A GERMAN REQUIEM

The Balthasar Neumann Orchestra, founded in 1995 by Thomas Hengelbrock, is one of the world's leading original sound orchestras, constantly opening up new perspectives on music from different eras - from the early Baroque to the modern era. The members of the orchestra live the European idea: they come together from around 25 countries for their projects. The repertoire of the Balthasar Neumann Orchestra includes familiar pieces, but also brings to light the almost forgotten and presents something completely new.

Like their namesake, the great baroque architect Balthasar Neumann, the Balthasar Neumann Orchestra and the Balthasar Neumann Choir, also founded by Thomas Hengelbrock, stand for innovative, holistic and interdisciplinary thinking. "Music is life poured into sound", this credo defines their joint work, whether they are tackling baroque music or a brand new work. With great success, musical treasures that have fallen into oblivion are unearthed, familiar pieces are presented in a new original sound and music is repeatedly interwoven with other art forms such as dance or literature.

The Balthasar Neumann Orchestra performs in the most renowned concert halls in Europe, such as the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris and the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona. It performs in opera productions in Baden-Baden, Paris, Aix-en-Provence and Madrid and can be heard at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik as well as the Salzburg Festival. It frequently works with guest conductors such as Teodor Currentzis, Pablo Heras-Casado and Duncan Ward. Among the CD recordings of the Balthasar Neumann Orchestra and the Balthasar Neumann Choir, several are internationally acclaimed as reference recordings, including Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah. His more recent DVD releases include Handel's Agrippina in Robert Carsen's production and Verdi's La Traviata with Rolando Villazón as director.

The Balthasar Neumann Orchestra is present throughout Europe as part of artistic residencies, currently in Hamburg, Bologna, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Château de Fontainebleau and at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, among others. In addition to a Gramophone Award, the Balthasar Neumann Ensembles have received several ECHO Klassik Awards and the Baden-Württemberg Culture Prize.

The Australian soprano Eleanor Lyons studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and then perfected her skills at the Mariinsky Academy of Young Opera Singers in St. Petersburg and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. She also won the Vienna State Opera Award from the Opera Foundation Australia.

At the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest, she sang the role of Anne Truelove in Igor Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress and Mimì in Puccini's La Bohème. As Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni, she made her highly acclaimed role debut at Opera Australia in Sydney and in a concert performance in Suzhou (China), while she appeared on stage at the Flemish Opera in Antwerp and Ghent as Mimì and as Gretchen in a scenic adaptation of Schumann's Scenes from Goethe's Faust.

As a sought-after concert singer, Eleanor Lyons was heard in Britten's War Requiem with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra conducted by Philippe Herreweghe and the Noord Nederlands Orkest under Stefan Ashbury. She sang Verdi's Messa da Requiem at the Adelaide Festival 2023 in a production by Christian Spuck at Zurich Opera. Other concert collaborations include Gustav Mahler's 4th Symphony and Luciano Berio's Folk Songs with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Maurice Ravel's Chansons madécasses and Richard Strauss' Vier letzte Lieder with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer as well as Gustav Mahler's Das klagende Lied and - in concert form - Beethoven's Fidelio with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Simone Young.

Eleanor Lyons has a special collaboration with Philippe Herreweghe and the Orchestre des Champs Elysées, with whom she toured Europe for both Beethoven's oratorio Christus am Ölberge and his Missa Solemnis. She also made her highly acclaimed debut with the MDR Symphony Orchestra in Ralph Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony under Dennis Russell Davies and performed Bruckner's Psalm 150 with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Petr Popelka at the Vienna Musikverein. At the Les Chorégies d'Orange festival, she was the soloist in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis under John Nelson for the French national holiday.

Projects in the current season include Mahler's 2nd Symphony with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo under Kazuki Yamada, Mendelssohn's 2nd Symphony "Lobgesang" with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Marie Jacquot, Strauss' Four Last Songs with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra and a New Year's concert with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. Eleanor Lyons can be heard for the first time as Freia in concert performances of Das Rheingold with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Simone Young.

Thomas Hengelbrock is one of the most versatile artists of his generation. His work, which spans epochs and genres, is always the result of a detailed examination of the musical text, meaning and content of the works. With the Balthasar Neumann Choir and Orchestra, he founded two top original sound formations with which he has celebrated international success for over 25 years. He is also a sought-after partner for orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre National de France and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich.

As an enthusiastic and inspiring music discoverer, Thomas Hengelbrock devotes himself to a repertoire that ranges from early music to the 19th and 20th centuries to contemporary works and encompasses all genres. He brings almost forgotten compositions to the public or, through his projects - such as Parsifal on original instruments - enables the standard repertoire to be re-evaluated. His cross-epochal concert programs are legendary, often revealing astonishing musical affinities and creatively circling around and exploring selected themes.

Thomas Hengelbrock came into contact with important figures in contemporary music such as Witold Lutosławski, Mauricio Kagel and Antal Doráti early on as an assistant. Even today, music of the immediate present forms an important part of his work. He conducted the world premieres of Jan Müller-Wieland's oratorio Maria at the Ruhrtriennale 2018 and Wolfgang Rihm's Reminiszenz at the opening of the Elbphilharmonie in January 2017. He also works with the composers Jörg Widmann, Simon Wills, Lotta Wennäkoski, Qigang Chen and Erkki-Sven Tüür.

As an opera conductor, he can be heard at venues such as the Opéra national de Paris, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the Teatro Real in Madrid, London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Berlin State Opera and at the festivals in Baden-Baden, Aix-en-Provence and Salzburg. In the fall of 2020, Thomas Hengelbrock and the Balthasar Neumann Ensembles also opened their own Résidence Artistique at the Château de Fontainebleau, which is under the patronage of UNESCO.

In productions with the Balthasar Neumann Ensembles, Thomas Hengelbrock also directs himself, for example Purcell's Dido and Aeneas or Mozart's Don Giovanni. Musical-literary projects with actors such as Klaus Maria Brandauer, Johanna Wokalek and Graham Valentine 17 are another focus of his artistic work. His own versions of Grieg's Peer Gynt and Schumann's scenes from Goethe's Faust fuse music and world literature. In 2005, he worked with choreographer Pina Bausch on a celebrated production of Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice at the Opéra de Paris, which has toured to numerous countries to this day.

Thomas Hengelbrock is an enthusiastic music educator and promotes young artists, for example through the Balthasar Neumann Academy, which he founded, and his Cuban-European Youth Academy (CuE). He was awarded the Herbert von Karajan Music Prize in 2016 for his services. He is also a long-standing patron of the children's palliative care association KinderPaCT.