Ralf Otto

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Ralf Otto (2017)

Ralf Otto (* 1956 in Kassel ) is a German conductor and professor of choral conducting .

Life

While studying church music at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main, Otto founded the Vocal Ensemble Frankfurt in 1981. With this chamber choir , consisting of young, partly professional singers , which specialized in the elaboration of demanding and rarely performed works from all epochs, Otto achieved internationally significant competition successes, such as first prize at the Hessian Choir Competition in 1984 and first prize at the German Choir Competition in 1985 and special prize for the best interpretation of a contemporary work (Lars Edlund Elegi ), in 1988 first prize in the Guido d 'Arezzo choir competition and in 1990 first prize in the BBC Let the Peoples Sing choir competition .

In addition to intensive preoccupation with early music and its realization on the basis of historically informed performance practice , Otto's work with the vocal ensemble was contemporary music . In this context, they were a regular guest at the “Frankfurt Festen” with numerous world premieres, e. B. Presentation of works by important composers such as Messiaen , Huber , Xenakis , Berio , Ferneyhough , Müller-Hornbach, Rihm , Webern and Gielen . In addition, there was the collaboration with the Ensemble Modern and the London Sinfonietta Voices as well as the conductors Lothar Zagrosek and Michael Gielen. Numerous radio and CD co-productions for Hessischer Rundfunk were made .

In 1986 Otto was appointed artistic director of the Mainz Bach Choir . Otto expanded his artistic activities to include late romantic and contemporary music, such as Franz Schmidt's The Book with Seven Seals , Hanns Eisler's German Symphony , Britten's War Requiem , as well as Müller-Hornbach's On the Edge of Time or world premieres by Thilo Medek. Otto's reputation as a specialist in the field of historically informed performance practice up to the Romantic era brought productions such as Bach's St. Matthew Passion in Mendelssohn 's version or Bach's St. John Passion in Robert Schumann's version as premieres in the Rhineland-Palatinate state capital, but on the other hand also highly acclaimed performances von Bach's B minor Mass in solo instrumentation.

Otto has also worked as a guest conductor with the Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra , the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, the baroque orchestras L'arpa festante and Concerto Köln , the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn , the Philharmonia Hungarica , the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Munich Bach Orchestra and the Polish Chamber Philharmonic. From 1998 to 2000 he was chief conductor of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of the State of Hesse . In addition, Otto has worked regularly with the Munich Bach Choir and with the radio choirs of the NDR and WDR and was engaged as a conductor at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival , the Bad Urach Autumn Music Days , the Weilburg Palace Concerts and other festivals.

From 1990 to April 2006 Ralf Otto held a professorship for choral conducting at the Folkwang University in Essen ; since the beginning of the 2006 summer semester he has been working in the same position at the University of Music in Mainz .

honors and awards

Recordings

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Requiem in the version completed by Robert D. Levin , (Kleiter, Romberger, Sans, Mertens, L 'arpa festante - NCA)
  • Camille Saint-Saëns et al. a. Noel - French Christmas music of the romantic era , (Saturova, Pätzer, Vondung, Mammel, Boesch, L 'arpa festante - SONY, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi)
  • WF Bach : Cantatas , (Mields, Romberger, Poplutz , Mertens, L 'arpa festante - Carus & Accentus Leipzig) With this world premiere recording of some long-lost cantatas on CD or DVD for Carus and ZDF / Arte from 2010, the Mainz ensemble performed under the direction of Ralf Otto made an essential contribution to the beginning renaissance of the works of Bach's oldest son Wilhelm Friedemann.
  • Frank Martin Messe & Max Reger Eight Sacred Chants , (Beyer Records)
  • Johann Sebastian Bach Christmas Oratorio , (Ziesak, Groop, Prégardien, Mertens, Concerto Köln - Cappriccio, Delta Music)
  • Claudio Monteverdi Vespro della beata Maria vergine , (Bach, Fleckenstein, Schmitz, Prégardien, George, Mertens, Il Basso - Cappriccio, Delta Music)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Personnel for the 2006 summer semester to Folkwang , Folkwang University of the Arts, April 11, 2006, accessed on March 11, 2019
  2. ↑ Bach choir director Ralf Otto receives Gutenberg plaque for his services in the cultural field . Allgemeine Zeitung from April 18, 2016

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personal data
SURNAME Otto, Ralf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German choir director, conductor and university lecturer
DATE OF BIRTH 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH kassel