The "Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Halle" is a comparatively young orchestra in Germany, whose history dates back to the post-war period. In 1946 musicians from Halle and other parts of the former East Germany founded an orchestra, the "Hallisches Sinfonieorchester". In 1949 it was renamed the "Landes-Sinfonieorchester Sachsen-Anhalt", and in 1953 the "Staatliches Sinfonieorchester Halle". In 1972 the famous choirs "Robert-Franz-Singakademie" and "Staatsingechor" boys chorus joined the orchestra, and the "Hallesche Philharmonie" was established. The orchestra has close ties to the old university of the industrial city of Halle, birthplace of G. F. Handel, as well as to the many cultural regions of the Federal State of Sachsen-Anhalt.

The founder, Arthur Bohnhardt, and subsequently chief conductors Horst Foerster and Olaf Koch were influential in the further development of the orchestra. Under their direction in the late seventies, the orchestra had many important international guest performances throughout Europe, the Middle East and in China.

During the 40 years of the German Democratic Republic regime, it increased its membership to 100 musicians. After the reunification of Germany, other important improvements took place. In 1991 Heribert Beissel became chief conductor of the orchestra, and the government of Sachsen-Anhalt promoted the orchestra to the status of a "state orchestra", changing its name to "Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Halle". The chief conductor also became General Director of Music for Sachsen-Anhalt. Since then its artistic activities and importance have furthered the orchestra's development.

The orchestra has performed in all the major music centers in Germany, and has made various radio live recordings and CD productions. Invitations have been extended for important festival performances in Austria, Belgium, Germany and the Richard Wagner festival of Raello/Italy and Aix-en-Provence in France.

In recent years the orchestra has toured to Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, Austria (including three invitations to Salzburg's Grosses Festspielhaus), Switzerland, Israel and South America, with two concerts in the famous Teatro Colon of Buenos Aires on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Richard Wagner Association. Reviews by the press called the orchestra "The great discovery of the season" and pointed out its "enormous will to work".

However, the origin of all these activities has been, and will remain, in Halle. There, and in other cities of Sachsen-Anhalt, the orchestra creates a variety of cultural influence with an extensive program ranging from baroque, classic, romantic to contemporary music.

Besides performances of the great symphonic, choral and vocal literature, an emphasis is also placed upon arrangements of contemporary music, as well as the music of G. F. Händel in the annual Händel Festival.

The Philharmonisches Staatsorchester is also supported by the "Gesellschaft der Freunde der Halleschen Philharmonie e. V." with well-known representatives from political, economic and cultural areas, as well as the former minister for foreign affairs Hans-Dietrich Genscher.

www.staatsorchester-halle.de

  ANDREA HANSON, Soprano

Ms Hanson is one of the few sopranos who has sung all of the soprano roles in Don Giovanni, beginning as Zerlina, then Donna Elvira and recently as Donna Anna. She has sung the title roles in Madama Butterfly, Manon Lescaut and the Merry Widow , as well as Mimi in La Boheme, the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro, Desdemona in Otello, Marguerite in Faust, and Leonora in Il Trovatore. She admits, however, that her favorite role is that of the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier.

Equally at home on the concert and recital stage, Ms Hanson's repertoire includes the Verdi Requiem, the Stravinsky Le Noces, Beethoven Ninth Symphony, the Strauss Four Last Songs, and of course, the Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem.

Before going to Europe, the glamorous Ms Hanson was a winner of the Metropolitan Opera Regional Auditions and the San Francisco District Opera Auditions. She received her early vocal training at Northeastern State University at Oklahoma and both a master of music in voice and master of performing arts in opera from Oklahoma City University. Her studies were partially financed through the Miss America Pageant Scholarship Program, where as Miss Oklahoma she was one of the top 10 finalists. Her career in Germany was propelled by her studies in Graz, Austria, then as resident artist at Oberhausen, Germany. Guest appearances include those in Duesseldorf, Essen, Wuppertal, Kiel, Gelsenkirchen, Nuremberg, Freiburg, Dortmund, Heidelberg and Dresden.

Ms Hanson now resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is Assistant Professor of Voice in the School of Music of Carnegie Mellon University.

Recent engagements include Händel´s Messiah, Mendelssohn´s Die Erste Walpurgisnacht, Mahler´s Symphony No. 2, Verdi´s Requiem, Penderecki´s Credo and Brahms' Alto Rhapsody.

Other works include Bach´s Magnificat and the St. Matthew and St. John Passions, Beethoven´s Missa Solemnis, Händel´s Magnificat, Bach´s Cantata No. 170 and Christmas Oratorio, Saint-Saens' Christmas Oratorio, Prokofiev´s Alexander Nevsky, Beethoven´s Symphony No. 9, Haydn´s Lord Nelson Mass, the Mozart Requiem, Mahler´s Das Lied von der Erde and Symphony No. 8 and Mendelssohn´s Elijah. Ms Brunssen appears as a regular soloist with the esteemed Music of the Baroque in Chicago.

Ms Brunssen´s opera repertoire includes the roles of Giavanna in Rigoletto, the Witch and Mother in Hansel and Gretel, Mama in the Tales of Hoffman, and Sorceress in Purcell´s Dido and Aeneas.

She has appeared at the Grant Park Music Festival and the Prague Autumn International Festival and with many major U.S. symphonies such as those of Seattle, Colorado, Fort Wayne, Grand Rapids, Louisville, San Antonio, Illinois, Memphis and Pittsburgh and The Buffalo Philharmonic.

Ms Brunssen appears on the recording of Schönberg´s Moses und Aaron under the baton of Sir Georg Solti for Decca, as well as Vaughan William´s Serenade to Music on the Vox MMG label. She has recorded with Music of the Baroque, most recently the Mozart Great Mass in c minor. She is a graduate of Luther College and the Yale School of Music, and is a member of the Voice Faculty at Northwestern University School of Music, where she is Coordinator of Voice and Opera. She teaches at the International Institute of Vocal Arts in Chiari, Italy, during the summer and has been guest clinician for Chorus America and the American Choral Directors Association in addition to her many master classes and seminars.

Other leading roles of Mr. Ahlstedt's career have included Lindro in Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri, Almaviva in Barbiere di Siviglia, Narciso in Turco in Italia, Idreno in Semiramide, Pilade in Ermione and Ramiro in La Cenerentola; Ferrando in Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Sifare in Mitridate, Belmonte in Die Entfürung aus dem Serail, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte and Alessandro in Il Re Pastore; Rinuccio in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi; Ernesto in Donizetti's Don Pasquale; Lorenzo in Auber's Fra Diavalo; Junge Graf in Zimmermann's Die Soldaten; Flammand in Strauss's Capriccio; and Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus.

Mr. Ahlstedt's singing career began with the American Boy Choir, with whom he toured the United States and Canada. During that period, he sang the role of Miles in the American premiere of Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw.

In addition to performing worldwide, Mr. Ahlstedt is associate professor of voice at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He specializes in teaching vocal health and collaborates with the University of Pittsburgh Voice Center to promote proper care of the voice. He is also well known as a national presenter of arts in education.

Mr. Ahlstedt earned a bachelor of science in music education from the State University of New York at Fredonia, and completed his master's degree at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.

www.douglasahlstedt.com

Emerging as one of the most sought-after artists in the United States, Brain Banion, bass-baritone, has been praised by critics for his performances of the lecherous Doctor in Barber's Vanessa, his electrifying Elijah, the honest and ventful Count in Le Nozze de Figaro, and Nick in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress.

A recent Metropolitan Opera auditions winner, Banion is a protégé of the legendary bass-baritone Giorgio Tozzi. He has been engaged by Kentucky, Greensboro, Nevada opera companies, returning to Nevada as Mozart's Figaro and will repeat the role with the Kansas City Opera in 2005.

Banion's concert repertoire includes the Beethoven Ninth Symphony, the requiem settings of Mozart and Verdi, Mendelssohn´s Elijah, as well as the standard Bach cantatas. He appeared in the world premiere of Too Many Sopranos by Penhorwood in 1997 with repeat performances through 2000.