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The German conductor, organist and harpsichordist (and former counter-tenor), Hansjörg Albrecht, received his first musical education as a member of the Dresdner Kreuzchor from 1981 to 1991 and received his formative organ instruction there too. Following that he went for seven years to St. Michael‘s in Hamburg, where he was the assistant organist. He studied church music and organ in Hamburg and Cologne with St. Michael‘s organist Gerhard Dickel and with Thierry Mechler (Lyon). Scholar of the Rudolf-Mauersberger-Stiftung from the choir of the Kreuzkirche.
Hansjörg Albrecht is one of the most versatile musicians of the younger generation. In 1995 he took in charge the musical organization and direction of the ”Friday Night Music” in St. Michael’s Hamburg. This chamber music series, which can be heard throughout the whole year, had then just been inaugurated. Especially for this series he founded an ensemble with whom he has performed cantatas, concerts and chamber music ever since then. On the occasion of the Bach Year 2000, he founded the chamber orchestra "concerto agile" whose repertoire reached from the complete orchestral works and solo cantatas by Bach over symphonies by Haydn and Mozart up to the 20th century (with a special focus on Gustav Mahler). During this time, while concentrating on keyboard instruments, he also developed a very intensive and multifaceted artistic collaboration spanning five years with the singer and conductor Peter Schreier, as well as with the organist Matthias Eisenberg.
Hansjörg Albrecht is Artistic Director of the Münchener Bach-Chor since the September 2005 and besides permanent Guest Conductor of the Bach-Collegium München. Since autumn 2007 he also regularly conducts the Carl-Philipp-Emanuel-Bach-Chor Hamburg and became Artistic Director of the Hamburg Sinfonietta in 2009. With these ensembles as well as in collaboration with guest orchestras he has developed new programmatic profiles (with symphonic music for orchestra and choir, orchestral works and opera concertante by Gluck, Schubert, Grieg, Verdi, Wagner, G. Mahler, Strauss, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Orff, Arthur Honegger, Maurice Duruflé, Francis Poulenc, Messiaen and others) and performs frequently at Munich's and Hamburg's concert halls as well as in cities like Rome, Turin, Warsaw, Berlin, Frankfurt/a.M., Mannheim, Wiesbaden and at various renowned music festivals in Europe (Settembre Musica, Festival Europäische Wochen Passau, Internationale Gustav-Mahler-Musikwochen Toblach, Dresdner Musikfestspiele, Festival Europa Musicale, summer festival of Bayerischer Rundfunk).
Hansjörg Albrecht has enjoyed collaborations in Germany with the Chamber Orchestra Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Berlin, the Dresdner Philharmonie, New Bach Collegium Musicum Leipzig, Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Halle, Hamburger Symphoniker, Hamburger Barockorchester, Norddeutschen Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester (Hamburg), Philharmonisches Orchester Lübeck, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks (Munich), Bavarian State Orchestra (Munich), Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Neue Elbland Philharmonie (Riesa), and Ensemble Semper Brass.. Abroad he has worked with orchestras and instrumental ensembles as Camerata Salzburg (Austria), the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Tivoli Symphony Orchestra Copenhague (Denmark), Orchestra Finnish National-Opera Helsinki, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Rome), Orchestre del Maggio Musicale Firenze, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Orquesta Nacional de Espana, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestra of St. Luke’s New York, and Opera Orchestra Los Angeles. Also with choirs as the Rundfunkchor Berlin, Dresdner Kreuzchor, Monteverdi Chor Hamburg, the Choir of the Bavarian Radio. Conductors he has worked with include Heribert Beissel, Michael Gläser, Paul Goodwin, Hartmut Haenchen, Michael Hofstetter, Bernhard Klee, Lev Markiz, András Schiff, Peter Schreier, and Gothart Stier.
In parallel with his conducting Hansjörg Albrecht has also built up an international reputation as organist and harpsichordist since 1998. He gave organ recitals in Germany (amongst others in Berlin, Cologne, Erfurt,
Freiberg, Hamburg, Halle/Saale, Rostock, Munich, Osnabrück, Wiesbaden), USA (incuding St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York), France (Lyon), Poland (Posnan), Norway (Bergen), Finland (Kuhmo-Festival), Latvia (Riga) and the Czech Republic (Prag). As organist and harpsichordist he appeared in Dresden (Frauenkirche, Philharmonie), Berlin, (Konzerthaus), Munich (Philharmonie, Prinzregententheater), Halle (Händel Festival), Göttingen (Händel Festival), Frankfurt/Main (Cathedral), Mozartfestival, Schwetzingen, Leipzig (St. Thomas’ Church), Hamburg (Musikhalle), Cologne (Philharmonie), Schwäbisch Gmünd (Festival of Europ Church-Music), Magdeburg (Cathedral), Frankfurt/Oder (Concerthall), Görlitz (St. Peter und Paul) and Stuttgart (Liederhalle).
Hansjörg Albrecht gave concerts as a guest in New York (Carnegie Hall), Los Angeles (Opera), Rome (Santa Caecilia), Florence (Teatro Communale), Venezia (San Marco), Helsinki (Taivallahtii (”Rock”) Church and Finnish National Opera),Chambermusic-Festival Kuhmo, Oulu, Naantali (Finland), Copenhague (Concert Hall of the Tivoli), Geneve (Victoria-Concerthall), Zürich (Tonhalle), Chambermusic-Festival Hopfgarten (Tirol) as well as on tours through Spain, Madrid (Auditorio Nacional de Musica) and Israel. Furthermore, as partner for chamber music and as soloist Hansjörg Albrecht gets regularly invited to European music festivals.
Besides many radio and television recordings in Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Czech Republic, Poland and the USA, he has an exclusive agreement since 2006 with the label Oehms Classics, with whom he has recorded works by J.S. Bach, Wagner, Mussorgsky, Sergei Rachmaninov, Igor Stravinsky and Francis Poulenc so far.
In 2010, Hansjörg Albrecht will conduct the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI in Turin and lead several concerts with the Munich Bach Choir and orchestras such as Münchner Rundfunkorchester (Munich), Münchner Symphoniker (Brixen), Bach-Collegium München (Munich, Innsbruck, Rome), Hamburg Sinfonietta (Hamburg, MS Europa), Bach-Collegium Stuttgart and Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart (Stuttgart). As organist he will perform in cathedrals of Piacenza, Leipzig, Halle, Weimar and many more. |
