Bass-baritone Manfred Bittner, born in Weißenburg, Bavaria, received his first solid musical training with the Regensburger Domspatzen. He studied with Wolfgang Brendel in Munich and, as a scholarship holder of the German Stage Association, simultaneously attended the Bavarian Theatre Academy at the Prinzregententheater and the Munich Opera School. Subsequently, Manfred Bittner completed a master class degree in Stuttgart and participated in masterclasses with, among others, Andreas Schmidt and Thomas Quasthoff.

The bass-baritone’s extensive and diverse repertoire spans works from the Middle Ages through operas and oratorios of the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods to world premieres of contemporary music. Numerous radio and CD recordings document his artistic activity, and concert tours have taken him throughout Europe, to Australia, Switzerland, and Southeast Asia. Manfred Bittner has appeared at the Biennale für Neue Musik Munich, the Wiener Festwochen, the Berliner Festspiele, the Bach Festival Leipzig, and the European Music Festival Stuttgart, among others. At the Feldkirch Festival, he performed the role of Masetto in Mozart’s Don Giovanni under the direction of Thomas Hengelbrock, and he was heard at the Schwetzingen Festival in Legrenzi’s opera Il Giustino.

Manfred Bittner collaborates regularly with renowned ensembles such as L’arpa festante, the Regensburger Domspatzen, the Freiburger BarockConsort, the Basel Chamber Orchestra, Concerto Köln, and the Hamburger Camerata. He has worked with conductors including Winfried Toll, Stephen Stubbs, René Jacobs, Konrad Junghänel, and Thomas Hengelbrock, as well as with directors such as Barry Kosky and Claus Guth.

Benita Borbonus was born in Marl, Westphalia, where she began her musical education at the age of three. She first learned to play the cello and piano before studying voice with Professor Ingeborg Möller at the University of Music in Freiburg. The lyric soprano can look back on a long-standing career as an opera and concert singer.

Benita Borbonus is a versatile artist who has performed as a soloist with renowned ensembles such as the WDR Funkhausorchester, the WDR Symphony Orchestra, and Concerto Köln. With this orchestra, she recorded Mendelssohn’s 42nd Psalm “As the deer longs for flowing streams.” As a soloist and as a member of the WDR Radio Choir, she has appeared in performances ranging from Gregorian chant to world premieres.

Her repertoire as an oratorio singer extends from the Early Baroque to the 21st century, with a particular fondness for Bach, Mozart, and Mendelssohn, whose major works she has performed in their entirety. More recently, she has also ventured into vocally more demanding repertoire, including Britten’s War Requiem, Dvořák’s Stabat Mater, and Verdi’s Requiem.

As a chamber music partner, she is much in demand and has developed a growing interest in early music, whether with the ensemble Echo di Rheno or as co-founder of the ensemble CANTICORUM. Benita Borbonus has appeared as a soloist at numerous international festivals, including the Early Music Day Stockholm, the Days of Early Music in Herne, and the International Buxtehude Days in Lübeck.

Photo: Alexander Schmidt

Stefan Sbonnik is an internationally active opera and concert singer. After studying at the Universities of Osnabrück and Münster as well as at the August Everding Theatre Academy in Munich, he was a member of the opera studio at the Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg.

He has been awarded the Richard Wagner Scholarship and special prizes at the Podium for Young Vocal Soloists, and sang as part of the Mozart Academy at the Festival in Aix-en-Provence.

Operatic engagements have taken him in Germany to the opera houses in Aachen, Heidelberg, Magdeburg, Münster, Passau, and Bonn, as well as internationally to La Scala in Milan, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and regularly to the Theater an der Wien.

As a soloist, Stefan has also performed at various festivals and in concert halls such as the Philharmonie de Paris, the Cologne Philharmonie, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Kraków Philharmonic, and the Milan Philharmonic, as well as the Rudolf Oetker Hall in Bielefeld, the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Tonhalle Zürich, and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

For a recording of Verdi’s Attila, he appeared with the Munich Radio Orchestra. The opera productions of Alessandro nell’Indie at the Bayreuth Baroque Festival and Maria de Buenos Aires at the Strasbourg Opera were recorded by Arte. In addition, he has been featured on radio broadcasts by Dlf, BR, MDR, and WDR.

Photo: George Oikonomidis

As a specialist in the bel canto repertoire, Cordelia Katharina Weil has been praised by critics for her warm, rich voice with a golden, radiant timbre, her technical elegance and mastery, her expressiveness, and her sensitive portrayals of roles imbued with humanity.

Raised in Germany, Kenya, and the United Kingdom, she completed a degree in cello performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London before immediately pursuing vocal studies with distinction at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne. She has taken masterclasses with, among others, KS Marjana Lipovšek, Professor Rudolf Piernay, and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, and has undertaken private studies with Professor Tara Venditti.

While still a student, she was engaged as a member of the ensemble at Theater Basel, the Cologne Opera, Theater Aachen, the Thuringian Castle Festival, and the Staatstheater Darmstadt. Since then, she has appeared with renowned ensembles, directors, and conductors, performing a broad operatic, song, and concert repertoire that includes works by J.S. Bach, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Mozart’s Requiem, Dvořák’s and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Handel’s Messiah, Franck’s Les Béatitudes, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, and Respighi’s Il Tramonto, on major stages in Germany and abroad.

Following her debut as Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte at the Heidenheim Winter Opera Festival, Cordelia Katharina Weil celebrated great success as an ensemble member at Theater Aachen and Theater Chemnitz, particularly in the virtuoso role of Rosina in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, in the title role of Rossini’s La Cenerentola, as Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther, and as Carmen in Bizet’s Carmen at Theater Hof.

Photo: Theater Hof