Rolf Beck
Rolf Beck, founder and Artistic Director of the Chorakademie of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, has been leading the Choir of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra for over twenty years.
He mainly concentrates on the great oratorios and sacred works of Handel, Mozart and Beethoven with an additional focus on the major choral works of Mendelssohn, Brahms and music from the 20th century. In the scope of a special concert project with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra in the 2004/05 season he juxtaposed Mendelssohn's "Walpurgisnacht" with Alfred Schnittke's "Faust Cantata".
In addition to regular appearances throughout Germany, Rolf Beck and the Choir of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra have also performed in Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Italy, Spain, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Russia, Japan in South America. In Israel, Beck directed the first performance of Bach's St John Passion by a visiting ensemble.
During recent years, Rolf Beck has conducted at festivals such as the Prague Spring Festival, the International Bruckner-Fest in Linz, the Festival de la Musique de Strasbourg, the Mozartfest Würzburg, the Festspielen Herrenchiemsee, the Rheingau Musik Festival and the Beethoven-Fest in Krakow. As Director of the Chorakademie of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival he also performed beyond the borders of North Germany and toured Spain and Japan.
Beck has worked with numerous orchestras such as the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Cappella Istropolitana, the Orquestra Gulbenkian Lisboa, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Osaka Philharmonic and the Ensemble Kanazawa. At the end of 2006, Rolf Beck made his debut with the Czech Philharmonic at the Prague Rudolfinum, with a programme featuring Mozart's version of Handel's "Messiah". In the opening concert of the Vilnius Festival 2007 he conducted Bach's "St. John Passion" in a production of Bob Wilson.
Among the most memorable of Rolf Beck's many recordings are Rossini's "Petite Messe solennelle" and Bach's "Christmas Oratorio".
Project Preview
The following projects will feature Rolf Beck conducting the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and the Choir of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra:
June 2008
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: „Wie der Hirsch schreit“
- Franz Schubert: Messe Nr. 6
- Concerts in Bamberg
- Rolf Beck, Conductor