Anniversary concert

Oskar
Hillebrandt

Chamber singer Oskar Hillebrandt, heroic baritone, completed his vocal studies with chamber singer Professor Josef Metternich at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. Since his first appearance at the Württemberg State Opera in Stuttgart, he has received engagements at all the major European opera houses: Milan, Rome, Florence, Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille, Geneva, London, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Antwerp, Oslo, Copenhagen, Athens, Bucharest as well as at Moscow's Bolshoi Opera.

In the German-speaking countries he sang regularly at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, among others Hans Sachs in the "Meistersinger", at the Bavarian State Opera Munich or in Zurich under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst in the roles of Amfortas ("Parsifal") and Hans Sachs. At the Vienna State Opera he appeared on stage with Placido Domingo in "Walküre", where he also sang Telramund, Kurwenal, Amfortas, Holländer, Alberich, Klingsor, Mandryka. But also outside Europe he was called to many opera houses and concert halls. He sang frequently at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, in Santiago de Chile, in Tokyo and in New Zealand. He has made other appearances in Montreal and Ottawa, in Cleveland and at Carnegie Hall in New York.

He also participated in a number of international festivals. He has worked with renowned conductors such as Giuseppe Sinopoli, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Gustav Kuhn, Claudio Abbado, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Daniel Barenboim, Christian Thielemann, Horst Stein and Jeffrey Tate. He has sung more than 180 roles, including all the important roles of the heroic baritone part of Richard Wagner, but also Mandryka ("Arabella"), Jochanaan ("Salome"), Nabucco, Iago ("Otello"), Falstaff or Kaspar ("Der Freischütz").

His busy concert schedule has taken him all over the world as an interpreter of the bass-baritone parts in oratorios, masses and symphonies. Oskar Hillebrandt is a lecturer at the International Music Seminar in Vienna and has also been a coach and mentor at the Tyrolean Festival Erl for several years. In Neubeuern, between Salzburg and Munich, he teaches bel canto singing in his own masterclass. After his Flying Dutchman in Melbourne in 2015, he was nominated Best Male Singer of the Year in Australia.

Ildiko
Raimondi

The Austrian soprano Ildikó Raimondi, chamber singer and integration ambassador, comes from a Hungarian family.  She was a member of the Vienna State Opera from 1991 to 2020, where she sang more than 50 operatic roles, from Pamina ("The Magic Flute") to Mimi ("La Bohème"), and from Susanna ("Le nozze di Figaro") to Rosalinde ("Die Fledermaus").

Guest appearances have taken the Vienna-based artist to the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Semperoper Dresden, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Zurich Opera House, the Valencia Opera House, the National Theater in Budapest, the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, as well as to Asia, America and Japan. Her engagements at international festivals include the Salzburg Festival, the Bregenz Festival, the Vienna Festival, Musica Sacra Rome, the Edinburgh Festival, the Richard Strauss Festival Garmisch and the Beethovenfest Bonn.

Ildikó Raimondi is particularly devoted to contemporary music and its premieres. CD recordings by Cerha, Doderer, Rihm, Schmidinger and Eröd document her professional commitment in this special field. Her recitals at the Vienna Musikverein and in many cities in Austria and abroad continue to set standards of interpretation and programming. With the operetta project O-MIA (Operetta Made In Austria), initiated by her and the tenor Herbert Lippert, Ildikó Raimondi is able to pursue her great passion for Viennese operetta. This multimedia event took her to China in 2021 with a concert tour. Since 2015 she is professor for solo singing at the Mozarteum University Salzburg.

Gerhard
Siegel

German tenor Gerhard Siegel began his musical career as an instrumentalist and composer. After completing his vocal studies at the Augsburg Conservatory, he became an ensemble member of the Trier City Theater. It was here that the stage version of Heinrich Heine's "Deutschland - ein Wintermärchen" (Germany - a Winter's Tale), for which he had composed the music, was premiered.

Gerhard Siegel was a prize-winner at the Belvedere/Hans Gabor Singing Competition in Vienna. After an engagement as a feature and lyric tenor at the Anhaltisches Theater Dessau and guest performances in Germany, Bulgaria, Holland and Spain, he was engaged in Augsburg. In 1998 he made his debut at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. From 1999 to 2006 he had a permanent contract with the Nuremberg Theater, where he was able to expand his repertoire, especially in the dramatic and heroic tenor repertoire. Here he sang Parsifal, Bacchus, Herod, Florestan, Laca ("Jenufa") and Sergei ("Lady Macbeth of Mzensk"), but also Mephistopheles ("Doktor Faust" by Busoni), Tom Rakewell and Alfredo. He was particularly celebrated in his début as Stolzing ("Meistersinger") and in the title role of "Siegfried".

Freelancing since 2006, Gerhard Siegel has appeared as Max in the new production of Weber's "Freischütz" at the Komische Oper Berlin, in Hindemith's "Nusch-Nuschi" under Gerd Albrecht and as Max in "Jonny spielt auf" in Cologne, as Florestan at the Granada Festival, as Weill's "Protagonist" at the Bregenz Festival, as Herod at the Vienna State Opera, in Brussels, Barcelona, London and Madrid, as Hauptmann ("Wozzeck") at the Teatro Real Madrid and at the Opéra Bastille in Paris, in Zemlinsky's "Traumgörge" at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and as Sellem in "The Rake's Progress" at the Theater an der Wien. A central role in his repertoire today is Mime in "Rheingold" and "Siegfried".

He sang it in his débuts at the Metropolitan Opera New York as well as at the Bayreuth Festival and in the "Ring" of the Cologne Opera directed by Jeffrey Tate, followed by appearances at all major international opera houses. Another artistic highlight was Schönberg's "Gurre-Lieder" (Klaus-Narr) on a tour with Michael Gielen and the SWR Symphony Orchestra as well as with the Vienna Philharmonic under Zubin Metha. In the coming years, performances in "Khovanshchina", "Wozzeck" and "Elektra" at the Opera National de Paris, a concert tour as Loge in "Rheingold" with the Rotterdam Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, "Cardillac" and "Salome" at the Vienna State Opera, "Mahagonny" and "Salome" at the Metropolitan Opera followed.

Falk
Struckmann

Falk Struckmann, one of the world's leading bass-baritones of our time, took on the role of the Doctor in "Wozzeck" with great success at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse as well as at the Opéra de Paris, where he also distinguished himself as Klingsor in "Parsifal". His extensive repertoire includes all the great Wagner roles.

Thus, he is a sought-after interpreter for the important roles in the "Ring des Nibelungen": Wotan/Wanderer, Fafner, Hunding, Hagen and Alberich. He has also mastered the roles of Klingsor, Amfortas, Gurnemanz, Daland, King Marke, and for many years enjoyed worldwide success as Hans Sachs ("Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg"). Other important roles included Jochanaan ("Salome"), Barak ("Die Frau ohne Schatten"), Borromeo ("Palestrina") and the title role in "Mathis der Maler".

In the Italian repertoire, Falk Struckmann was especially in demand as Scarpia ("Tosca") and Iago ("Otello"). He has also sung "Duke Bluebeard's Castle" in several productions. Falk Struckmann was born in Heilbronn. He has worked with the international conducting elite such as Daniel Barenboim, Christian Thielemann, Kirill Petrenko, Riccardo Muti, Simone Young and Bertrand de Billy. He is a Kammersänger at the State Operas in Berlin and Vienna.

Hans Peter
Haselsteiner