Gerd Ulrich Bormann

Voice, Berlin University of the Arts | Director
The founder and director of the Nichidoku Liederkreis/Song Circle is a native of Hamburg, where he attained degrees in both School Music and Vocal Pedagogy from the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Hamburg. He also holds a degree in Vocal Performance from the Berlin University of the Arts, where he studied with Paul Lohmann and Ernst Häfliger. He has taught voice at the Berlin University of the Arts since 1976.
In addition to his native Germany, he has performed oratorio and lied recitals all over Europe as well as taking part in opera productions. Since 1989 his busy concert and pedagogical schedule includes performing and teaching in Japan at the Schubert Society Osaka, the Mukogawa University and the Kansai Nikikai Opera Society. Numerous song recitals in Japan. From 2004 until 2008 annual Master classes at the Sibelius Academy Helsinki Finland. Invitation 2010 for a masterclass in Metropolia Academy Helsinki

Prof. Anneliese Fried

Voice, Hochschule für Musik ›Hanns Eisler‹
Prof. Anneliese Fried, born in Hagenbach/Pfalz and studied Voice and piano at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe, finishing her studies of singing with a diploma in opera and concert. She won prices in several international competitions and started her opera career with a contract in Aachen. Until 1995 she was a member of the opera Cologne with her roles ranging from Character alto until dramatic roles. Guest contracts besides others at the Dutch Opera Amsterdam, the die Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf, the Dresdner Musikfestspiele furthermore Paris, Marseille, Turin, Bologna, Modena, Siena, Zürich, Lausanne and Genf. She worked with the conductors James Conlon, Michel Corboz, Hartmut Haenchen, John Fiore, Fabio Luisi, Hellmuth Rilling and Lothar Zagrozek and the scenic directors Willy Decker, Michael Hampe, Andreas Homoki and Johannes Schaaf. Besides numerous Radio recordings she participated in 1994 at the recording of Bellinis "La Sonnambula". Teaching since 1983 she became Professor of Singing at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" Berlin in 1994.
Master classes in Germany, France and China; Students of her class have won prices in international competitions and belong to the ensembles of important opera houses.

Kumiko Okabô

Voice
After studying and attending master classes at the Soai University of Osaka, she began her career as an opera and lied- singer in 1982. Specialising in the German repertoire, she has sung in lied recitals as well as in the operas of Mozart, C.M.v.Weber, R.Wagner, J.Strauss and R.Strauss but also Verdi and Puccini. She performed more than 160 times the soprano part in Beethoven 9th. Her debut as opera singer was Dorabella /Cosi fan tutte, lateron she performed as Fiordilighi,
She taught voice as the Soai University of Osaka until 1992.
In 1987 she was awarded the Bunkacho (Agency for Cultural Affairs) scholarship from the Japanese Ministry of Culture. Taking part in the Wagner Gala of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra alongside with Bundschuh, Goldberg und Brendel, she sang Lohengrins Elsa and Tannhausers Elisabeth. In 1994 she was awarded the city of Osaka´s cultural prize in recognition of her outstanding vocal achievement. Her roles include the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro, Agathe in der Freischuetz, Rosalinde in Fledermaus, Siglinde in Die Walküre, Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos, Kundry in Parsifal as well as the Marescialla in Rosenkavalier, 2003 under the direction of Günther Krämer, again in 2008 under the direction of A. Homoki (Komische Oper Berlin) in Biwako Hall and Yokohama.
She is now concentrating on performing Japanese art songs in Europe and Japan.
She is a member of the Kansai Nikikai Opera Society. In 2004 she became a member of the faculty for vocal performance at the Berlin University of the Arts and taught there until 2009.

Prof. Regina Werner

Voice, Highschool of Music and Drama Leipzig
Born in Zwickau she studied voice- and voice pedagogy at the Hochschule für Musik ›Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy‹ Leipzig
One year before she graduated in 1973 from the Hochschule ›Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy‹ Leipzig with a Diploma (degree) in voice and vocal pedagogy, she had already been named one of the winners of the International J.S.Bach Competition.
From 1974 until 1987 soloist at the Gewandhausorchester zu Leipzig (Kurt Masur).
Collaboration with Leipzig’s St.Thomas Boys Choir in performances of cantatas and oratorios in Europe and Japan. Guest in the opera houses of Leipzig, Chemnitz and Halle, as well as at the Comic Opera in Berlin and the State Opera Dresden. In these theatres she sang the roles of Susanna in ›The Marriage of Figaro‹, Gilda in ›Rigoletto‹, Sophie in ›The Rosenkavalier‹, Marzelline in ›Fidelio‹, Norina in ›Don Pasquale‹, the Queen of the Night in ›Magic Flute‹, and Adele in ›Die Fledermaus‹, among others.
She was also involved in a long-standing collaboration in the field of Baroque music with the formation ›Concentus Musicus Lipsiensis‹, and the Händel Festspiel Orchestra in Halle, among others.
Ms. Werner displayed her extensive Lied repertory in numerous recitals with a repertoire of more than 400 songs, particularly in Leipzig’s Gewandhaus.
Since 1987 voice teacher at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater ›Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy‹" Leipzig, 1992 Professorship. Her Students sing at opera houses in Germany and other countries and per form concerts with renowned orchestras. Regina Werner is also a jury member for various vocal competitions, such as the National Vocal Competition (Bundeswettbewerb für Gesang). Since 2008 Master classes at the Sorbonne, Paris.

Prof. Sayali Dadas

Piano, Berlin University of the Arts
Born in Baku in the Republic of Azerbaijan, she completed her studies in both solo and accompanying piano performance at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst (now Berlin University of the Arts) where she studied with Gerhard Puchelt (accompanist to Erna Berger and Hans Hotter). She has been a member of the faculty for vocal performance at the Berlin University of the Arts since 1980, where in addition to coaching and accompanying students and faculty, she teaches lied interpretation. She has accompanied and collaborated in the master classes of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Aribert Reimann, Judith Beckmann, Nina Dorleac and Hans Hotter. Sayali Dadas also maintains a busy concert schedule where in addition to solo recitals; she performs in chamber music concerts with singers and instrumentalists as well as recording with members of Berlin´s leading orchestras.

Seiya Hirashima

Piano, Kunitachi College of Music, Showa University of Music as well as the Toho Gakuen School of Music
Born in Nagasaki, he continued his studies in Stuttgart and Zürich, where he studied with Konrad Richter and Irwin Gage after attaining a degree in piano performance at the Musashino Academia Musicae in Tokyo. His musical collaboration with the soprano Sylvia Geszty has led to concert tours in Germany and Hungary. In addition he collaborated with and coached singers at the Luzern State Theater for three years, before turning his attention to teaching lied accompaniment at the Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo as well as accompanying numerous lied concerts in Japan.

Prof. Manuel Lange

Piano, University of the Arts
Born in Berlin Manuel Lange studied piano with Oleg Maisenberg at Stuttgart and Hans Leygraf in Salzburg and Berlin. Furthermore he frequently participated on the Master classes for lied of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Aribert Reimann and Wolfgang Rieger.
He won the first Prize for Piano accompaniment in the international Paula Lindberg-Salomon Competition. „The Lied“ 1997 and a special reward for the best accompaniment at the Hilde-Zadeck Singers concourse 1998 at Passau. Furthermore the Bayreuth grant of the Reichard-Wagner-Foundation Berlin and the Hans Eissler Grand of „Hans Eissler Conservatory.
For six years he worked as solorepetitor at the Komische Oper Berlin and taught in his own class for Lied at the UdK Berlin. In 2005 he was appointed to a professorship at the UdK Berlin for vocal repertoire.
Together with the baritone Sebastian Noack he founded the Berlin concert series ›MEISTERLIED‹, where mainly romantic German art songs are performed. Together with the soprano Anne Schwanewilms Manuel Lange performed in lied-concerts in Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Théatre de la Monnaie at Brüssel, the Teatro del Liceo at Barcelona, the Opéra du Rhin at Straßburg and the Opera Frankfurt. He performed as lied-accompanist with Mojca Erdmann, Maria Bengtsson, Lothar Odinius, Hermine May, Gun-Brit Barkmin, Stella Doufexis, Dagmar Schellenberger and Anna Korondi . He is guest in several festivals (Rheingau, Bad Urach, Bebersee, Dubrovnik, Kyoto) and accompanied at concourse like („Neue Stimmen“ Bertelsmann, Bundeswettbewerb Gesang, Deutscher Musikrat) and master-classes (Brigitte Fassbaender, Mirella Freni, Roman Trekel, Anne Schwanewilms, Francisco Araiza).
Beside of his work with lied Manuel Lange concentrates lately more on the piano solo-repertoire, he played the 4th Beethoven piano concerto October 2009 with the Neuen Philharmonie Frankfurt, Conductor Wolfgang Wengenroth and will play in July 2010 under the baton of Michael Riedel together with the Jungen Ensemble Berlin the piano concerto of Grieg at the Berlin Philharmonie.

Prof. Karl-Peter Kammerlander

Piano, Conservatory of Music Weimar
K.-P. Kammerlander was born in 1960 in Salzburg (Austria). After having studied music teacher, and the piano at the Conservatory of Music Graz, he extended his university education by studying lied interpretation at the Conservatory of Music Stuttgart under Prof. Konrad Richter.
Kammerlander succeeded in competitions and engagements as part time teacher at several conservatories (vocal repetition in Graz, and Stuttgart, Lied interpretation in Mannheim, and Karlsruhe). At the age of 32, he appointed to a professorship in vocal repetition and lied interpretation at the Conservatory of Music and Theater Leipzig. Since 2004, he is head of the lied department at the Conservatory of Music Weimar. For several years, one of the further interests of K.P. Kammerlander is lecturing in the lied.

Prof. Christiane Güther

Speech and Elocution, Berlin University of the Arts
Born in Halle, she began her training in Voice and Speech Therapy in Jena. Thereupon she completed her studies in Sprechwissenschaft (Language and Speech) at The Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg. She has been active in the field of speech and elocution training as a therapist, working with television news reporters, as well as a teacher, where she taught at the Humboldt University Berlin. She has been an elocution teacher for singers as well as theologians since 1975. She became professor for Speech and Elocution at the Berlin University of the Arts in 1994, where she works with student vocal pedagogues, as well as singers. She also teaches the course: Working with the Art Song Text: from exact thinking and feeling to plastic articulation and mood in the voice.

Bettina Schubert

Speech and Elocution, Hochschule für Musik ›Hanns Eisler‹
Berlin University of the Arts
Bettina Schubert, born in Freiberg/Saxony finished after studies of violin her studies with acting at the University of acting arts ›Hans Busch‹, Berlin.
After having worked in Stralsund, Rostock and Halle she worked as actress, director and teacher since 1992 in Berlin in classical and modern roles. Multiple international appearances in theatrical and musical performances in Russia, Kazakhstan, Kirghiz, Romania and the Netherlands. Supported by the EU she wrote and directed the Oratorio „Hiob“ with singers and musicians from Ukraine, Israel and Germany. Teaching since 1994 she is now working at the joint Jazz instituteeeee of the Hochschule für Musik ›Hanns Eisler‹ and the University of Arts Berlin on stagepraesentation, interpretation and speech training for singers.

Prof. Dr. Hartmut Fladt

Music Theory and Musicology, Berlin University of the Arts
Born in Detmold, he first studied Composition and Music Theory with Rudolf Kelterborn and then continued his studies in Berlin where he studied Musicology, Philosophy and Literature. He completed his doctoral studies with Carl Dahlhaus in 1973. In 1981 he became professor for Music Theory at the Berlin University. In 1996 - 2000 he was guest professor at the University of Music Vienna. As well as publishing articles on music between the 15th and 21st Century, he composes and has been awarded numerous prizes for his works, in Berlin the Karl-Hofer Prize in 1985 and at the Munich Opera Competition the Carl-Orff Preis 1994/95 for Salomo.