News

The Anhaltisches Theater Dessau has nominated Svetoslav Borisov as First Kapellmeister and Deputy Music Director. The contract was signed today and will take effect in August 2025. Svetoslav Borisov held the same position at the Theatre Magdeburg from 2016/2017 to the present. He will remain Artistic Director of the Kammerorchester CON FUOCO in Graz and Permanent Guest Conductor at the Opera Varna. Congratulations!

With two new CD releases, Ania Vegry and Liv Migdal are giving new life to works by composers who have long been unjustly forgotten:

On the second CD dedicated to the chamber music works of the German-speaking Prague Jew Hans Winterberg (label eda records EDA 53), Ania Vegry interprets the four songs Dort und hier (1936/1937) for the rare instrumentation soprano plus piano trio based on poems by Franz Werfel. The recording – with other chamber music works by Winterberg – immediately made it onto the quarterly longlist of the German Record Critics’ Award.

‘The Cosmos of Paul Ben-Haim’ (CPO 555 621-2) – Liv Migdal’s touching homage to the German-Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim is a great declaration of love to the music of a gifted late Romantic and melodic composer, whose steady career came to an abrupt end when the National Socialists seized power in 1933. The double album – conceived by Liv Migdal – is a comprehensive anthology with works such as the Fantasie Yizkor (with the Weimar Staatskapelle), duo compositions for violin and piano and selected songs.

After concerts in South Africa and Spain at the start of the season, Ewa Strusińska has been back in Germany in recent weeks: she was invited to conduct the autumn session of the Berlin State Youth Orchestra for the third time. After an intensive week of rehearsals at the Kammerakademie Rheinsberg, the concerts with Gustav Mahler’s 1st Symphony in Berlin’s Haus des Rundfunks and in the Philharmonie in Gorzów Wielkopolski were enthusiastically acclaimed by the audience. Immediately afterwards, she made her debut with the Rheinische Philharmonie Koblenz in front of a sold-out audience with works by Beethoven, Webern and Ries – and then travelled to Stockholm for the revival of Prokofiev’s Cinderella at the Royal Swedish Opera.

The Anima Trombone Quartet celebrated a great success last weekend: the ensemble with Polina Tarasenko, Tolga Akman, Elai Grisaru Drori and Amit Rozenzweig won the first prize at the 1st International Littin Competition for Trombone Quartet in Frankfurt/Main. The competition was attended by 25 ensembles from Europe, South America and East Asia. Congratulations!

The start to the new season could not have been more different for our conductors:

Svetoslav Borisov conducted performances of The Flying Dutchman and La Traviata at the Varna Summer Theatre and on the opera stage in Bansko in August and early September.  Florian Csizmadia started the new season of the Vorpommern Philharmonic Orchestra with a world première by Sebastian Hilli and Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7. Paul Goodwin was once again a guest of the Baroque Vocal Academy Mainz in August to work with young singers and the Neumeyer Consort on Handel’s opera Alcina. Shao-Chia Lü travelled to South Korea, where he conducted works by Shostakovich with the KBS Symphony Orchestra and Leonidas Kavakos. Ewa Strusińska was also drawn to faraway places: at the end of August, she conducted two concerts with the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra with works by Barber and Schumann.

An auspicious start to the 2024/2025 season!

The 2023/2024 season came to an end for our artists with wonderful concerts: 

Ewa Strusińska concluded her time as Music Director of the Gerhart Hauptmann Theatre Görlitz/Zittau and the Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie with five acclaimed concerts. Svetoslav Borisov delighted audiences at the Family Day in Grafenegg with the Tonkünstler Orchestra and made a guest appearance with the Bochum Symphony Orchestra at the Weilburg Music Summer. Florian Csizmadia ended the season of his Vorpommern Philharmonic Orchestra with a magnificent Brahms concert and made his debut with the Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic Orchestra, while Shao-Chia Lü will conduct an exciting project with the Orchestra of Music Makers in Singapore in July.

Polina Tarasenko made her debut in Poland with the Filharmonia Sudecka and received standing ovations with Derek Bourgeois’ trombone concerto.  Liv Migdal finished her residency with the Pfalzphilharmonie Kaiserslautern with Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1; Ania Vegry‘s season ended with Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang at the final concert of the Speyer Music Festival. It’s festival season in July and August: Zofia Neugebauer and Jean-François Heisser have been invited to the Ravel Festival in St. Jean-de-Luz, the Feininger Trio plays at Murten Classics, Adolfo GutiérrezArenas at MurciArt and at the Delft Chamber Music Festival, Paul Goodwin will conduct the Young Israel Philharmonic and will lead a masterclass at the Baroque Vocal Academy in Mainz. After a packed season, Piotr Pławner will appear in August at the Wawel Castle in Kraków with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

‘An impressive and atmospheric performance’ – wrote the digital newspaper ‘Kultur für Emden’ about the Anima Trombone Quartet’s concert in the marvelous natural setting of the Ökowerk Emden. The program included works from the Baroque to the modern era, both as original work, such as Eugene Bozza’s Trombone Quartet, and in arrangements, such as Desdemona’s aria from Verdi’s ‘Othello’. The highlight of the evening, which was moderated in turn by all four musicians, was an arrangement of John Lennon’s ‘Hey Jude’.

Following concerts with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Olomouc and at the Philharmonie Luxembourg earlier this year, flautist Zofia Neugebauer has now celebrated another success: on April 11, she made her debut in the Chamber Music Hall of the Berlin Philharmonie with C.Ph.E. Bach’s Flute Concerto in D minor and Mozart’s Flute Concerto in G major. As in 2020 at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, she was once again accompanied by the German Chamber Orchestra Berlin under the direction of Gabriel Adorján.