The faculty 2026

PROF. CHRISTOPH PRÈGARDIEN

Precise vocal control, clear diction, intelligent musicality, and an ability to get to the heart of everything he sings all ensure Christoph Prégardien’s place among the world’s foremost lyric tenors. Especially revered as a Lieder singer, he kicks off the 2025/26 season together with Julius Drake at the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg/Hohenems before performing Die schöne Müllerin/These Fevered Days by Johannes Maria Staud, among other works – an outstanding project that combines Schubert's cycle in a newly orchestrated version with seven new songs based on texts by Emily Dickinson. Following its world premiere in 2024, it will now be presented with Klangforum Wien at Klangspuren Schwaz and the Wiener Konzerthaus, as well as with the Remix Ensemble under Peter Rundel in Porto. Recitals will take him to Bogotá, La Monnaie Brussels, the Kronberg Academy, the Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin (with Julius Drake and Udo Samel), Barcelona, Tokyo, Taiwan and once again to the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg/Hohenems. A personal highlight will be his 70th birthday, which he will celebrate with a gala concert in Dortmund – together with his son Julian Prégardien as part of their programme ‘Father and Son’, which can also be experienced in various forms in Saarbrücken, Tübingen and Bamberg. In addition, the duo will tour with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and Kristian Bezuidenhout, with concerts in Cologne, Freiburg and Berlin. In Frankfurt, he will also take on the title role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah.

Christoph Prégardien regularly appears with renowned orchestras the world over. He has worked with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, as well as the Boston and San Francisco Symphonies, alongside conductors such as Barenboim, Metzmacher, and Thielemann. His wide orchestral repertoire includes the great baroque, classical, and Romantic oratorios and passions, as well as works from the 17th and 20th centuries. In opera, his roles have included, among others, Tamino, Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Fenton (Falstaff), Don Ottavio, Titus, Ulisse, and Idomeneo. His extensive experience singing the Evangelist roles, together with his close working relationship with conductors such as Nagano, Chailly, Herreweghe, Harnoncourt, Luisi, and Gardiner, have provided the perfect base for his increasing dedication to conducting the works of Bach.

Following the success of his conducting debut in 2012 leading Le Concert Lorrain and the Nederlands Kammerkoor, he now regularly conducts renowned ensembles like the Balthasar Neumann Choir, Dresdner Kammerchor, Collegium Vocale Gent, and RIAS Kammerchor. In the spring of 2024, he took to the podium for Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Vespres d’Arnadí and the Cor de Cambra del Palau in Barcelona. In December 2025, he will conduct Bach's Christmas Oratorio on tour with the Belgian ensemble Il Gardellino and the chamber choir of the Palau de la Musica Catalana.

The singer has recorded much of his repertoire on a discography of over 150 albums, which have received awards such as the Orphée d’Or of the Académie du Disque Lyrique, the Edison Award, the Cannes Classical Award, and the Diapason d’Or. For the label Challenge Classics, he has recorded Schubert’s Schwanengesang with Andreas Staier and Die schöne Müllerin with Michael Gees, which was selected as Editor’s Choice by Gramophone magazine and awarded the MIDEM Record of the Year award. Shortly thereafter followed recordings of Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch with Julia Kleiter, ‘Between Life and Death’, ‘Wanderer’, and the Grammy-nominated Winterreise disc – all with Michael Gees – as well as ‘Father and Son’ with his son Julian Prégardien. His Schubert CD ‘Poetisches Tagebuch’ with Julius Drake was awarded the German Critics’ Award 2016. His most recent releases include one recorded in collaboration with the Warsaw Chopin Institute with pianist Christoph Schnackertz featuring songs by Paderewski, Moniuszko and Duparc, and a new recording of Schubert’s Schwanengesang and Schumann’s Liederkreis, Op. 39 (with Julius Drake). In 2023, the Etcetera label released an album of Bach cantatas recorded with Stephan Schultz and Le Concert Lorrain, featuring Christoph Prégardien as baritone.

Teaching remains an important part of Christoph Prégardien’s musical life. Following many years at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Zurich and a professorship at the Academy of Music in Cologne, he continues to give masterclasses for young singers around the world.

PROF. NICK DEUTSCH

Nick Deutsch is one of the leading oboists of his generation. As a principal oboe, he has worked with many leading orchestras, including the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Gewandhaus Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, the radio orchestras of Cologne (WDR), Stuttgart (SWR), Frankfurt (HR), Berlin (RSB & DSO), and opera houses in Berlin, Munich, Dresden, Leipzig, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Mannheim, Cologne, and Oslo under conductors such as Zubin Mehta, James Levine, Sir Simon Rattle, Kurt Masur, Andris Nelsons, Lorin Maazel, Gustavo Dudamel, Kirill Petrenko, Riccardo Muti, Semyon Bychkov, Frans Brüggen, Antonio Pappano, Ivan Fischer, Daniel Harding, and many more.

He also works regularly with various ensembles such as Ensemble Modern, Capella Andrea Barca (András Schiff Ensemble), chamber orchestras of Munich, Stuttgart & Heilbronn, Camerata Salzburg, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, and the Stuttgart Bach Collegium.

Nick served as principal oboe of the Frankfurt Opera and Museums Orchestra from 2003 to 2010, was a member of the Budapest Festival Orchestra from 2002 to 2011, and performs regularly with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also played as principal oboist with the Bayreuth Festspiel Orchestra, the Super World Orchestra (Japan), and the Australian World Orchestra.

As a soloist, he has performed with numerous orchestras, including Camerata Salzburg, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Munich Bach Orchestra, Georgian Philharmonic Orchestra (Tbilisi), Frankfurt Opera and Museums Orchestra, Real Filharmonia de Galicia, Polish Chamber Orchestra, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, and the Mexican National Orchestra. An active chamber musician, he is a founding member of the Hindemith Quintet and works intensively with the Linos Ensemble.

Nick has performed in many major music festivals in over 40 countries on all five continents, including the Salzburg Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, BBC Proms, La Folle Journée (Nantes), Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Rheingau Musik Festival, Prague Spring Festival, Hambacher Musikfest, Bachwoche Ansbach, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schwetzinger Festspiele, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Hitzacker Musiktage, Weilburger Schlosskonzerte, Musikfest Stuttgart, Darmstadt Ferienkurse, Münchner Biennale, Walled City Festival (Derry), Pacific Music Festival (Japan), Tongyeong International Music Festival (Korea), Mehta Music Foundation (Mumbai), Tbilisi Wind Festival, Musica Compostela (Spain), Felicia Blumenthal International Music Festival (Tel Aviv), and Sydney Festival.

As a pedagogue, Nick has been a guest professor at numerous music academies around the world, including the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique (Paris), Royal College of Music (London), Royal Academy of Music (London), Gnessin School of Music (Moscow), Central Conservatory of Shanghai, Hong Kong Academy of Music, Bern Academy of Music, and Buchmann-Mehta School of Music (Tel Aviv), and he regularly gives masterclasses worldwide.

He currently holds the position of Professor of Oboe at the Hochschule für Musik – "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy“ in Leipzig. Nick is a Marigaux artist and plays a Marigaux M2 oboe.

PROF. ANTTI SIIRALA

The Finnish pianist Antti Siirala has established himself as one of the finest pianists of his generation. His rich palette of sound colours, his differentiated and songful phrasing, and his expressive intelligence are frequently praised.

Antti Siirala is the winner of numerous international competitions, including the Leeds International Piano Competition. In 1997 he won the International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna as the youngest laureate in its history. This led to performances of all Beethoven piano works at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki in the following years and a special focus on Beethoven in Siirala's repertoire.

He performs with renowned conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, François-Xavier Roth, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Sakari Oramo, and with orchestras including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Bamberger Symphoniker, the Radio Symphony Orchestras of HR, NDR, SWR, and WDR, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Wiener Symphoniker, City of Birmingham Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Residentie Orkest, Gothenburg Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo. He regularly performs chamber music with partners such as Carolin Widmann, Baiba Skride, Lawrence Power, Tanja Tetzlaff, Jan Vogler, and Sharon Kam.

Milestones in his career include recitals in the piano series of the Berlin Philharmonic, at the Lucerne Festival, and the Ruhr Piano Festival, as well as performances at major concert halls such as Cologne’s Philharmonie, London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and Zurich’s Tonhalle. He was also Artist in Residence for three years in the Junge Wilde series at Konzerthaus Dortmund.

Recent highlights include debuts with the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, and Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as re-invitations to perform with the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover and the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken. This season he will return to the Residentie Orkest for concerts in The Hague and Utrecht.

His CD recordings, several of which have received the Editor's Choice Award from Gramophone magazine, were published by Sony (Schubert's Trout Quintet with newly composed variations) and Naxos (works by Brahms and Schubert transcriptions). Other recordings include Beethoven’s last three sonatas (AVI-Music) and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto (Sony, with The Knights, Colin Jacobsen, and Jan Vogler).

Antti Siirala is Professor of Piano at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich.

Prof. Boris Kusnezow

Boris Kusnezow is one of the most sought after collaborative pianists of his generation. He performs with eminent instrumentalists and singers worldwide. His performances have taken him to renowned concert venues such as the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, the Kioi-Hall in Tokyo, the Munich Gasteig and the Berlin Philharmonie.

His artistic activities are documented in 12 CDs and numerous radio recordings. The German press (FAZ, Süddeutsche, Fono Forum, among others) have repeatedly praised him as a chamber musician and several of his CDs have been nominated for prizes, including the Opus Klassik and Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.

Boris Kusnezow is in demand as an official pianist for some of the world's most prestigious instrumental and singing competitions, most recently being invited to the ARD Competition in Munich, the Joseph Joachim Competition in Hannover, the Stuttgart International Violin Competition and the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels.

Boris Kusnezow was born in Moscow and began his musical education at the traditional Gnessin Academy. He has lived in Germany from the age of eight and completed his musical studies in Hannover with Professor Bernd Goetzke. Thereafter followed first place at the German Music Competition, international awards such as Fellowship of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust and scholarships from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes.

In addition to his active performing activities, he is founder of the piano chamber music academy „Chamber Lab" in Montecastelli/ Italy, artistic director of an international music masterclass in Schloss Bückeburg (IMAS) and volunteers for the Loewe Foundation, where he focuses on the promotion of classical music. Teaching has become an important element in Kusnezow's artistic career. In 2020 he was appointed professor for piano chamber music at the University for Music and Theatre „Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig.