Clemens Malich

Conductor

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Clemens Malich was born in 1967 in Freising, Germany and received his first cello lessons at the age of 4 from his father. He lived in Istanbul for five years before he studied at the conservatories of Munich, Würzburg and Hamburg with W. Nothas, J. Berger and W. Mehlhorn, as well as in London with W. Pleeth.
He played in the Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra under conductors such as Sir Georg Solti, Sergiu Celibidache, Leonard Bernstein and Bernstein and Lorin Maazel. As a soloist
and chamber musician, he has won prizes in various competitions, gives concerts in Europe and concerts in Europe and South America and and is a regular guest at festivals. He
cellist of the Brahms Trio Hamburg and the Goldberg of the Goldberg String Trio. His CD recordings have been broadcast by Bayerischer Rundfunk and Norddeutscher Rundfunk.
As professor for violoncello he teaches at the
at the Academy of Music and Theater in
Hamburg. Since 2003 he has also conducted the
three orchestras of the Mendelssohn orchestra family, among others, at the Philharmonie Berlinl, the KKL Luzern as well as the Great Hall of the Elbphilharmonie. In 2017 he was
together with the orchestra with the
European Culture Prize and in 2022 with the
the Opus Klassik in 2022.

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Joanna Kamenarska

Violin

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Joanna Kamenarska studied with Josif Radionov in Sofia and with Ruggiero Ricci and Igar Ozim in Salzburg. She has been performing since her earliest childhood and continues to do so in Germany and abroad. She won various prizes, for example a third prize at the International Mozart Competition in Salzburg in 2002. Her broad-ranging solo repertoire encompasses everything from baroque to contemporary avant-garde music. As a soloist, Joanna Kamenarska has appeared with orchestras such as the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, the Nürnberg Symphony Orchestra, the Polish Chamber Philharmonic, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Hamburger Camerata, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra as well as orchestras in Bulgaria and elsewhere. Her numerous musical partnerships have resulted in two CD recordings: the first was “Initio” with pianist Irina Georgieva, released by the Bulgarian label Gega New; in 2019 a duo album with pianist Moisès Ferández Via appeared on the label Urtext Classics in Tanglewood in the USA. Joanna Kamenarska plays a violin built by J. B. Guadagnini in 1740 (Ex-Flesch), on loan to her from a private donor. Joanna Kamenarska has lived in Hamburg since 2007, when she began a one-year appointment as concertmaster at the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. In 2008 she became associate concertmaster at the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra. Since February 2018 she has been teaching in the orchestral studies programme at the Hamburg Academy of Music and Theatre.

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Moses Mendelssohn Kammerorchester

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In order to bring not only the great symphonic works but also smaller chamber orchestra pieces to the stage, the director of the Felix Mendelssohn Youth Orchestra (MJO), Prof. Clemens Malich, established the Moses Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra (MKO) in 2019. Rarely performed or almost forgotten works, such as those by composer Joseph Boulogne, are particularly dear to this orchestra.

The orchestra rehearses as needed and on a project basis in a fixed chamber orchestra formation. In this way, the nearly 20 selected musicians are able to quickly develop new pieces and bring them to the stage.

Outstanding in the first year of existence were performances with the Bundesjugendballett (BJB) under the artistic direction of John Neumeier, both in the Hamburg club Gruenspan and on the main stage of the Hamburg State Opera. In the following season, the MKO was a guest at the Thalia Theater and performed on stage together with the ensemble members of the "Embassy of Hope" and the Thalia Theater on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the UN Refugee Aid.

In addition to Prof. Clemens Malich, Solveigh Rose (Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg) and Michael Holm (Youth Chamber Music Initiative Hamburg) also work intensively with the young people.

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Johannes Witt

Conductor

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In the recent past Johannes Witt debuted at Wiener Staatsoper, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Finnish National Opera, Norwegian National Opera and Ballet and Oper Wuppertal. In the current season Johannes will debut at Czech National Opera, Dutch National Opera and Ballet, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. He will return to Finnish National Opera and conduct several premieres for Oper Wuppertal.
With the beginning of the season 2021/22 Johannes took up a position as conductor for the Oper Wuppertal. Highlights of his schedule there are the German premiere of Salvatore Sciarrino's »Il canto s'attrista, perché?«, the premieres of »La Traviata«, »Werther«, »Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor« and »The Pirates of Penzance« as well as performances of »Erwartung«, »Rigoletto«, »Die Lustige Witwe« and »Die Zauberflöte«. In the years before he was conductor for the Aalto Theater in Essen, where he conducted a broad repertoire including new productions and revivals of »Die Zauberflöte«, »Die Csárdásfürstin«, »Il Barbiere di Siviglia«, »Norma«, »Das Land des Lächelns«, »The Bartered Bride«, »Hänsel und Gretel«, »Così fan tutte«, »Il Trovatore«, »Die Fledermaus«, »Cain, overo il primo omicidio«, »Orfeo ed Euridice« as well as the ballets »Romeo and Juliet«, »The Nutcracker«, »Giselle«, »The Sleeping Beauty«, »Onegin«, »Swan Lake«, »Don Quichote« and »Carmen / Bolero«.
He conducted the Aalto Theater premieres of »Onegin«, »Swan Lake« and »Eine Nacht in Venedig«, all highly praised by press and audience alike:
»(...) Last but not least, there is a special praise from the critic (which was confirmed at the end by the audience's sudden standing ovations) for the highly talented man in front of the Essen Philharmonic Orchestra, namely Johannes Witt, who, like in »The Nutcracker«, entertained superbly with a rubato-full Tchaikovsky interpretation. An exceptional conductor who one should keep an eye on (...)«
(Alviano Salvago, DER OPERNFREUND, 29.01.2018)
In 2023 Johannes returned to Wiener Staatsoper to conduct »La Fille mal Gardée«.
In 2021 he returned to Staatstheater Stuttgart and Aalto Theater Essen to conduct John Cranko's »Taming of the Shrew« as well as the revival of Dietrich Hilsdorf's acclaimed production of »Cain, overo il primo omicidio« in Essen.
Other guest engagements have led him to the Nationaltheater Mannheim (»Don Giovanni«), the Oper Bonn (»Madama Butterfly«), the Staatstheater Kassel (»Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor«) and the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern (German premiere of the chamber opera »Heart Sutra« by Christian Jost and the monodrama »The Raven« by Toshio Hosakawa). In 2016 Johannes conducted a critically acclaimed premiere of Prokofiev's »Romeo and Juliet« at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville.
His concert repertoire includes works from early baroque to contemporary compositions, the symphonies of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Schumann, Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich as well as a wide range of solo-concerts and choral works.
He has conducted concerts with orchestras such as Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Duisburger Philharmoniker, Essener Philharmoniker, Bremer Philharmoniker, Philharmonie Südwestfalen, Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal, Folkwang Kammerorchester, Vanemuine Symphony Orchestra, Landesjugendorchester Hamburg a.o.
He began his professional career as a coach at the Staatstheater Darmstadt. In 2012 Stefan Soltész brought him to the Aalto Theater Essen as a coach and conductor. Here he worked closely with Stefan Soltész as his assistant in productions of »Pelléas et Mélisande«, »Ariadne auf Naxos« and »Parsifal«. He assisted conductors such as Tomáš Netopil, Friedrich Haider, Martyn Brabbins, Dima Slobodeniouk, Giuliano Carella and Will Humburg, the latter for a production of “Die tote Stadt” at the Teatro Massimo di Palermo.
Johannes studied conducting in Cologne with Professor Michael Luig at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln and in in St. Petersburg with Loenid Korchmar of the Rimsky Korsakov Conservatory St. Petersburg. Johannes is a trained percussionist. Before conducting, he specialized on the marimba as a soloist in recitals and in concerts with orchestra. Johannes' passion for orchestral music and for the powerful sensation of collective music making has its roots in his many years as timpanist in the youth orchestras of Toronto and Cologne.
As Artistic Director of the Landesjugendorchester Hamburg, a position he took up in 2020, Johannes shares his passion for music with highly talented young musicians. He hopes to be a source of inspiration for these future colleagues of his and that their time in a youth orchestra has a similarly meaningful impact on their lives as it did on his.

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Naomi Seiler

Viola

Naomi Seiler began performing early on with her siblings in the Seiler Quartet, and joined the class of Jürgen Geise at the Mozarteum Salzburg as a junior student when she was 14. She continued her studies with Ulrich Koch in Freiburg and with Hirofumi Fukai in Hamburg. The winner of several awards performs both chamber music (including with the Seiler Quartet and Via Salzburg in Toronto) and as a soloist in Germany, France, Italy, South America and Japan, combined with radio and television appearances. Naomi Seiler has been principal viola of the Philharmonic State Orchestra since 1989. A sought-after chamber musician, she is a champion of chamber music within her own orchestra and teaches at the Hamburg Academy of Music and Theatre.

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Landesjugendorchester Hamburg

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The Hamburg Youth Orchestra (LJO), founded in 1968 as the State Youth Orchestra of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, is one of the oldest State Youth Orchestras in the Federal Republic.

In the 1960s there were only a few school and music school orchestras. Against this background, the Office for Youth took the initiative to create a symphony orchestra for young people interested in music, which would also represent a musical challenge for the young people. The first orchestra course took place in 1966, but failed because the literature exceeded the young people's playing skills. The conductor also had no experience with rehearsals with amateurs or aspiring professionals.

For the young people taking part, these experiences prompted them to think about how they imagined a symphonic orchestra: weekly rehearsals and the determination of the programs and the conductor by the orchestra members were the main points. The young people wanted to have the organization of the orchestra in their own hands and turned to the Youth Office with these ideas. The authority welcomed the young people's ideas to focus on the youth-care aspect of this community in the form of self-administration in addition to the artistically demanding training.

With the vision of a self-governing youth orchestra, the HJO was founded in 1968 as a state youth orchestra. The Youth Office provided the financial resources and developed the structure of the orchestra together with the young people; the first rules of procedure were adopted in 1970.

A self-managed orchestra was a novelty in the German orchestra landscape. A board elected by the orchestra should be responsible for all matters. After the initial framework conditions had been created, only continuous work showed which tasks were vital for the orchestra. According to needs, specific areas of responsibility were linked to the individual board positions.

The first conductor of the Hamburg Youth Orchestra was Herbert Bruhn, who studied at the University of Music and who founded the “Altona Chamber Orchestra” with Matthias Rieger; Together with the members of their orchestra, they were instrumental in founding the HJO.

Herbert Bruhn belonged to Professor Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg's conducting class, who was recruited as a mentor for the young orchestra. In this capacity, he advised the youth orchestra on the selection of new conductors and occasionally carried the baton.

In 1983 the sponsorship changed from the Youth Office to the Cultural Authority. Over the years the number of members has increased to currently around 80 young musicians. The rehearsals were regularly supported by experienced musicians from professional orchestras. In addition to regular rehearsals and the rehearsal of three symphony programs each year, the young people organize chamber music projects and concert tours.

With the increasing level of musical training and instrumental skills of the young people, their growing musical demands, reflected in the choice and presentation of the concert programs, the Hamburg Youth Orchestra established itself in Hamburg's musical life; This was followed by joint projects with choirs and the Hamburg University of Music. The orchestra played at trade fair and congress openings, was invited to perform alongside renowned professional orchestras at the Hamburg Music Festival between 1989 and 1995 and appeared as a representative of the city at the Hamburg Days in Gdansk, Marseille and Prague.

Despite the high fluctuation that is usual for youth orchestras and the increased demands, both musically and organizationally, the democratic structure has endured to this day; only the number of positions and their profiles change in accordance with the growing tasks of the orchestra and the demands of the young people.

In 2005, the orchestra renamed itself the “Landesjugendorchester Hamburg” to emphasize the orchestra's status as the city of Hamburg's selection orchestra.

In 2007, the orchestra's sponsorship changed from the cultural authority to the Hamburg State Music Council. In the course of this change, the organizational structure was also significantly changed: from now on, the State Youth Orchestra was a project of the State Music Council. The resulting new framework conditions in particular resulted in some restrictions on the orchestra's self-administration, but self-administration was largely preserved within the framework of jointly developed rules of procedure.

In 2018, the Hamburg State Youth Orchestra celebrated its 50th anniversary.

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2nd Academy Concert

Moses Mendelssohn Kammerorchester / Landesjugendorchester Hamburg