Concerts 2009

STELLA DOUFEXIS, the German-Greek mezzo-soprano Stella Doufexis is one of the most sought-after singers in her field, both on the operatic stage and on the concert podium. She has given guest performances with renowned German orchestras as well as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Orchestre de Paris, London Symphony Orchestra and Mahler Chamber Orchestra,  amongst others. This has given her the opportunity to work with famous conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Zubin Mehta, Semyon Bychkov, Kent Nagano, Kurt Masur, Roger Norrington, Christopher Hogwood, Ingo Metzmacher, Ivor Bolton, Helmuth Rilling, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Christoph Eschenbach or Gustavo Dudamel. For more than a decade she has worked closely with the Berliner Philharmoniker and performed under the direction of Claudio Abbado in a variety of New Year’s Eve concerts, in Mozart’s Mass in c-minor, in Wolfgang Rihm’s In doppelter Tiefe (including a tour to Bonn, Moscow, London, Paris and Washington in 1999 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of democracy in Germany), and sang the role of Meg Page in Verdi’s Falstaff and Dorabella in the concert performance of Mozart’s Così fan tutte under the direction of Simon Rattle. Their next joint project will be Strawinsky’s Pulcinella Suite in autumn 2010. The recording of Falstaff was released by Deutsche Grammophon.

Having studied with Ingrid Figur, Aribert Reimann, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Anna Reynolds, at an early stage in her career she was already performing a wide-ranging repertoire spanning from baroque right through to modern at a variety of festivals, for example, the Salzburger Festspiele, where she also performed with Claudio Abbado and Lorin Maazel in Verdi’s Falstaff, the Lucerne and Berlin festivals, the Beethoven Festival Bonn, Wien Modern, Festival Athens, London Proms, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Schubertiade Hohenems, Aldebourgh Festival and Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival.

Stella Doufexis has given guest performances at many opera houses including Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, Scottish Opera, Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona, Gran Théatre de Genève and the Bavarian State Opera Munich.  Stella Doufexis has had strong ties to this Berlin opera house since 2005, singing roles that have included Octavian, Cherubino, Niklas, Dorabella, Medea and Hamlet: “Mrs Hamlet is a delight – Stella Doufexis gives an inspirational and passionate performance in the lead role.” (Berliner Zeitung). She will return to the Berlin opera house to make her role debut as Carmen and to sing in the new production of Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen as well as the revival of Strauss’ Rosenkavalier. In spring 2011 she will appear on stage at the Théatre Royal de la Monnaie Brussels as Ramiro in Ursel and Karl-Ernst Herrmann’s production of Mozart’s La finta giardiniera. 

An acclaimed lied singer with a true passion for this song form, Stella Doufexis has been invited to Brussels, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Vienna, London, Athens, Cologne, Hamburg, Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt and Zurich, amongst other places. This season she will perform guest recitals at the International Bach Academy in Stuttgart and the Kammermusikverein Basel. Coviello Classics released her unusual and very successful rendition of Schöne Welt, wo bist Du on CD in Autumn 2007 under the title Sketches of Greece in a performance accompanied by Axel Bauni on the piano.

In October / November 2010 Stella Doufexis will go on tour with colleagues Marlis Petersen, Werner Güra and Konrad Jarnot with Brahms’ Liebesliederwalzer (Love Song Waltzes) and Schumann Quartets, visiting Spain, Holland and Germany. The CD recording of Brahms’ Liebesliederwalzer released by Harmonia mundi France was awarded the prestigious Diapason d’Or. Stella Doufexis will also perform concerts at the mdr Musiksommer festival, and chamber music recitals in Paris, singing works including Schumann’s Liederkreis op. 39 song cycle and Wolff Lieder. This season’s programme also features performances of Ravel‘s Sheherazade with the Beethovenorchester Bonn and an invitation to the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden and Freiburg to perform Murray R. Schafer’s Adieu Robert Schumann. She is also due to make a recording of French orchestral songs with Karl-Heinz Steffens and the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland Pfalz. More information

CAMILLO RADICKE (piano) was also born and educated in Dresden. He won first prizes in international piano competitions in Palma de Mallorca (1990), Athens (1992) and Vercelli (1992). Since then he has given numerous concerts as soloist and chamber musician in nearly all European countries, the Middle East, Cuba, South America, Japan and Korea.

He has been a guest at many international festivals and has worked with orchestras like the Dresdner Philharmonie, Staatskapelle Dresden, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Münchner Kammerorchester and the RAI Symphony Orchestra Turin, and with conductors like Marek Janowski, Gerd Albrecht, Michel Plasson, Yuri Temirkanov, Tamas Vasary, Bernhard Klee and Jörg-Peter Weigle.

Camillo Radicke was and is one of the regular accompanists of the singers Peter Schreier, Juliane Banse and Olaf Bär (with whom he performed for the Dubai Concert Committee in 2007). For Harmonia Mundi, Camillo Radicke has recorded Brahms's Liebeslieder Waltzes for 4 voices and piano for 4 hands, with Marlis Petersen, Stella Doufexis, Werner Güra, Konrad Jarnot and Christoph Berner. Since 2007, the ensemble has performed this award winning production in many concert halls across Europe.