Overview

Haruka Kuroiwa
Paul Kern
Gerhard Ertl
Thomas Hennig
New Prussian Philharmonic
The Berlin Oratorio Choir


Haruka Kuroiwa

was born in Tokyo in 1978, the son of a conductor and a pianist. At just 5 years old he began to study under Fumiko Yoshida at the Toho-Gakuen “Children’s-Music-Room”.

In 1990, at the age of 12, he already won a special award to encourage young musicians at an All-Japan Music Competition. In 1994, Haruka Kuroiwa started high school and was awarded a scholarship at the Tokyo College of Music, majoring in the piano. After high school he studied at the International Piano Academy in Imola (Italy). Haruka Kuroiwa has performed concerts in Germany, France, Italy, the USA, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Romania, Moldova, Japan, Korea, and Great Britain.

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Paul Kern

is a German-British pianist. He completed his musical education with Prof. V. Krainev at the Hannover University of Music and at the Juilliard School in New York.

Paul Kern is the winner of national and international competitions (e.g. in Morocco and Ukraine). Paul Kern received artistic impulses through master classes with Leon Fleisher and Leonard Hokanson as well as through an encounter with Claudio Abbado.

His concert performances have already taken him to prestigious halls like the Avery Fisher Hall in New York and the Bolshoi Hall in Moscow. Paul Kern has been living and working in Berlin since 2008.

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Gerhard Ertl

was born on 10 October 1936 in Stuttgart. He is a German physicist and surface chemist who has significantly influenced development in the field of surface chemistry.

In 1968, Gerhard Ertl became Professor of Physical Chemistry in Hannover, in 1973 he accepted a professorship at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. From 1986 to 2004 he was director at the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin. In 2007 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

In addition to his scientific work, Gerhard Ertl has always harboured a great passion for music, and since 2008 he regularly rehearses with the Berlin Oratorio Choir.

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Thomas Hennig

is a composer, conductor, and lecturer at the University of the Arts Berlin. He studied choral conducting, conducting, piano and composition in Hannover and attended master classes in conducting in Biel, Munich, and Vienna.

As a conductor and chorus master, he has been active in many places, for example, at the Brandenburg Theatre, the Chamber Philharmonic Budweis, the Halle City Boys' Choir, and the Antalya State Opera. Concert tours have taken him to Nigeria, Brazil, and the USA.

Premieres of his compositions: Trumpet Concerto in Berlin in 1998, Piano Concerto in Baltimore in 2002, Requiem for all Victims of War and Violence in Berlin in 2002, 100 Years Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin 2011. Hennig is the conductor of the Berlin Oratorio Choir and the New Prussian Philharmonic.

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New Prussian Philharmonic

this young Berlin orchestra performs with a rotating cast of musicians - depending on the program, which includes classical and romantic works in its core repertoire. The musicians are mostly members of larger orchestras in Berlin and Brandenburg. The concertmaster is Lothar Friedrich, a professor of violin at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music Berlin. The chief conductor is Thomas Hennig.

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The Berlin Oratorio Choir

is one of the oldest amateur choirs in Berlin.

Currently the choir has about 90 active singers drawn from all professions. The choir performs an ambitious classical music program, which presents choral symphonies of different periods, several times a year. The choir performs at the Berlin Philharmonic, the Berlin Concert Hall at Gendarmenmarkt, and in churches. Thomas Hennig is the Choirmaster.

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