The Berliner Symphoniker For more than five decades, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra has been an integral part of Berlin’s music and cultural life, enriching the German orchestral landscape.

For more than five decades, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra has been an integral part of Berlin’s music and cultural life, enriching the German orchestral landscape. After the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the “Berliner Symphonisches Orchester” and the “Deutsches Symphonieorchester” – both located in the western part of the city – took in those musicians who lived in the west and were now cut off from their previous places of work in the eastern part of Berlin. In 1966, these two orchestras merged and began concert activities under the new name “Symphonisches Orchester Berlin” with their first principal conductor Carl August Bünte. After the fall of national festivals (including France, Italy, Austria, Spain, Israel). The Berlin Symphony Orchestra has presented itself successfully worldwide and sees itself as Berlin’s cultural ambassador throughout the world. The repertoire of the Berliner Symphoniker includes not only the classical, wide-ranging and popular concert repertoire, but also special rarities – unknown and forgotten works as well as contemporary compositions and crossover projects.

Music education as a special focus has always been a trademark of the orchestra. The Berlin Symphony Orchestra, (for example) the Berlin Wall and the reunification of both halves of the city, the orchestra was finally renamed “Berliner Symphoniker”. In addition to the popular and long-established symphony concerts in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra performs throughout Berlin and the surrounding area. They are regular guests at the Konzerthaus Berlin, the University of the Arts, the Berlin Cathedral, the Kulturbrauerei and the Chorin Monastery, among others.

They have had given guest appearances in Europe and toured regularly to North and South America, Africa and Asia, as well as appearing at international festivals (including France, Italy, Austria, Spain, Israel). The Berlin Symphony Orchestra has presented itself successfully worldwide and sees itself as Berlin’s cultural ambassador throughout the world. The repertoire of the Berliner Symphoniker includes not only the classical, wide-ranging and popular concert repertoire, but also special rarities – unknown and forgotten works as well as contemporary compositions and crossover projects. Music education as a special focus has always been a trademark of the orchestra.
www.berliner-symphoniker.de

Gad Kadosh is a young, very dedicated conductor with a distinctive musical mind.

He has conducted orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as new productions for Longborough Festival Opera, where he made his debut in 2015 to great acclaim. Other notable appearances include his conducting at the Komische Oper Berlin, the Hanover State Opera, the Two Moors Festival, and the Cambridge University Musical Society.
Previously, Gad served as second Kapellmeister and assistant conductor at the Theater Heidelberg.
Gad Kadosh received first prize at the MDR Conducting Competition in Leipzig in 2011 and was selected by Bernard Haitink to participate in his 2012 conducting master class in Lucerne.
Gad Kadosh studied piano performance at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv, where he received scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. Subsequently, Gad Kadosh conducted in Berlin and Weimar.

We are delighted that Gad Kadosh will conduct the German premiere of “Shacharit”, the oratorio by Ella Milch-Sheriff, as part of the opening concert at the Nikolaikirche in Potsdam

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Hartmut Rohde is part of the Lewandowski String Quartet, which was constituted on the occasion of the 10th Louis Lewandowski Festival.

Since winning the German Music Competition in 1990 and as a prize winner of the Naumburg Competition in 1991 in New York, Hartmut Rohde has been present on the international concert stages as a soloist and chamber musician. In addition, he has been active as a conductor of renowned chamber orchestras since 2004. He is considered one of the most successful professors for viola and teaches at the UdK Berlin as well as an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Nora Chastain is part of the Lewandowski String Quartet, constituted on the occasion of the 10th Louis Lewandowski Festival.

Nora Chastain, granddaughter of the American composer Roy Harris, is at home as a soloist and chamber musician on the renowned concert stages in Europe and America. She holds a professorship for violin at the UDK Berlin and also gives master classes all over the world, combining the European and American traditions of violin playing of the last 50 years.” She is a founding member of the Menuhin Festival Piano Quartet.

Latica Honda-Rosenberg is part of the Lewandowski String Quartet, which was constituted on the occasion of the 10th Louis Lewandowski Festival.
Latica Honda-Rosenberg is one of the first representatives of the generation of young violinists established in concert life. Winning the silver medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1998 paved the way for the violinist’s international career, which brought her together with internationally great orchestras, among others. In 2009 Latica Honda-Rosenberg was appointed professor of violin at the Berlin University of the Arts.

Gabriel Schwabe, is part of the Lewandowski String Quartet, constituted on the occasion of the 10th Louis Lewandowski Festival.
Latica Honda-Rosenberg is one of the first representatives of the generation of young violinists established in concert life. Winning the silver medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1998 paved the way for the violinist’s international career, which brought her together with internationally great orchestras, among others. In 2009 Latica Honda-Rosenberg was appointed professor of violin at the Berlin University of the Arts.

Gabriel Loewenheim performs regularly as a soloist in operas, oratorios and recitals. His long career has taken him to Israel, Europe, North America, Africa and China.

As a soloist, he sings with numerous orchestras including the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Maestro Zubin Mehta and the Israel Opera.

In total, he has sung a repertoire of more than 30 operas and solo roles in 50 oratorios under the direction of over 60 different conductors.

He also enriched his singing career as a cantor in the Jewish Community of Berlin.
He was a multiple prize winner and received various scholarships from IVAI and America Israel Culture Foundation, among others. He was also a member of the Israeli Opera Studio.

Cantor Isaac Sheffer, born in 1951 in Israel, began his singing career as a member of the ensemble of the newly founded Opera in Israel.

There he took on several solo roles and performed as a soloist with several Israeli orchestras, including the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta and Claudio Abbado.
Cantor Isaac Sheffer now lives in Berlin, where he served as cantor of the Jewish Community for over 20 years, primarily at the Pestalozzistrasse Synagogue. Today, as a retired cantor, he continues to be employed in the various synagogues of the Jewish Community of Berlin and officiates in other Jewish communities in Germany and Switzerland, among others.
Cantor Isaac Sheffer, together with the Synagogal Ensemble Berlin and its director and organist Regina Yantian, gives numerous concerts in Germany and abroad and has released 4 CDs.
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Born in Buenos Aires and raised in the tradition of the Jewish music of Louis Lewandowski, Isidoro Abramowicz studied music at the National University of Buenos Aires and specialized in piano.

His parallel studies in choral conducting and singing took him to Germany, where he studied and performed before beginning his cantorial and MA studies at the Abraham Geiger College and the University of Potsdam.

His first engagement as cantor was at the Great Synagogue of Stockholm, Sweden. In 2017, Isidoro Abramowicz was offered the leadership of the cantorial program at the AGK, succeeding retired musicologist Prof. Eliyahu Schleifer. In 2019, Cantor Abramowicz was hired by the Jewish Community of Berlin as the principal cantor of the Pestalozzistrasse Synagogue to perform and preserve the musical legacy of Louis Lewandowski.

Jürgen Geiger, born in 1976, received a sound basic musical education in piano, organ and conducting with Johannes Skudlik in Landsberg am Lech.
In Munich at the State University of Music and Drama he passed the concert exam in piano and refined his pianistic skills in an artistic postgraduate studies, including Lied accompaniment. In addition, he earned concert diplomas in organ and organ improvisation, a church music degree with an A exam, and a diploma in music education. Master classes – for example by the pianist Paul Badura-Skoda or the organists Wolfgang Seifen and Thierry Escaich rounded off his education and gave him many ideas.
Jürgen Geiger today performs as an organist, pianist and chamber musician throughout Europe on international stages with renowned musicians and conductors.

has her center of life in Berlin, where she works as an outstanding vocal pedagogue and soloist..
After studying voice in Jerusalem, Karlsruhe and New York, she won numerous international prizes and singing competitions such as the Metropolitan Opera Council Competiton, Gerda Lissner Foundation, Belvedere Singing Competition in Vienna, Montserrat Caballé International Singing Competition in Zaragoza and the Elizabeth Connell Prize.
The soprano is in demand internationally both in concert and on the opera stage. She recently appeared in the title role of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly.” At the Israeli Opera she will be seen in Strauss’ “Elektra” as Chrysotemis.