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Artists
Michael Chance - Countertenor
 Michael Chance's carrier began,
as did so many of his colleagues, in King's College, Cambridge,
as countertenor in England's conceivably most famous choir. Today
he is one of the worlds most sought after countertenors, not
only for opera - he sang, for example, the military governor
in the world première of Judith Weir’s “A Night
at the Chinese Opera” - but also for oratorios and songs.
He is a visiting professor at the Royal College of Music, London.
He performs often in Paris, Amsterdam, Stuttgart and Berlin and
has also been in America, Japan and Australia many times. Frieder
Bernius, Frans Brüggen, John Eliot Gardiner and Trevor Pinnock
are just some of the conductors that he works with regularly.
A specialty of Michael Chance's is the song evenings he gives
with the Gamben-Consort Fretwork, Nigel North and, more recently,
Roger Vignoles, in which he sings pieces for voice and lute from
the English Renaissance and also, frequently, works from contemporary,
mostly English composers.
Mark
LeBrocq - Tenor
 Mark LeBrocq held a choral
scholarship at St Catherine‘s College, Cambridge where he
read English. He won several prizes and awards at the Royal Academy
of Music including the Blyth Buesset Opera Prize, the Royal Academy
of Music Club Prize and the Worshipful Company of Musicians’
Medal. He was formerly a company principal with the English National
Opera. Over the years, the tenor has worked together with many
important directors, including David Alden, David Poutney, Jonathan
Miller, Niklaus Lehnhoff, Graham Vick and David Freeman. He performed
regularly with the Gabrieli Consort under Paul McCreesh. He sang
with Monserat Caballé and Dennis O‘Neill in Verdi
Opera Galas in Bath, the Mozart and the Verdi Requiems in the
Barbican Centre, London and the Mozart Requiem with The English
Concert under Trevor Pinnock in Salzburg.
Raimund
Nolte ~ Bariton
The vocal art of baritone Raimund Nolte was furthered especially
during his studies with Prof. Josef Metternich as well as in
various master classes. At present he is being coached by Prof.
Irmgard Hartmann. Yet his musical career began as an instrumentalist
after completing studies in mathematics, the pedagogics of music
and viola. But soon he was being invited as a singer on stages
all over Europe, Israel, the United States and Japan.
He has sung under conductors such as Jacov Kreizberg, Vlademir
Jurowski, Helmut Müller-Brühl, Howard Arman, David
Stern, Andreas Spering, Enoch zu Guttenberg, Hans-Martin Schneidt,
Wolfgang Gönnenwein, Bruno Weil, Frieder Bernius and Reinhard
Goebel. Under the direction of Nikolaus Harnoncourt he sang at
the Graz Styriarte in Schubert's Lazarus, to great acclaim. He
performed the role of Christus in Bach's St.Matthew Passion under
the direction of Trevor Pinnock in Spain, Germany, Japan and
at the Salzburg Festival. Under René Jacob's direction
he sang in Johann Gottlieb Naumann's rediscovered opera Cora
und Alonzo at the Dresden Musikfestspiele.
Raimund Nolte gave his successful stage début in 1994
during the Innsbruck festival season. After two years at the
Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf and Duisburg he became
a regular ensemble member of the Komische Oper in Berlin, where
he is now a regular guest singer. His roles in Berlin have included
Schaunard in La Boheme, Don Fernando in Fidelio, Prince Jeletzki
in Pique Dame, Harlequin in Ariadne and Ping in Turandot. He
has built an excellent reputation singing G.F.Handel (Ezio and
Radamisto at the Händelfestspielen and the Opera house in
Halle, Rodelinda at the State Theatre Karlsruhe, Xerxes at the
Royal Copenhagen Theatre, the leading role in Saul at the Komische
Oper in Berlin, Rinaldo at the Theatre Bielefeld) and as a singer
of Mozart (Papageno in Düsseldorf and at the Komische Oper
Berlin in Harry Kupfer's production of The Magic Flute, Guglielmo
in Cosi fan tutte in Potsdam and Bielefeld, Conte Almaviva in
Le Nozze di Figaro at the Opéra de Rouen in France and
in Potsdam). In the season 2004 he sang Sharpless in Madame Butterly,
Father in Hänsel und Gretel and Germont in La Traviata at
the Opera house in Bielefeld. This season he will play the lead
role in the new production of Don Giovanni in the Schloßtheater
Potsdam.
Nolte's repertoire is wide and includes all the main oratorio
roles and a large repertoire of lieder. Numerous radio and CD-recordings
round off his wide range of activities.
David
Thomas ~ Bass
The English bass, David Thomas (Lionel Mercer), began singing
as a boy chorister in the choir of St. Paul’s Cathedral
in London. Later he was educated in King’s School, Canterbury,
and as a teenager won a choral scholarship to King’s College,
Cambridge. David Thomas first gained recognition as a soloist
with Rooley’s Consort of Musicke, Christopher Hogwood’s
Academy of Ancient Music, and other early music groups in England.
Subsequently he appeared throughout Europe. In 1982 he made his
USA debut at the Hollywood Bowl. In later years, he pursued an
international career.
David Thomas won particular distinction for his performances
of works by Monteverdi, Purcell, Bach, Händel, and Mozart.
His repertoire ranges from the Baroque and Classical, in which
he has largely specialised, to Walton, Tippet, Britten, Stravinsky,
Schoenberg and Schnittke. His career has taken him to Europe,
USA and Japan and he has appeared at many prestigious festivals
including Tanglewood, Salzburg, Edingburgh, Luzerne, Stuttgart,
Aldeburgh and the BBC Promenade concerts. David Thomas has appeared
with many of the major symphony orchestras and ensembles in the
UK, including the City of Birmingham Symphony, the London Philharmonic,
the Royal Philharmonic, the Philharmonia, the Hallé, the
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe,
the London classical Players, the Scottish Chamber, the Manchester
Camerata, the Northern Sinfonia, the Taverner Consort, the Academy
of Ancient Music and London Baroque, and he has worked regularly
with conductors such as Simon Rattle, John Eliot Gardiner, Nicholas
McGegan and Christopher Hogwood. Notable engagements in the UK
include a television recording of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony
with the London Classical Players conducted by Roger Norrington,
Händel’s Orlando at the Proms conducted by Christopher
Hogwood and Die Schöpfung with the Chamber Orchestra of
Europe and Frans Brüggen. He gives regular concerts with
soprano Emma Kirkby and lutenist Anthony Rooley. He sang Sarasto
in the Covent Garden Festival’s production of Die Zauberflöte
and the Commendatore in Don Giovanni and General Spork in Cornet
Cristoph Rilke’s Song of Love and Death for Glyndebourne
Touring Opera.
David Thomas appears frequently in Europe, especially with the
Academy of Ancient Music. Other engagements have included Christmas
Oratorio (BWV 248) performances in Leipzig and Berlin, a series
of Messiahs in Italy and concerts with the Orchestre de la Swiss
Romande, the Fundaçao de Sao Carlos in Lisbon, the Wiener
Akademie, with the Kammerchor Stuttgart in concerts in Göttingen,
and Händel’s Serse and Resurrezione in Brighton and
Göttingen.
Performances last season included concerts in Switzerland, France
and Germany with the Academy of Ancient Music, concerts in Sweden
and Boston (USA). His engagements in the USA have included Messiah
with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in the Hollywood
Bowl, The Creation with Boston Symphony Orchestra and Simon Rattle,
Messiah at the Lincoln Center with the Academy of Ancient Music,
Schubert’s Winterreise at Cornell at University and Händel’s
Judas Maccabaeus, Susanna and Theodora with the Philharmonia
Baroque and Nicholas McGegan.
David Thomas’s many recordings include Händel’s
Serse (Hanover Band/Nicholas McGegan), Händel’s Susanna,
Apollo and Daphne and Judas Maccabeus (Philharmonia Baroque/Nicholas
McGegan), Händel’s Semele, Purcell’s Fairy Queen
and Bach’s Magnificat (BWV 243) (Monteverdi Choir/English
Baroque Soloists/ John Eliot Gardiner), Händel’s Acis,
Galatea e Polifemo (London Baroque/ Charles Medlam), Händel’s
Messiah and Israel in Egypt, Bach’s B Minor Mass (BWV 232)
and St. John Passion (BWV 245) (Taverner Consort & Players/Andrew
Parrot), Coffee Cantata (BWV 211) with Emma Kirkby, Mozart’s
Requiem (Hannover Band/ Roy Goodman), Stravinsky’s Pulcinella
(City of London Sinfonia/Richard Hickox) and Die Schöpfung
(City of Birmingham Orchestra/ Simon Rattle). ‘Gramophone’
said of his solo disc of Händel Arias with the Philharmonia
Baroque Orchestra, "Thomas has a formidable range, a dazzling
technique and a tone that is full and dark, yet always clearly
defined."
Maulbronn Chamber Choir (Maulbronner Kammerchor)
The Maulbronn Chamber Choir was founded by its director, Jürgen
Budday, in 1983 and is one of the top choirs in Germany today.
In addition to learning a baroque oratorio, the ensemble compiles
a sacred and secular a-cappella programme every year, its focal
point being 19th and 20th century literature. First prize at
the Baden Württemberg Choir Competition in 1989 and 1997,
second prize at the Third German Choir Competition in Stuttgart
in 1990, and a victory at the Fifth German Choir Competition
in Regensburg in 1998 document the chamber choir's extraordinary
musical standard. The Maulbronn Chamber Choir has received, among
others, invitations to the Ettlingen Palace Festival, the chamber
music series of the Dresden Philharmonic, the cloister concerts
at the Walkenried convent, the First International Festival of
Sacred Music in Rottenburg, and the European Music Festival in
Passau. The choir has also made a name for itself internationally.
The 1983 debut tour through the USA with concerts in, among others,
New York and Indianapolis, and the participation in the Festival
of Music in New Harmony, Indiana, as well as concert tours through
numerous European countries, Israel, Argentina (1993 and 1997),
South Africa, and Namibia (2001) were all greeted with similar
enthusiasm by the public and critics alike. The third tour through
South America followed in autumn 2003 with concerts in Argentina
and Uruguay.
Jürgen Budday (Conductor)
 Jürgen Budday is director of church
music and artistic director of the concert series at the monastery
of Maulbronn, of the cantor choir and of the Maulbronn Chamber
Choir. He studied music education, church music and musicology
at the Academy of Music in Stuttgart and, since 1979, has taught
at the Evangelic Theology Seminar in Maulbronn. For his teaching
and artistic activity, he has received many awards, including
the Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande (German Cross of Merit) and
the Bruno-Frey Prize from the State Academy, Ochsenhausen. Since
2002, Jürgen Budday has also held the chair of the choral
committee of the German Music Council. Several concert recordings
have been made under his artistic direction. They have often
received international recognition and high praise from critics.
These have included the Handel oratorios Jephtha, Samson, Judas
Maccabaeus and Saul with Emma Kirkby, Michael Chance, Nancy Argenta
and Stephen Varcoe.
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