Christopher Jung & Jan Roelof Wolthuis
Biography Christopher Jung & Jan Roelof Wolthuis
Christopher Jung
The baritone Christopher Jung began his musical education at an early age. He played the viola as a child and won several prizes at Jugend musiziert. At the age of 10 he was taught as a boy soprano by E.L Schmid and soon took on soloist duties at the Mannheim National Theatre under Donald Runnicles, among others. After changing his voice and winning 1st prize as a baritone in the German national competition Jugend musiziert, he first studied medicine before graduating with distinction from the conservatories of Berlin and Leipzig with Prof. Helga Forner from 1993 to 1998, where he studied voice and voice pedagogy. This was followed in 2000 by the concert examination, also with distinction. At the same time he was taught in the master classes of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Aribert Reimann. He attended master classes with Hans Hotter, Walter Berry, Werner Hollweg, Claudia Eder and Hartmut Höll.
After receiving several awards and prizes (including the German Schubert Society, Suder-Lied Competition), the baritone made his operatic debut in the role of Papageno in Mozart's Magic Flute at the Mittelsächsisches Theater Freiberg. Since then, numerous engagements have taken him to renowned stages in Germany and abroad, including the Theatre Festival in Delphi (Greece), with a "Winterreise" to India, the MDR Musiksommer, the Semanas musicales in Chile to Venezuela and Cuba, the Dresden Music Festival, the Bach Festival Leipzig, the Kunstfest Weimar, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Leipzig Opera, the Halle Opera House and, together with Graham Johnson, the Cologne Philharmonic. In Opernwelt 2000 he was nominated as "Best Young Singer" for his interpretation of "Hans Sachs" by A. Lortzing.
He teaches as a professor at the Protestant College of Church Music Halle and at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg . Since the winter semester 2019 / 2020, he has been the Vice-Rector of the Protestant University of Church Music Halle.
Jan Roelof Wolthuis
Studied piano, song accompaniment and chamber music in Zwolle and Amsterdam. He accompanied master classes of Christa Ludwig, Renata Scotto, Christoph Prégardien and Brigitte Fassbaender. Pianist, opera conductor and director of studies at the theatres of Amsterdam, Mannheim, Freiberg and Karlsruhe. Teaches vocal repetition at the colleges of music in Würzburg and Nuremberg. Recitals in many European countries, South Korea and the USA with soloists such as Stefan Vinke, Daniela Sindram, Diana Damrau, Timothy Sharp, Alexia Voulgaridou and Christopher Jung. In addition, Jan Roulof Wolthuis is a composer. In February 2019, the CD "Wo läufst du hin ?" was released with his new song cycle based on poems by Angelus Silesius with Christopher Jung, baritone and Simon Reichert, organ. Also in 2019, his oratorio "Das Licht der Ewigkeit - Ein Requiem" was premiered, celebrated by audience and press. For the Musikbühne Mannheim, he will compose the children's play "Fredo and his friend, the tree".
