Dear friends of the Summer Academy for early music,
We are very pleased to present you and you an exciting new edition of our "Alte Musik-Sommerakademie" in beautiful Neuburg an der Donau in August 2023 and cordially invite you to participate in the courses and to visit our concerts and events.
In 2021, the focus of our course work was already on the repertoire of 16. and 17. century. This was received so enthusiastically that we are now taking up the theme again with corresponding offers of instrumental and vocal courses, a lot of ensemble work and finally concerts, which will take place in the various places in Neuburg's historic city centre.
In particular, we will devote ourselves to the wonderful music of Biagio Marini (1594-1663). Trained in Italy, Marini worked at a young age as a violinist under Claudio Monteverdi at St. Mark's Basilica in Venice. From 1623 to 1645 he held a long and important position at the court of Wittelsbach Duke and Count Palatine Wolfgang Wilhelm in Neuburg an der Donau and his court in Düsseldorf. He has travelled extensively throughout Europe and is regarded as one of the first travelling virtuosos of his time and plays an important role in the development of early instrumental chamber music.
In addition to the master class for singing with Emma Kirkby, we were again able to attract outstanding, internationally renowned lecturers for the master classes:
Mayumi Hirasaki (violin), Friederike Heumann (viola da gamba), Kristin von der Goltz (cello), Catherine Motuz (trombone in old scale), Han Tol (recorder), Josué Meléndez (zinc) and Julian Behr (lute).
Gerhard Abe-Graf and Johannes Weiß will support us as accompanists on harpsichord and organ.
Johannes Weiß will also give us important insights into the practical aspects of performance and will also lead the large ensembles for the closing concert.
Josué Meléndez and Catherine Motuz will also introduce everyone interested to the art of improvisation.
On 7 August, the Neuburg public is invited to listen to the young ensembles at the final of the Biagio-Marini competition in the Congregation Hall and then to vote on the award of the audience prize.
Our wonderful team will present themselves with a musical pasticcio from early Baroque repertoire at the lecturers' concert on 8 August.
On August 11, an open-air concert will continue in the Schlosskapelle and on the Schlosshof, which are an opportunity for the Neuburg audience to listen to beautiful music in a relaxed atmosphere and to get in touch with the musicians.
On August 12, the participants will present the results of our intensive work in the academy in the festive closing concert in the Hofkirche.
In anticipation of an intensive week with diverse encounters in summer Neuburg greets you cordially
Your Xenia Löffler
Artistic Director Early Music
Artistic Director Early Music
Artistic Director Early Music
Artistic Director Early Music
Artistic Director Early Music
Both as solo artist and as continuo player he performs on festivals in most European countries and in South America, inter alia, with “Capricornus Consort Basel”, “Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin”, “Al Ayre Espagnol”, “Passions de L’Ame”, “B’Rock” and with altos Franz Vitzthum and Andreas Scholl, sopranos Maria Cristina Kiehr and Hana Blazikova and tenor David Munderloh.
She received her first teaching assignment in 2003, since then she has taught at the universities of Nuremberg, Essen and Frankfurt. Since 2017 she has been Professor of Baroque Violin and Viola at the Mozarteum University Salzburg.
Mayumi Hirasaki has won numerous competitions in Japan and Europe, including the International J. S. Bach Competition in Leipzig and the Competition for Early Music in Bruges, Belgium.
Since 2011 she has been concertmaster with Concerto Köln and Gaechinger Cantorey Stuttgart, and a regular guest with various baroque orchestras and ensembles such as Freiburg Barockorchester, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Dresden Festival Orchestra, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Kammerorchester Basel, Neue Düsseldorfer Hofmusik, La Divina Armonia with concerts in Europe, USA and Japan.
In 2006 she became a member of the baroque soloists of Berlin, an ensemble of the “Berliner Philharmoniker”. From 2009 to 2011 she was solo cellist at the chamber orchestra of Munich. Kristin von der Goltz is a regular guest as artistic director at the Norwegian orchestra “Barokkanerne Norwegian Barocke”.