Skip to main content

Jury

Jury

Germany

Brigitte Lindner

Brigitte Lindner already appeared as a soloist with the world-famous record company EMI-Electrola during her studies at the Munich Academy of Music, for example in the opera "Hansel and Gretel" under the direction of Heinz Wallberg, "Die Zauberflöte" under Bernhard Haitink, and others. Her vocal development was accompanied by Hanna Scholl-Völker, Helen Donath and Nicolai Gedda. Her first permanent engagement took her to the Staatstheater in Braunschweig, where she sang roles such as "Gretel", "Maria" (Westside Story), "Valencienne" (The Merry Widow) and others.
Under the direction of Giuseppe Sinopoli, she sang the "Shepherd Boy" in Wagner's "Tannhäuser" at the Bayreuth Festival under the direction of Wagner's grandson Wolfgang Wagner and appeared several times at the Ludwigsburg Festival under Wolfgang Gönnenwein. This was followed by a career as an opera singer, which took her to many stages in Germany and abroad and resulted in numerous CD productions for EMI-Electrola, the Dabringhaus and Grimm label and CPO. As a partner of René Kollo and Francisco Araiza, she has performed at gala evenings, including at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt and the Kölner Philharmonie. Numerous radio recordings with WDR, BR, NDR and Deutsch landradio followed. Brigitte Lindner also presented the DLF program "Klassik, Pop etc.". She has worked with first-class colleagues such as Helen Donath, Anneliese Rothenberger, Gabriele Schnaut, Nicolai Gedda, Hermanna Prey, Lucia Popp and others.
She has also performed with outstanding conductors, including Karlheinz Bloemeke, Willi Boskovsky, Klaus Donath, Peter Falk, Michail Jurowsky, Toshiyki Kamioka, Bernhard Klee, Willi Mattes and Enrique Ricci, to name but a few. In addition to her artistic activities, she has always been committed to teaching. From 2002 to 2009, she taught singing classes at the Cologne University of Music in Aachen and Wuppertal. In 2009, she was appointed Professor of Singing and Vocal Pedagogy at the Cologne University of Music and Dance. She gives master classes and is a jury member at competitions. She has developed an additional spectrum by studying EDU - Kinesthetics and Music Kinesiology. She holds courses and lectures in these links between kinesiology, singing and music. Since September 2014 Brigitte Lindner is president of the "BDG-Stiftung Gesang" of the Bundesverband deutscher Gesangspädagogen (BDG).

Portrait Prof. Brigitte Lindner
Jury chair | Germany

Kai Wessel

The countertenor Kai Wessel is one of the leading representatives of his field, invited by orchestras and conductors all over the world, documented by radio, television and over 90 CD recordings. Equipped with a broad musical interest and versatile talents from the very beginning, Wessel studied music theory (Prof. R. Ploeger), composition (Prof. Dr. F. Döhl) and singing (Prof. Ute von Garczynski), and later also baroque performance practice in Basel with René Jacobs, whose assistant he was in arrangements of several operas.
Opera guest appearances have taken him to Barcelona, Madrid, Hanover, Stuttgart, Munich, Berlin, Dresden, Karlsruhe, Halle, Göttingen, Vienna, Salzburg, Amsterdam and Basel. In addition to roles in the baroque repertoire, he has also sung in opera premieres by Klaus Huber, Isabel Mundry, Salvatore Sciarrino, Georg Friedrich Haas, Jörg Widmann and others. under the direction of conductors such as N. Harnoncourt, Ph. Herreweghe, T. Koopman, G. Leonhard, J. Savall, W. Christie, R. Goebel, N. McGegan, M. Suzuki, M. Haselböck, H. Max, M. Corboz, H.W. Henze, K. Nagano, S. Cambreling, A. Tamayo, H. Holliger, P. Rundel and many more. Works have been written for Kai Wessel by A. Schlünz, R. Saunders, K. Obermüller, M. Kagel, H. Holliger, K. Huber, M. Pintscher, S. Gervasoni, Ch. Czernowin and others.
Kai Wessel is Professor of Singing and Historical Performance Practice at the Cologne University of Music and Dance and, since September 2014, a lecturer in singing with a focus on contemporary vocal literature at the Bern University of the Arts. He is a source of inspiration for young singers and instrumentalists in many master classes worldwide.

Portrait Prof. Kai Wessel