Gellert Ensemble & Andreas Mitschke
Biography Gellert Ensemble & Andreas Mitschke
Gellert Ensemble
"A format that is urgently needed!" – That is how Ton Koopman stated his support for the work of the Gellert Ensemble. Since 2015 the young Baroque musicians from Central Germany have been working together in a project under the direction of Andreas Mitschke and the management of kultur_nah in order to promote historically informed performance practice at the highest level and to fascinate listeners with their joy in playing.
The core repertoire of the ensemble consists of works by Central German composers, especially those from the second half of the 18th century. Keeping this rich cultural heritage alive at the highest level and presenting it in concert is the declared goal of the Gellert Ensemble.
In the near future the focus will be on performances and recordings of works by Gottlob Harrer, Georg Anton Benda and Georg Philipp Telemann. For Reformation Day 2018, the ensemble was invited by St. Thomas Church in Leipzig to perform Handel’s Messiah and gave the German premiere of the new critical edition of the oratorio, published by Breitkopf & Härtel and edited by Malcolm Bruno.
The Gellert Ensemble has recently been invited to concerts at the German Choir Festival in Leipzig, the MDR-Musiksommer, the Lausitz Music Summer, and on a con cert tour to Gdansk, Vilnius and Berlin.
Andreas Mitschke
After pursuing a career as a ballroom dancer, Leipzig native Andreas Mitschke studied musicology, art history and church music in Leipzig and Weimar before focusing on conducting. He received important artistic impetus from courses and internships with Sir Roger Norrington, Thomas Hengelbrock, Simon Halsey, Ton Koopman and Johannes Schlaefli.
Andreas Mitschke is permanent guest conductor with the Leipziger Symphonieorchester. He has performed with orchestras such as the Staatskapelle Halle, the Jena Philharmonic, the Anhalt Philharmonic in Dessau, the Magdeburg Philharmonic, the Saxon Wind Philharmonic, the Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra in Leipzig and the Hannoversche Hofkapelle.
He works with internationally renowned concert artists including Matthias Kirschnereit (piano), Ragna Schirmer (piano), Gustav Rivinius (cello), Ingolf Turban (violin) and has appeared as a guest artist at MDR-Musiksommer, the Bachfest Leipzig, the “Gezeitenkonzerte Ostfriesland,” Women in Jazz, the Salzgitter Music Festival, at St. Thomas’s Church in Leipzig and the Gewandhaus Leipzig.
