Rolf Beck
Rolf Beck studied conducting under Helmut Rilling at the Frankfurt Conservatoire. He first made a name for himself as the conductor of the Marburg Vokalensemble and then founded the Bamberg Symphony Chorus, of which he is still the Artistic Director. In the context of a special concert project with the Bamberg Symphony Chorus and the Sinfonia Varsova, he juxtaposed Arvo Pärt’s “Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten” with the “German Requiem” by Johannes Brahms. Rolf Beck has travelled with the Bamberg Symphony Chorus to all the major music centres of Germany and Europe.
He conducted the very first guest performance of Bach’s “St John Passion” in Israel and has appeared as a guest artist at many international festivals, including the Prague Spring International Music Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival ,the Beethoven Festival in Warsaw, the Mozart Festival in Würzburg, the Herrenchiemsee Festival and the “La folle-journée au Japon” Festival. In 2002 Rolf Beck founded the Choir Academy of the Schleswig- Holstein Festival which complemented the educational programme of the Festival, underlining his key interest in working with young singers.
In his function as Artistic Director of the Choir Academy he also works together with the ensemble outside the festival season. The result is documented by recordings of Handel’s “Alexander’s Feast” released by Haenssler Classic, and “Judas Maccabaeus” by Harmonia Mundi. In the past years Rolf Beck and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Choir were euphorically celebrated while on tours to Brazil, Japan, China and Russia; most recently during a concert as part of the Stars of the White Nights in St Petersburg and in the Auditório Ibirapuera in São Paolo.
In summer 2009 Rolf Beck conducted Bach’s “St John Passion” staged by Robert Wilson in the Kiel Opera House. This was the first time that all three educational programmes of the Festival came together – the Orchestra and Choir Academies and the Master Classes. Among the many orchestras that Rolf Beck has worked with are the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Basle Chamber Orchestra, the Orquestra Gulbenkian Lisbon, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Osaka Philharmonic and the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa.
Project Preview
The following projects will feature Rolf Beck conducting the Choir of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra:
December 2010
Maurice Ravel:
Daphnis et Chloë, Ballett
- Concerts in Bamberg
- Bamberg Symphony
- Matthias Pintscher, conductor
Georg Friedrich Händel:
Messiah
- Concerts in Bamberg
- Bamberg Symphony
- Rolf Beck, conductor
February 2011
Ludwig van Beethoven:
Missa solemnis
- Concerts in Bamberg
- Bamberg Symphony
- Christoph Eschenbach, conductor
June 2011
Gustav Mahler:
Symphony No. 8
- Concerts in Baden-Baden
- Bamberg Symphony
- Jonathan Nott, conductor