Thomas Hengelbrock
Thomas Hengelbrock ( born June 9, 1958 in Wilhelmshaven ) is a German violinist, conductor and specialist in historical performance practice.
Life and work
Thomas Hengelbrock studied violin with Rainer Kussmaul, then began a career as a violinist in Würzburg and Freiburg. He received important artistic suggestions as assistant to Witold Lutosławski, Mauricio Kagel and Antal Doráti. He has played first in various ensembles such as the Vienna Concentus Musicus under Nikolaus Harnoncourt. In 1985 he was one of the founders of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, where he worked until 1997 as a musician and conductor. From 1988 to 1991 he worked with the Amsterdam Bach Soloists. Subsequently, he worked several times as a conductor at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music.
Thomas Hengelbrock founded in 1991, Balthasar- Neumann -Chor and 1995, the same orchestra ( Balthasar -Neumann- Ensemble ). With both ensembles he leads according to the findings of historical performance practice works from the Baroque period up to modern times. Verdi's opera Rigoletto and Falstaff, for example, was the conductor of the orchestra at the Whitsun Festival in 2004 and 2007 in Baden -Baden playing on period instruments.
From 1995 to 1999, the German Chamber Philharmonic Bremen chose him as artistic director. In 2000, he became music director of the Vienna Volksoper and remained there until 2003. Hengelbrock in 2001 founded the Feldkirch Festival, where he worked until 2006 as artistic director.
As a conductor Hengelbrock follows Invitations international orchestras. So he worked with the Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
His concert dramaturgy is characterized by unusual program concepts, incorporating the new insights of musicology. He played works now scarcely known composers from JS Bach's music library on CD, designed innovative programs; so he designed, for example, for the EXPO 2000 in Hanover " Ecclesiastical Action " with works by BA Zimmermann, Ligeti and JS Bach. Hengelbrock works closely with contemporary composers, including Jan Müller- Wieland, Quigang Chen, Erkki -Sven Tüür and Simon Wills.
Together with the Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer realized Hengelbrock semi-staged performances of works such as Manfred ( Byron / Schumann ), Peer Gynt ( Ibsen / Grieg ) and Egmont ( Goethe / Beethoven).
With the musical theater itself Hengelbrock sat apart not only as a musician and conductor, also directed several productions with his Balthasar- Neumann -Chor and Ensemble Directed by itself also. So in 2001 recorded this CD with the creation of Joseph Haydn received the 2003 ECHO Klassik category in the choral work recording.
When Feldkirch Festival 2006, he directed Mozart's Don Giovanni and opened the series "Mozart 22" at the Salzburg Festival in 2006 with Il re pastore.
For the Paris Opera, the conductor worked with the ballet choreographer Pina Bausch; 2005, and a resumption of 2008, the " opéra dansé " Orpheus and Eurydice by Christoph Willibald Gluck with Balthasar Neumann Choir, Ensemble and the Ballet de l' Opéra de Paris at the Palais Garnier and the ancient Greek theater at Epidauros was performed.
The Konzerthaus Dortmund devoted Thomas Hengelbrock in the 2008 /09 season a " time slot" with three performances, including the concert recording with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra of the opera Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber ( later in the Festspielhaus Baden -Baden in scene set and transferred by ARTE ), as well as with the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble and Choir, the B Minor Mass by Johann Sebastian Bach.
2011 realized Hengelbrock together with Sebastian Baumgarten Tannhäuser at the Bayreuth Festival.
Since the season 2011/2012 Thomas Hengelbrock is to succeed Christoph von Dohnányi - initially for three years - chief conductor of the NDR Symphony Orchestra.
Hengelbrock is married to actress Johanna Wokalek. The couple has a son.
Honors and Awards
On April 30, 2011 he was awarded the Minister President of Baden -Württemberg for his manifold contributions to the musical life in the Baden-Württemberg State Order of Merit.
On March 24, 2012 Thomas Hengelbrock was awarded the Praetorius Music Prize in 2012, the presented him with the former Minister of Culture of Lower Saxony Johanna Wanka at the Schauspielhaus Hannover for outstanding artistic achievement.