When watching Werner Matzke at work, one must assume that there is nothing more beautiful in the world than playing the cello. The enthusiasm with which he dedicates himself to his instrument captivates the audience. And when he sits as a continuo cellist in the ensemble, it becomes clear that the basso continuo can be the central shaping force of a composition.

Born in 1962, Werner Matzke discovered the Baroque cello during his studies. From its foundation in 1985 until 2018, he was the principal cellist of Concerto Köln, to whose international success he significantly contributed, often taking on the role of rehearsal director.

He is one of the most distinguished continuo cellists in the scene, and since 2011, he has been the principal cellist of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra under Ton Koopman, and since its founding in 2012, he has held the same position with the Dresden Festival Orchestra.

In addition, Werner Matzke has made a name for himself as a soloist, as evidenced by his numerous CD recordings. He performs concerts worldwide and conducts masterclasses and workshops both domestically and internationally.

Since 2010, he has been leading the Baroque cello class at the Trossingen University of Music, where he was appointed as a professor in 2018.

Since 2019, he has been leading the prestigious Institute for Early Music at the same institution.

He pursues his other passion, chamber music, among other things, with the Schuppanzigh Quartet.

For Werner Matzke, one of the most important things – regardless of all professional preparation – is spontaneity in the concert. Communicating something to the audience and feeling their reactions – that’s what he loves, and that’s how the audience loves him.

Born in Neubrandenburg (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), the singer Britta Schwarz began her vocal studies at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin and later moved to Dresden to study with Prof. Christian Elßner and Prof. Hartmut Zabel. She then received a four-year engagement at the Dresden State Opera Studio (Semper Opera).

She won prizes at international competitions in Karlovy Vary (Antonin Dvorak), Zwickau (Robert Schumann) and London (Walter Gruner).

In numerous concerts with renowned orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, the Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and the Cappella Andrea Barca, she has been able to showcase her extensive repertoire with great success. She has worked with such renowned conductors as Philippe Herreweghe, Milan Horvat, Michel Plasson, Helmuth Rilling, Kent Nagano, Jörg-Peter Weigle, Bruno Weil, Marek Janowski, Peter Schreier and Gustavo Dudamel.

The many years of intensive collaboration with Sir András Schiff were very inspiring.

In 2000 she initiated her own song cycle LIED ZWEITAUSEND in Dresden (12 different song recitals) with great success, a highly acclaimed continuation with three evenings took place in 2003, as well as seven evenings in 2007 and three concerts in 2012.

Concerts and recitals have taken Britta Schwarz to almost every country in Europe, Israel, Japan, Canada, the USA and South America. She has also performed at international festivals, including the Spoleto Festival in Charleston (USA): Spoleto Festival in Charleston (USA), Utrecht Early Music Festival, Dresden Music Festival, Blyth Valley Chamber Music (England), MDR Music Summer, Rheingau Music Festival and the Passau European Weeks, as well as the Menuhin Festival Gstaad. She was once again a guest at the Lucerne Festival in 2014, performing Ludwig van Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis under the direction of Sir András Schiff.

Britta Schwarz has devoted herself intensively to baroque music for many years. This has led to many encounters with important baroque ensembles, e.g. the Freiburger Barockorchester, Cantus Cölln, Musica Antiqua Köln, Concerto Köln, the Batzdorfer Hofkapelle, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Rias Kammerchor and a very stimulating and formative musical collaboration with such renowned musicians as Reinhard Goebel, Marcus Creed, Pierre Cao, Gustav Leonhardt, Ludger Rémy, Hans-Christoph Rademann and, most recently, very intensively with Gewandhaus organist Michael Schönheit and the cantor of the Frauenkirche Dresden Matthias Grünert.

Important chamber music partners are Nora Koch (harp), Pauline Sachse (viola), the pianists Daniel Heide and Oliver Pohl, as well as Christine Schornsheim (fortepiano) and the organist Jörg Reddin.

In January 2001 berlin classics released the first solo CD with secular Italian baroque cantatas. Two further solo albums have since been released: Chorales from the Schemelli Collection (Querstand 2017) and Schubert’s “Winterreise” (Rondeau 2019).

With the ensemble frauenkirche under the direction of Matthias Grünert, complete recordings of the Christmas Oratorio, the Mass in B minor and the St. Matthew Passion by J. S. Bach have been released on the berlin classics label.

2022 saw the release of a highly acclaimed long-playing record “Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt” (“Only those who know longing”), a fascinating crossover project between jazz and classical music.

Britta Schwarz has been teaching at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden for several years, where she leads the oratorio interpretation course.

In October 2015, she was appointed honorary professor at the Hanns Eisler School of Music.

Mayumi Hirasaki began her violin studies in her home country at the Tokyo State University of Fine Arts and Music.

In 2001, her studies took her to Germany to study with Prof. Daniel Gaede at the Nuremberg-Augsburg University of Music, where she graduated with distinction and completed her master class diploma.

Inspired by early music, she studied baroque violin at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich with Prof. Mary Utiger and then at the Lucerne University of Music with Prof. Giuliano Carmignola. She also passed the C examination for church musicians in the Archdiocese of Bamberg and then studied harpsichord in Munich with Prof. Christine Schornsheim.

Mayumi Hirasaki has won prizes at numerous competitions in Japan and Europe, including the International J.S. Bach Competition in Leipzig and the Early Music Competition in Bruges, Belgium. She has been concertmaster at Concerto Köln since 2011, where she has worked with conductors and soloists such as Peter Dijkstra, Andrea Marcon, Pablo Heras-Casado, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Giuliano Carmignola, Dorothee Oberlinger, Midori Seiler, Simone Kermes, Vivica Genaux and Valer Sabadus. She is also a regular guest with various baroque orchestras and ensembles such as Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Dresdner Festspielorchester, Zürcher Kammerorchester, Kammerorchester Basel, Gaechinger Cantorey Stuttgart, Neue Düsseldorfer Hofmusik, La Divina Armonia, Il Suonar Parlante and Il Gardellino with concerts in Europe, USA and Japan.

Her chamber music partners include performers such as Christine Schornsheim, Lorenzo and Vittorio Ghielmi, Francis Jacob, Michael Freimuth, Marcel Ponseele, Maurice Steger and Jan de Winne.

Her numerous CD recordings include recordings of music by Johann Sebastian Bach (“Bach in the romantic manner” with Christine Schornsheim / Genuin, double concerto with Giuliano Carmignola & Concerto Köln / DG-Archiv, E major violin concerto with Lorenzo Ghielmi & La Divina Armonia / Passacaille, 6 Brandenburg Concertos with Concerto Köln/Berlin Classics), Antonio Vivaldi’s (,, Barbarian Beauty,, with Vittorio Ghielmi & Il Suonar Parlante / Passacaille, “Violino e Mandolino in Italia” with Anna Torge and Il Cantino / CPO) or Charles Avison’s (“Concerti grossi after Scarlatti” with Concerto Köln / Berlin Classics).

Between 2009 and 2018, Mayumi Hirasaki held a teaching position for baroque violin and viola at the Folkwang University of the Arts Essen.
In 2017 she received a professorship for baroque violin and viola at the Mozarteum University Salzburg.

Born and raised in Koblenz, Jonas Zschenderlein began playing the violin at the age of five and discovered the baroque violin at the age of eleven.
He performed with professional baroque ensembles as a teenager and founded his own ensemble 4 Times Baroque.
From 2008 to 2014, Jonas was a member and alternating concertmaster of the Bachs Erben youth baroque orchestra, which usually performs without a conductor and is supervised by members of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.
At the 2012 German Music Competition in Bonn, he and the baroque ensemble Concerto +14 were accepted as scholarship holders into the 57th Federal Selection of Concerts by Young Artists.

He currently performs, also as a soloist or concertmaster, with internationally renowned ensembles and chamber music formations from Europe, including Gaechinger Cantorey (Bachakademie Stuttgart), The English Concert, Dunedin Consort, Dorothee Oberlinger (Ensemble 1700) and Il Pomo d’Oro. Concert tours have taken him all over Europe, as well as to Japan, Korea, China, the USA, Canada and South America. Performances as a chamber musician or soloist at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Barbican Centre, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Musikverein Vienna, Philharmonie de Paris and in almost all major concert halls in Germany.

Jonas was a junior student at the Cologne University of Music and Dance with Prof. Ariadne Daskalakis and Sebastian Gottschick from 2009 to 2013.
His baroque violin studies took him to Prof. François Fernandez at the CNSNDP (Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris) and to the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg (Prof. Dr. Pauline Nobes).
He has also worked closely with musicians such as Riccardo Minasi, Petra Müllejans, Maurice Steger and Hans-Christoph Rademann.

Together with harpsichordist Alexander von Heißen, he recorded a CD with works by Bach, Corelli, Westhoff and Montanari, which was released in August 2018 on the German harmonia mundi label and received positive international reviews.

He plays an undated, anonymous violin, most of whose parts are Italian and which was made around 1750.

As a passionate cyclist, Jonas finds balance and inspiration for his work in the mountains and forests.

Christian Goosses’ career began in Freiburg, where he studied modern viola with Ulrich Koch, who paved the way for many well-known violists to reach the concert stage. It soon became clear to Christian Goosses that he was particularly interested in so-called “historical performance practice”, the search for the original sound, the tonal realization of what the composer had in mind when composing.

Christian Goosses was active on the early music scene, playing in Nicolaus Harnoncourt’s Concentus Musicus Wien and in Reinhard Goebel’s Musica Antiqua Köln, as well as in ensembles such as La Stagione Frankfurt, Concerto Köln and Cantus Cölln. In Freiburg, Christian Goosses found like-minded musicians, became one of the initiators of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and continues to provide important impulses for this ensemble, with which he has traveled throughout Europe, to North and South America and to Southeast Asia. Christian Goosses tirelessly searches for new insights into phrasing, articulation and sound. Theory and practice are inseparable for him: He is interested in making lively music for a modern audience, to whom he wants to bring the charm, effervescence and expression of the music of past eras.

He sees it as an important task to pass on his experience to young musicians; he offers them inspiration and exchange in his chamber music and viola courses. Christian Goosses’ musical home is and remains chamber music, which has strongly influenced his self-image as an artist. He found both in Cologne: his current home and a chamber music ensemble with which he can realize his idea of original sound – his ventures with the Schuppanzigh Quartet start from the cathedral city. Numerous CD and DVD releases, published by Deutsche Grammophon, harmonia mundi france, TDK and others, prove Christian Goosses to be a versatile artist who mediates between tradition and the present.

Karl Kaiser studied at the conservatories in Cologne and Münster. He received decisive impulses from Konrad Hünteler.
At the same time, Karl Kaiser studied theology, philosophy and musicology at the universities of Bonn and Cologne.
For decades he has made an excellent name for himself as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician in the field of historical interpretation practice and as a teacher of historical flutes.

Karl Kaiser was principal flute of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra for 28 years. With this ensemble, he has performed the music of the 18. and played in the 19th century. After many other inspiring experiences with soloists, chamber music groups and orchestras, he now concentrates on a few complementary ensembles and on his teaching activities.

Karl Kaiser is solo flutist with La Stagione Frankfurt under the direction of Michael Schneider and can be heard on CDs with flute concertos by Telemann, Abel, Graun and Holzbauer.

He is flutist of the Camerata Köln with concerts worldwide and more than 50 CDs documenting a large part of baroque and classical chamber music.

Karl Kaiser is the flautist of the Ardinghello Ensemble, which plays classical and romantic chamber music for flute and string trio.
CDs have been released by MDG and CPO, most recently the complete flute chamber music works of Ferdinand Ries.

Karl Kaiser is a professor of baroque and classical-romantic transverse flute at the Frankfurt University of Music. He regularly passes on his experience to the younger generation in master classes. Together with Michael Schneider and Paul Dahme, he is committed to an overarching view of the message of music in the Frankfurt Flute Forum. His textbook Basiswissen Barockmusik was published by con brio. His book Principes de la flûte on the teachings of Jacques Hotteterre was published by Walhall in 2014.

Antoine Torunczyk, who is fascinated by the music of the 18th century, soon specialized in early performance practice in oboe playing, first at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Lyon under Michel Henry, then in Amsterdam at the Sweelinck Conservatory under Alfredo Bernardini. He graduated in 2000 and in the same year was awarded first prize in the “Baroque Oboe Playing” competition in Halle.

He currently plays first oboe in the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Concerto Copenhagen. He is also a frequent guest in many European baroque orchestras.

Antoine is also very active as a chamber musician and a co-founder of the Assemblée des Honnestes Curieux, an ensemble that won the Premio Bomporti Early Music competition in Rovereto (Italy). Together with musicians such as Sébastien Marq, Amandine Beyer, Javier Zafra Tami Troman and Chiaopin Kuo, he also founded the Accademia di Dissonanti.

He has been involved in numerous CD recordings, as a member of orchestras, chamber music ensembles and as a soloist:
Pierre Philidor Suites for oboe & BC (Zig Zag Territoires), Handel’s sonatas of several parts (ZZT), J.S. Bach Double Concerto (together with Amandine Bayer, violin), J.S. Bach Concerto for oboe d’amore (Alpha) and others.

He currently teaches at the Conservatoire de la Région de Paris in the early music department, as well as at the Pôle Supérieur Paris-Boulogne Billancourt. He also maintains the website of the Hautboy Companion, an educational website for playing the baroque oboe.

With an almost inexhaustible variety of sounds from various historical keyboard instruments and endless musical imagination, Christine Schornsheim has been enchanting her audiences for many years. She is a regular guest at renowned concert series and festivals such as the Ruhr Piano Festival, the Schwetzingen Festival and, of course, the relevant festivals specializing in early music. She is also regularly invited as a soloist by the major baroque orchestras. For many years, her most important chamber music partners have included Andreas Staier, the gambist Hille Perl, the cellist Kristin von der Goltz and the violinist Mayumi Hirasaki.

There are numerous, highly acclaimed video and sound recordings with Christine Schornsheim. Bach’s “Wohltemperirtes Clavier”, recorded on a harpsichord by Anton Ruckers from 1624, was released in 2011 as a major discographic project to great praise from the specialist press. In February 2005, Joseph Haydn’s complete solo piano works, recorded on five historical keyboard instruments and celebrated as a milestone, were released. This recording was awarded the “Diapason d’Or” annual prize as well as the “Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik” and the “Echo Klassik 2005”. The recording of works by Mozart for four hands, together with Andreas Staier on an extraordinary instrument by Andreas Stein, which combines harpsichord and fortepiano, also received special attention. Later this year, Christine Schornsheim will record the entire second book of the “Wohltemperirtes Clavier” as part of the Dutch Bach Association’s internationally acclaimed video project “All of Bach”.

Christine Schornsheim is a professor of historical keyboard instruments at the Munich University of Music.

Trained in classical and modern dance in Freiburg and Strasbourg, baroque and renaissance dance in Paris with Andrea Francalanci, Béatrice Massin, Marie-Geneviève Massé.

Studied philosophy and Romance languages and literature in Strasbourg, Toulouse and Freiburg. Bernd Niedecken danced at the Freiburg City Theater and in various independent companies. In 1993, together with the musician Antje Niedecken, he founded the Erato Ensemble (music, dance, drama – with a focus on baroque theater), which has performed at numerous festivals. As an internationally sought-after performer and experienced teacher, he has worked with the most important companies for historical dance (L’Eventail, Fêtes Galantes, Passo Continuo, RenaiDanse, La Terza Prattica, Compagnie Ana Yepes) and regularly gives courses (music academies in Weimar, Trossingen, Freiburg, Zurich etc.).

Bernd Niedecken has directed numerous productions of the Erato Ensemble, including the ballet comedy Le Mariage forcé by Molière/Lully/Beauchamp and the ballets Don Juan and Semiramis by Gluck/Angiolini. He choreographed Le Nozze di Figaro and the oratorio La Giuditta at the Frankfurt Opera.

Robert Schröter (Munich) studied piano in Munich with Thomas Böckheler and harpsichord in Basel with Jörg-Andreas Bötticher. Since then he has worked as a freelance musician, mainly on the harpsichord and fortepiano, with a focus on chamber music and opera/oratorio.

Regular collaborations with the Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie, the Münchner Hofkapelle and the Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg, among others. Robert Schröter has won prizes at various competitions, including Leipzig and Bruges, and has also been a regular accompanist at the Leipzig Bach Competition since 2008.

In addition to his work as a musician, Robert Schröter is a lecturer in historical performance practice at the Munich University of Music and promotes young musicians in the Bavarian Youth Baroque Orchestra. He is also an expert in the historical tuning of keyboard instruments and passes on this knowledge in the form of courses and lectures.

Johannes Loescher studied violoncello with Rocco Filippini at the “Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi” in Milan. At the “Scuola Civica di Liuteria di Milano” he also obtained a diploma as a violin maker and restorer. He trained as a museum restorer at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg and completed his master’s degree in musicology at the University of Erlangen. He specialized in historical performance practice with baroque cello courses with Anner Bylsma and Gerhart Darmstadt.

Since then he has lived in Cologne as a violin maker and freelance musician. He also regularly gives specialist lectures on the subject of historical string instruments and performance practice and is a sought-after specialist on the subject of the “violone”, also through his publications. He is currently particularly interested in the early forms of violin instruments and the corresponding repertoire, which he explores with his ensemble “Exquisit Noyse”. He also plays in various chamber ensembles and baroque orchestras, with which he is also involved in CD and radio productions.