in Nürnberg. Maria Hilmes is a scholarship holder of the Richard Wagner Association. As a freelance singer, she has made guest appearances at numerous German stages, including the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, Chemnitz, Rostock and Osnabrück.

From 2010 to 2015, Günther Albers was a member of the ensemble of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, where he conducted Offenbach's "Orpheus in der Unterwelt," among other productions. Since the fall semester of 2015, Günther Albers has been a professor at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. At the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, he continues to conduct "Il Concertino Virtuoso," a chamber ensemble of the Staatskapelle Berlin.