Daniel Harding, born in Oxford in 1975, began his career assisting Sir Simon Rattle at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, which he himself conducted for the first time in 1994. He later worked as Claudio Abbado’s musical assistant, and in 1996 became the youngest conductor to appear at the BBC Proms in London. That same year he also made his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker at the Berlin Festival, conducting works by Berlioz, Brahms and Dvořák. After appointments with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra in Norway and the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra in Sweden, he served as music director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (1997 – 2003), principal conductor of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (2003 – 2011), music partner of the New Japan Philharmonic (2010 – 2016) and principal guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra (2006 – 2017). Since 2007 Harding is music director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. From September 2016 until summer 2019 he took on the same role with the Orchestre de Paris. In constant demand in the world’s leading centres of music, he has appeared with many internationally acclaimed orchestras and conducted opera performances in houses as prestigious as the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, La Scala, Milan, the Vienna, Berlin and Munich State Operas and the Salzburg and Aix-en-Provence Festivals. In 2002 Daniel Harding was awarded the title Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government and in 2012 he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. The Mahler Chamber Orchestra honoured him with the lifetime title of Conductor Laureate. In 2018 he was named artistic director of the Anima Mundi Festival in Pisa. As a guest conductor with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Daniel Harding last appeared in March 2019, when he conducted three concerts with works by Charles Ives, Alban Berg and Gustav Mahler.
Kate Lindsey, born in Richmond, Virginia, studied at Indiana University and is a graduate of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the New York Metropolitan Opera. The American mezzo-soprano, a regular guest at the world’s most prestigious opera houses, has appeared in recent seasons in the title role of Miranda (freely adapted from Shakespeare and Purcell) in the production of Katie Mitchell and Raphaël Pichon at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, as Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier) and the Prince (Cendrillon) at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival, and as Nerone in the highly acclaimed new production of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea under the musical direction of William Christie at the Salzburg Festival. She also made her role debut as Sister Helen in Jake Heggie’s opera Dead Man Walking and took on the role of the Muse/Nicklausse (Les Contes d’Hoffmann) at LA Opera and at the London Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. As Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), she returned to the Wiener Staatsoper. She also sang Hänsel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel and Gretel at De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam and Dorabella in a new production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte at the Aix-en-Provence festival. In addition, Kate Lindsey has performed at the Wiener Staatsoper, Santa Fe Opera, Los Angeles Opera, at the Opéra de Lille, at the Bayerische Staastsoper in Munich and at the Glyndebourne Festival. As a concert singer she has appeared with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Baroque and Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, and worked together with well-known conductors such as James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Emmanuelle Haïm, Jérémie Rhorer and Franz Welser-Möst. Her numerous awards include the Richard F. Gold Career Grant, the George London Award, the Lincoln Center Martin E. Segal Award and a Sullivan Foundation Grant. In these concerts, Kate Lindsey makes her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Andrew Staples sang as a boy in the choir of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London before studying music at King’s College in Cambridge. With a grant from the Britten Pears Foundation, he continued his studies at the Royal College of Music in London and at the Britten International Opera School. With a repertoire which includes works by Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Britten and Tavener, Andrew Staples is a guest artist at leading opera houses and concert halls, and at renowned festivals. At the Royal Opera House in London he has appeared as Jaquino (Fidelio), Flamand (Capriccio), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Narraboth (Salome) and Artabenes (Arne’s Artaxerxes) among other roles there. He has also sung at the National Theatre in Prague, the Hamburg State Opera, Lyric Opera Chicago and at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, and Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) at the Salzburg Festival. He also sang Tamino for the Lucerne Festival and in Drottningholm with Daniel Harding and most recently at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. On the concert stage, Andrew Staples has sung with orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic, working with conductors such as Semyon Bychkov, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Robin Ticciati. In Berliner Philharmoniker concerts, where the singer made his debut in early February 2009, Andrew Staples was last heard in March 2019 in performances of Bach’s St John Passion, conducted by Simon Rattle.
China-born bass baritone Shenyang attracted international attention in 2007 when he won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition at the age of only 23. After studying at the conservatory in Shanghai, he graduated from the Juilliard School in New York and went through the Salzburg Festival’s Young Singers Project. He then completed the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the New York Metropolitan Opera, where he appeared in the roles of Masetto (Don Giovanni), Garibaldo (Rodelinda), Colline (La Bohème) and as the Speaker of the temple (Die Zauberflöte). As Alidoro in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, he made his debuts at the Glyndebourne Festival, at Bayerische Staastsoper in Munich, at Oper Zurich and at Washington National Opera. He also starred in the title role in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at the Beijing National Center for the Performing Arts and subsequently at Seattle Opera. Shenyang also made two critically acclaimed role debuts last season: in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jaap van Zweden, he took on the role of Gunter for the first time; he also sang Jochanaan in concert performances of Strauss’ Salome, accompanied by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Alexander Liebreich. As a concert singer, Shenyang has performed with the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome. He has worked with conductors such as Alan Gilbert, Michael Tilson-Thomas, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Daniel Harding and Sir Antonio Pappano. Valery Gergiev invited Shenyang as a guest soloist at the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg. In addition, he is a dedicated lieder singer and has been awarded the Alice Tully Vocal Arts Award, which led to his much acclaimed New York debut in 2009 at the Lincoln Center. In concerts of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the singer can now be heard for the first time.
With around 60 concerts annually and international guest performances, Rundfunkchor Berlin (Berlin Radio Choir) is one of the world’s foremost choruses. The exceptional breadth of its repertoire, its stylistic versatility, delight in experimentation and richly nuanced sound have made it the chosen partner of major orchestras and conductors. In Berlin the choir has long-standing partnerships with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and the Berliner Philharmoniker. Many recordings and awards, including three Grammy Awards, document its work. With its experimental project series, in collaboration with artists from diverse disciplines, the Rundfunkchor Berlin is breaking down the classical concert format and adopting new modes of choral music for a new audience: The “human requiem”, an interactive scenic version of Brahms’s German Requiem staged by Jochen Sandig and a team of Sasha Waltz & Guests, became a milestone, with guest performances in Europe, New York, Hongkong and Australia. For its project »LUTHER dancing with the gods« the choir cooperated with director Robert Wilson in October 2017. With annual activities such as the Sing-along Concert and the “Liederbörse” (Song Exchange) for children and young people or the education programme SING! the choir invites people of various walks of life to the world of singing. Academy and Schola support the next generation of professionals. Founded in 1925 the ensemble was shaped by conductors including Helmut Koch, Dietrich Knothe, Robin Gritton and Simon Halsey (2001–2015). With the 2015/16 season Gijs Leenars took over as principal conductor and artistic director. The Rundfunkchor last appeared with the Berliner Philharmoniker at the end of August 2019 in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony conducted by Kirill Petrenko.