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Georg Christoph Biller
Georg Christoph Biller (20 September 1955 – 27 January 2022) was a German choral conductor. He conducted the Thomanerchor as the sixteenth Thomaskantor since Johann Sebastian Bach from 1992 to 2015. He was also a baritone, an academic teacher, and a composer. Active as Thomaskantor after the German reunification, Biller returned the Thomanerchor to its original focus on church music. He was instrumental in the new buildings for the choir's boarding school, the Forum Thomanum, and in the celebration of its 800th anniversary in 2012. Life and career Born in Nebra, the son of a pastor, Biller grew up with three siblings. At age 10, he joined the Thomanerchor in Leipzig, living in its boarding school. He was a member from 1965 to 1974, with Erhard Mauersberger and Hans-Joachim Rotzsch. As ''Chorpräfekt'', he assisted in conducting. He studied at the from 1976 until 1981, orchestral conducting with Rolf Reuter and Kurt Masur, and voice with Bernd Siegfried Weber. In 1976, Bill ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nebra (Unstrut)
Nebra (official name: Nebra (Unstrut)) is a town in the district of Burgenlandkreis of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the river Unstrut. Nebra has become nationally and internationally known as the site where the Nebra sky disc, a notable Bronze Age artifact, was discovered. The town has a population of around 3,300. Geography Location Nebra lies between Querfurt and Naumburg on the Unstrut river in the west of Burgenlandkreis district. Subdivisions Neighboring communities Neighboring towns are Querfurt, Barnstädt and Steigra (all three in Saalekreis) to the north, Karsdorf to the east, Bad Bibra to the south and Kaiserpfalz to the west. History In 1962, four Magdalenian figurines were found near Nebra from the late Upper Paleolithic, which belong to the oldest known artwork in Saxony-Anhalt. The figures are 12,000 to 14,000 years old. The town is perhaps most famous due to the Nebra sky disk, which was found in Wangen near Nebra in 1999. It only be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kurt Masur
Kurt Masur (18 July 1927 – 19 December 2015) was a German conductor. Called "one of the last old-style maestros", he directed many of the principal orchestras of his era. He had a long career as the Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and also served as music director of the New York Philharmonic. He left many recordings of classical music played by major orchestras. Masur is also remembered for his actions to support peaceful demonstrations in the 1989 anti-government demonstrations in Leipzig; the protests were part of the events leading up to the fall of the Berlin wall. Biography Masur was born in Brieg, Lower Silesia, Germany (now Brzeg, Poland), and studied piano, composition and conducting in Leipzig, Saxony. His father was an electrical engineer, and as a young boy he completed an electrician's apprenticeship; he occasionally worked in his father's shop. From ages 10 to 16, he took piano lessons with Katharina Hartmann. In October 1944 the Nazis ann ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andreas Schmidt (baritone)
Andreas Schmidt (born 30 June 1960 in Düsseldorf) is a German classical bass-baritone in opera and concert. Career Andreas Schmidt studied church music with his father Hartmut Schmidt and singing with Ingeborg Reichelt and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. His 1984 debut was in the part of Malatesta in Donizetti's ''Don Pasquale'' at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. He became a member of the opera house, appearing in Mozart roles such as Guglielmo in ''Così fan tutte'' or Count Almaviva in ''Le nozze di Figaro'', as Wolfram in Wagner's ''Tannhäuser'', Posa in Verdi's ''Don Carlos'', and Marcello in Puccini's ''La Bohème''. He created there the title role of Wolfgang Rihm's opera ''Oedipus'' in 1987 and the part of Ryuji in Hans Werner Henze's ''Das verratene Meer'' in 1990. He has appeared as a guest at the Hamburger Staatsoper, the Berlin State Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Grand Theátre Genf, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Opéra de Paris, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Petzold
Martin Petzold (25 June 1955 – 19 April 2023) was a German classical tenor who performed internationally in opera and concert. He was for decades a member of the Leipzig Opera, performing more than 80 roles such as Pedrillo in Mozart's ''Die Entführung aus dem Serail'', David in Wagner's ''Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'' and Toni in Henze's ''Elegie für junge Liebende''. A member of the Thomanerchor as a boy, he was particularly known for the part of the Evangelist in oratorios and Passions of Johann Sebastian Bach. Career In concert, Petzold collaborated with major orchestras and choirs, such as the Thomanerchor, the Dresdner Kreuzchor, the Monteverdi-Chor Hamburg, the Gewandhausorchester, the MDR Symphony Orchestra and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. He was focused on works by Johann Sebastian Bach, singing the part of the Evangelist in his ''Christmas Oratorio'' and ''Passions'', conducted by Biller, Peter Schreier, Kurt Masur, Roderich Kreile, Rolf Schweizer and Davi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St Matthew Passion
The ''St Matthew Passion'' (german: Matthäus-Passion, links=-no), BWV 244, is a '' Passion'', a sacred oratorio written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1727 for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra, with libretto by Picander. It sets the 26th and 27th chapters of the Gospel of Matthew (in the Luther Bible) to music, with interspersed chorales and arias. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest masterpieces of Baroque sacred music. The original Latin title translates to "The Passion of our Lord J susC[hrist">rist.html" ;"title="susC[hrist">susC[hristaccording to the Evangelist Matthew".Markus Rathey. 2016. ''Bach's Major Vocal Works. Music, Drama, Liturgy'', Yale University Press History The ''St Matthew Passion'' is the second of two Passion settings by Bach that have survived in their entirety, the first being the '' St John Passion'', first performed in 1724. Versions and contemporaneous performances Little is known with certainty about the creation proc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andreas Reize
Andreas Reize (born 19 May 1975) is a Swiss organist and conductor, with a focus on opera and choral conducting. He was appointed Thomaskantor on 11 September 2021, becoming the 18th director of music to take charge of the world famous Thomanerchor at Leipzig in succession to Johann Sebastian Bach. Career Reize was born and grew up in Solothurn, where he passed the Matura in 1996. He was a long-term member of the Singknaben der St. Ursenkathedrale Solothurn. He studied church music at the Hochschule der Künste Bern and the Musikhochschule Zürich, achieving also master's degrees in piano pedagogy and concert organ playing. He studied organ and harpsichord at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis from 1999 to 2002, followed by studies of orchestral conducting at the Musikhochschule Luzern. He took post-graduate studies in conducting at Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz and with in Vienna, completed in 2006 with distinction. Reize attended master classes with , C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sächsische Akademie Der Künste
The Sächsische Akademie der Künste (Saxon Academy of Arts) is a German cultural organisation for the state of Saxony, based in Dresden. Purpose The Academy is a statutory corporation to promote the arts in Saxony, make proposals for its promotion and maintain the traditions of the Saxon cultural area ("die Kunst zu fördern, Vorschläge zu ihrer Förderung zu machen und die Überlieferungen des sächsischen Kulturraums zu pflegen", Founding Act of 1994). Situated between the older academies in Berlin and Munich, the academy tries to enliven the intellectual and artistic richness of the East German cultural area, while simultaneously meeting the challenges associated with demographic, social and cultural changes. In immediate vicinity of the new member states of the European Union and historical leadership of Saxony in the Central and Eastern European cultural area, the Academy feels obliged to accompany the political unification culturally and artistically. History The init ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christmas Oratorio
The ''Christmas Oratorio'' (German: ''Weihnachtsoratorium''), , is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach intended for performance in church during the Christmas season. It is in six parts, each part a cantata intended for performance on one of the major feast days of the Christmas period. It was written for the Christmas season of 1734 and incorporates music from earlier compositions, including three secular cantatas written during 1733 and 1734 and a largely lost church cantata, BWV 248a. The date is confirmed in Bach's autograph manuscript. The next complete public performance was not until 17 December 1857 by the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin under Eduard Grell. The ''Christmas Oratorio'' is a particularly sophisticated example of parody music. The author of the text is unknown, although a likely collaborator was Christian Friedrich Henrici (Picander). The work belongs to a group of three oratorios written in 1734 and 1735 for major feasts, the other two works being the ''Asce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Church Cantata (Bach)
Throughout his life as a musician, Johann Sebastian Bach composed cantatas for both secular and sacred use. His church cantatas are cantatas which he composed for use in the Lutheran church, mainly intended for the occasions of the liturgical year. Bach's ''Nekrolog'' mentions five cantata cycles: "Fünf Jahrgänge von Kirchenstücken, auf alle Sonn- und Festtage" (Five year-cycles of pieces for the church, for all Sundays and feast days), which would amount to at least 275 cantatas,Alfred Dörffel. Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe Volume 27: '' Thematisches Verzeichniss der Kirchencantaten No. 1–120''. Breitkopf & Härtel, 1878. Introduction, p. VI or over 320 if all cycles would have been ideal cycles.Günther Zedler''Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach: Eine Einführung in die Werkgattung''.Books on Demand, 2011. p. 24–25/ref> The extant cantatas are around two-thirds of that number, with limited additional information on the ones that went missing or survived as fra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bach Cantata
The cantatas composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, known as Bach cantatas (German: ), are a body of work consisting of over 200 surviving independent works, and at least several dozen that are considered lost. As far as known, Bach's earliest cantatas date from 1707, the year he moved to Mühlhausen, although he may have begun composing them at his previous post in Arnstadt. Most of Bach's church cantatas date from his first years as and director of church music in Leipzig, a position which he took up in 1723. Working for Leipzig's and , it was part of Bach's job to perform a church cantata every Sunday and holiday, conducting soloists, the Thomanerchor and orchestra as part of the church service. In his first years in Leipzig, starting after Trinity of 1723, Bach regularly composed a new cantata every week, although some of these cantatas were adapted (at least in part) from work he had composed before his Leipzig era. Works from three annual cycles of cantatas for the lit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vespers
Vespers is a service of evening prayer, one of the canonical hours in Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic (both Latin liturgical rites, Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern), Lutheranism, Lutheran, and Anglican liturgies. The word for this fixed prayer times, fixed prayer time comes from the Latin , meaning "evening". Vespers typically follows a set order that focuses on the performance of psalms and other biblical canticles. Eastern Orthodox services advertised as 'vespers' often conclude with compline, especially the all-night vigil. Performing these services together without break was also a common practice in medieval Europe, especially secular churches and cathedrals. Old English speakers translated the Latin word as , which became evensong in modern English. The term is now usually applied to the Anglican variant of the service that combines vespers with compline, following the conception of early sixteenth-century worshippers that conce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched the Protestant Reformation. The reaction of the government and church authorities to the international spread of his writings, beginning with the '' Ninety-five Theses'', divided Western Christianity. During the Reformation, Lutheranism became the state religion of numerous states of northern Europe, especially in northern Germany, Scandinavia and the then- Livonian Order. Lutheran clergy became civil servants and the Lutheran churches became part of the state. The split between the Lutherans and the Roman Catholics was made public and clear with the 1521 Edict of Worms: the edicts of the Diet condemned Luther and officially banned citizens of the Holy Roman Empire from defending or propagating his ideas, subjecting advocates of Lutheranis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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